Agenda item

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and Skills and the Director of Education and Early Help, Worcestershire Children First (WCF) updated the Panel on work to prepare and support education settings and schools in the autumn term.

By way of introduction, the Director of Education and Early Help made the following main points:

·       All schools in the County had returned as planned at the start of term.  All except seven schools had returned in the previous week with the remaining seven having returned this week. There remained one outstanding site issue (at Lea Street in Kidderminster) which the Local Member and the Cabinet Member were aware of.

·       Some schools had opted to stagger the return with different year groups returning on different days. At the start of the academic year, a time of school transition, this approach was not unusual but had been used by more schools this year, allowing headteachers to manage the logistics of the return of pupils in a Covid secure way.

·       With reference to attendance, Members were advised that schools were required to provide a daily return to the DfE.  All but 30 schools in the County had made the return and WCF officers were following up the remaining 30.  As of the previous day, of those schools making the return to the DfE, just over 87% of pupils were attending school, representing a strong start when compared regionally and nationally.

·       The Panel was reminded that the IT device programme had been delivered successfully over the summer.  Going forward, if a local Covid 19 outbreak meant that further devices were required to facilitate remote learning, these would be distributed direct from the DfE.

·       With reference to the handling of outbreaks in schools and other settings, Members were advised that work had been carried out in conjunction with public health colleagues and a robust Outbreak Control Plan (OCP) had been published.  Specifically, Standard Operating Procedures for schools and early years settings had been issued.  Schools had reported receiving a lot of contact from parents with concerns about symptoms and the Local Outbreak Response Team (LORT) desk had seen an increase in contact from schools seeking advice.

·       Although nationally, the government did not recommend the use of face coverings in education settings, schools had the discretion to require face coverings for pupils in Year 7 and above if space was tight in communal areas.

·       Overall, the home to school transport provision had run relatively smoothly since the return.  WCF received a daily report from transport colleagues and providers were beginning to report issues with students not sticking to the agreed seating plan.  In response, additional staff were being brought in to help with the coordination of this.  Officers were also in touch with West Midlands Trains to monitor the situation as Further Education Colleges returned in the coming weeks.

·       The County Council had been allocated approximately £85k as part of the government’s Wellbeing for Education Return, which provided funding and resources to train and support education settings to respond to the wellbeing and mental health needs of pupils and students.  The extra funding was welcomed and would build on the work of the Education Psychology Team to provide additional training for schools and ongoing supervisory support.

·       All schools were expected to have a policy for remote learning and school improvement officers would be monitoring the quality of schools’ remote learning. The expectation outlined in the wellbeing and recovery curriculum was that schools would quickly assess students’ learning gaps and then address these (through remote learning if necessary).  It was important to recognise that remote learning was far more than simply activities on screen and the School Improvement Team was producing guidance which would be shared with all schools (academies and maintained).

·       Members were informed that a catch-up premium would be available to schools of £80 per pupil from reception to Year 11 and £240 per pupil for special schools and alternative provision.  This would be received in three tranches across the year.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and Skills was very pleased to report that all 243 schools had returned for the autumn term.  Officers had worked with schools (both mainstream and academies) to ensure that all issues were ironed out.  He had been keen to get all children back to school (subject to safety measures being taken) and expressed his thanks to the Director and her team.  He would be monitoring how schools responded to having to close bubbles when outbreaks occurred, emphasising that in his opinion this would be ‘when’ and not ‘if’ outbreaks happened.

The Director of Children’s Social Care informed Members that attendance data for vulnerable children who were subject to a social work plan was being closely monitored. Before the summer holidays, 48% of children on a child protection plan, 33% of those assessed as children in need and 32% of children looked after were attending school.  Early September data showed that attendance was a little below the pre-holiday figures, but the message to parents was that attendance was very important and there was a clear expectation that children should attend school.

The Director went on to brief the Panel on the Back to School project which supported those families who had entrenched challenges.  These children were not good school attenders pre-covid, had had little contact with school through lockdown and over the summer, and were now not returning to school.  A bespoke package of support would be provided from September to December.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:

·       A Member welcomed the reported attendance figure of 87% and asked whether this included pupils with SEN.  By way of clarification, Members were reminded that this referred to attendance in schools which had made a return to the DfE.  The attendance of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) was being closely monitored.

