Agenda and draft minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Nathan Desmond and Jo Monk, Tim Reid (Church Representative) and from the Director of Children’s Services/Worcestershire Children First Chief Executive, Tina Russell.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance in writing or by e-mail indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 20 March 2024).  Further details are available on the Council's website.  Enquiries can also be made through the telephone number/e-mail address listed in this agenda and on the website.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 10 January 2024 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

(Indicative timing: 10.05 to 10.55am)

In attendance for this item:

Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Education

CMR for Health and Wellbeing

Director for Education, Early Years, Inclusion and Education Place Planning, Worcestershire Children First (WCF)

Headteacher, Wolverley CE Secondary School

Chief Executive, Black Pear Trust

Leading Education Improvement professional, Educational Quality and Improvement  (WCF)

The Panel was provided with an update on:

·           The educational outcomes for children and young people educated in Worcestershire schools for the academic year 2022/23.

·           The overview of Ofsted inspections of Worcestershire’s state funded schools for the academic year 2022/23.

A brief introduction to the report was provided by the Director for Education, Early Years, Inclusion and Education Place Planning (the Director). The Headteacher of Wolverley CE Secondary School (the Headteacher) and the Chief Executive of the Black Pear Trust (the Chief Executive) provided some background detail to their roles and their involvement in county wide initiatives.

The Educational Quality and Improvement Lead (EQI Lead) set out some of the key positive outcomes from the school inspections as highlighted in the report including that:

·         For school inspections, 86% of all schools had been judged to be either good or outstanding.

·         No maintained schools were judged to be inadequate.

·         Since the previous year, there had been a reduction in the number of maintained schools requiring intensive support from 37% to 23%.

·         The outcomes for Key Stage (KS)1 were all above the national average.

·         Worcestershire’s Progress 8 score was in line with the national average.

The Panel was informed that the School Improvement Team (SIT) offered a range of bespoke packages of training and support to help vulnerable schools. It was highlighted that the quality of education was a key Ofsted judgement, but small schools often struggled to provide the breadth of curriculum that larger schools could offer. A number of projects had been put in place to support schools in this situation.

In terms of outcome areas that schools could improve, the EQI Lead highlighted the following:

·         The KS2 outcomes for Worcestershire remained below the national average and the gap had slightly increased. The gap had remained the same for reading and maths results, with Worcestershire 2% below the national average. For writing, from a previous position of being 1% above the national average Worcestershire was now 1% below.

·         The percentage of children achieving a standard pass in English and maths at KS4 was 1% lower for Worcestershire than the national figure.

·         At KS5, the percentage of students achieving AAB at A level remained below the national average, but the gap had reduced slightly.

The SIT team would be drilling down to identify the root cause as to why some of the issues of concern had emerged. The Panel was informed that attainment levels for children from disadvantaged backgrounds was an area of challenge and there would be a focus on this group moving forward. Boys reading at KS2 was also identified as a problematic area. Leaders were being encouraged to have a stronger vision and to create a reading rich  ...  view the full minutes text for item 625.

(Indicative timing: 10.55 to 11.35am)

In attendance for this item:

CMR for Education

CMR for Health and Wellbeing

Director for Education, Early Years, Inclusion and Education Place Planning, Worcestershire Children First (WCF).

Headteacher, Wolverley CE Secondary School

Chief Executive, Black Pear Trust

Leading Educational Improvement professional, Educational Quality and Improvement, WCF

Early Years and Childcare Sufficiency Improvement Lead, WCF (EYCSI Lead)

The Panel received an update on developments in early education and Worcestershire’s preparation relating to the Early Education and Childcare National Expansion Programme. The Director introduced the report and provided a brief overview of the current early education provision in the county and advised that the quality of available early years childcare options and wrap around care was good as was the current level of take up.

The Director explained the Government’s statutory expansion programme for childcare would be introduced over 2 phases starting in April 2024 with an increase in funding support for working families with 2-year-old children and in September 2024, for the first-time, working families of children aged 9 to 23 months would be able to access free funding for 15 hours of childcare per week. This would be followed in September 2025 by an increase in support for families of these younger children of working families to 30 hours a week. 

Another key aspect of the expansion programme was the requirement for provision to be in place by September 2026 for additional wrap around care during term time, for families of all primary aged children to be able to access. WCF staff would be supporting the school sector and local childcare providers to work closely together to meet the needs of families. The Panel was informed that explanatory leaflets had been prepared for parents setting our all the details of the new provision and she would ensure members received a copy for their background information.