·       In response to a question about whether pupils would receive online support if they were unable to attend school, Members were reminded that if pupils were required to self-isolate, headteachers would have a remote learning plan in place.

·       Although the figures for the number of pupils involved in the Back to School project were not available, the Panel was informed that the approach had been not to exclude any children but to work with any pupils that schools believed may have issues with coming back to school because they were already struggling.  It was agreed that the Panel would receive an update on the project at a later date.

·       It was agreed that communication to parents on what to do if a child experienced cold-like symptoms would be key.

·       It was confirmed that the revision of the Outbreak Control Plan would be looked at by the local outbreak control group.  Members were informed that an education specific outbreak scenario planning exercise would be held on 18 September.

·       Concern was expressed that, although the report referred to children having access to high quality remote learning, it did not reference remote lessons and teachers actually teaching remotely.  It was important that schools reflected on their lockdown experience and were able to demonstrate that they had listened to children and parents.  Further guidance was being produced by WCF.  The Chairman of the Panel added that, as Covid was something that we would have to live with, it was important that we had a system whereby all schools were able to deliver online teaching.

·       A Panel Member asked whether parents were able to insist on their child wearing a face covering in class.  In response, the Director of Education and Early Help reminded the Panel that government guidance stated that, although face coverings may be worn by pupils in Year 7 and above in some circumstances, they need not be worn in a classroom setting.  The use of face coverings in a classroom setting was not helpful as it inhibited communication and students tended to touch the masks creating a further need for hand sanitising.

·       With reference to the use of bubbles, schools and early years settings were learning from experience, testing different scenarios and sharing relevant learning.

·       In response to a Member’s question about remote provision for pupils with SEND and how this would be monitored, the Panel was informed that the SEN Planning Group had continued to meet every week.  Arrangements would also be monitored through the school improvement process and via Ofsted visits.  Mandatory training would be in place for schools which were causing concern.

·       Concern was expressed that some schools may not have the capabilities in place to develop effective strategies for remote learning.  It was suggested that it would be helpful to develop a central resource centre where schools could send in lessons they had developed to be shared with other schools.  In response, Members were reassured that monitoring of schools’ responses to remote learning would continue throughout this term.  Schools were also able to access peer to peer support and the recovery curriculum included resources coordinated in one place.  A briefing for headteachers was being held on 1 October to share good practice.

·       A Member reported that a number of parents had raised with her the difficulty of dropping children at school when there were staggered or delayed starts.  The Director replied that she would expect schools to recognise these challenges and respond flexibly.  She agreed to follow up on the specific cases following the meeting.

·       It was recognised that it may be a challenge to teach large groups online as it could be difficult to capture all of the faces and facilitate interaction with a class of 30.  The Director recognised that schools faced challenges with online learning including the issue of having some pupils in school and some at home and emphasised that remote learning was broader than simply online learning.

·       In relation to face coverings, it was suggested that schools may be able to colour code areas of the school where masks must be worn.  It was important that students and schools had clarity on this issue.  The Director informed the Panel that young people were very understanding of the approach being taken and schools were not reporting issues.  Schools were managing their physical space in many different ways.

·       It was confirmed that all schools had access to the public health guidance on preventative measures and the risk assessment process asked all of the key questions in relation to prevention, health and safety, and management of staff and pupils.  Schools were expected to follow the guidance but it was acknowledged that many would need to take different approaches depending on local circumstances.  Community communication about the three key symptoms of Covid would be important to enhance parents’ understanding.

·       In relation to Wellbeing for Education Return, it was noted that the money available from the government was not ring-fenced.  The Director confirmed that the grant had been allocated to her team and she would ensure that it was used for this purpose.

·       In the summer, schools had been given access to the psychology service and to training on bereavement support and understanding trauma.  It would be important to understand which schools had taken up the training and which had not (and why this might be).  Local supervision groups (referred to in paragraph 39 of the report) would be clusters of schools working together to hold regular surgery-type meetings to look at how schools were managing emotional well-being.  These groups would be led by a qualified professional and would be developed in liaison with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service colleagues.  The aim was that this would link to the mental health in schools programme that would be put in place in coming months.