Members raised a number of issues which were responded to as follows:

·         A Member questioned whether there would be sufficient capacity to meet the increased demand created by the Government’s expansion programme. The Director explained that they were confident about the first phase in April 2024 because the children impacted were already in the marketplace using current provision. With regard to levels of provision for September 2024, the EYCSI Lead highlighted that there should be sufficient capacity for the under 2’s of working families, but that by September 2025 there was likely to be an increase in demand when the entitlement was increased to 30 hours. It was confirmed that WCF were currently liaising with providers, and whilst acknowledging there would be areas of challenge, it was felt that there would be adequate provision in place to meet demand by that stage.

·         From a school’s perspective, the Chief Executive highlighted that children attending a pre-school were much more likely to join the school for their mainstream education. They offered a strong provision for 2-to-4-year-olds, but there was a capacity issue to be taken account of to ensure that a high-quality offer was maintained.

·         In response  ...  view the full minutes text for item 626.

(Indicative timing: 11.35am to 12.05pm)

The Panel received an update on performance and financial information for services related to children and families.

Performance Monitoring

The Director provided a brief overview of the key performance indicators, drawing the Panel’s attention to some particular points of interest as follows:

·         The data on elective home educated (EHE) children with SEND was being monitored closely as there had been a rise in this figure.

·         There had been a reduction in the number of exclusions by 33 compared to the same period last year was positive news.

·         There had been a focus on the transition of vulnerable young people to post 16 options, with the Medical Education Team having obtained additional support from the health service.

·         EHCP figures continued to rise, currently at the 6,000 level, but steady progress was being made in terms of timeliness of information being received and improvements to the 16-week and 20-week timescales being met.  

Members asked questions, which were responded to as follows:

·         In respect of the maintained schools which had become sponsored academies, where an Ofsted inspection had since taken place, a Member asked how many of the schools had improved their rating by at least one grade. The Director agreed to provide this information and confirmed that fuller details would be provided in the next report.

·         In terms of recruitment of foster carers, it was requested that the Panel receive a regular update on the number of applications that were received for the role and how many of those were recruited to the position. The CMR referred to an article published in a county wide magazine which had included an article focussing on fostering, which had been successful in generating an increase in enquiries.  A Member also requested that  details of the numbers of staff in the fostering team be supplied to members for their information.

·         Referring to the increase in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children referred to in the report, the Chairman asked what the countries of origin were for these children and the Director agreed to supply this information following the meeting.

·         As background to a future meeting on Home to School Transport, a range of questions were asked about the production of ECHP’s:

-       The Director advised that there were a number of reasons why there had been an increase in requests for an EHCP and that crucially the threshold which obligated an assessment to take place was quite low.

-       To give context to the EHCP process, the Director explained that when an initial request was made for an EHCP by a school, appropriate interventions were put in place and then assessed whether they had worked or whether additional support was required from another agency. This process was co-ordinated by the local education authority (LEA) and where appropriate an EHCP was issued. ECHP’s were then monitored and reviewed annually by schools unless there were significant changes during the year in which case an interim review could be arranged. Outcomes of reviews were sent to the LEA and if the plan  ...  view the full minutes text for item 627.

(Indicative timing: 12.05 to 12.20pm)

The Panel considered suggestions for their 2024-25 Work Programme ahead of it being considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board and then forwarded to Council for approval.

After discussion, the Panel agreed the following additions to their Work Programme:

·       Renumeration of Foster Carers for the May Panel

·       The Impact of WCF being brought back ‘in house’ for the July Panel

·       Progress report on the Forecast Outturn 2023/24 mitigating actions for the July Panel.

·       Sufficiency of SEND places in schools to be added to SEND report for the September Panel

In respect of a suggestion about the transition service for social care for 18-25 year olds, it was highlighted that this would be covered by the Worcestershire Strategy for CYP with SEND (All Age Disability Strategy), which the Adult Care and Wellbeing Panel was now leading on. It was highlighted that Members of this Panel would be informed of the date it would be considered, when known, so that they could attend if they wished.

It was also anticipated that there would be a separate Panel meeting arranged to consider the Home to School Transport situation, at the appropriate time.