Agenda and draft minutes

To note the Membership and Terms of Reference for the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee as agreed by Full Council at the meeting on Wednesday 4 May 2022.

19 Members

10 County Councillors (5:3:1 Ind Gp, 1 LD)

Quorum - 5

Chair: W. Daley

Vice Chair: R. Dodd

Also:

2 Parent Governors (voting) – two vacancies

3 Church Representatives (voting) – A. Hodgson, P Rickeard, Rev D Lennox

4 Teacher Union Representatives (non-voting) – J Sanderson, L Houghton, two vacancies

(all subject to satisfactory DBS clearance)

These representatives may discuss non-education matters but shall not vote on those matters identified as being outside their remit.

Terms of reference:

(1)      To monitor, review and make recommendations about:

·       Early Years

·       Education and Schools

·       Special education needs and disability

·       Adult and Community Education

·       Training and Vocational Education

·       Lifelong Learning

·       Youth Offending

·       Social Services for Children and Young People

·       Children’s Health

·       Teenage Sexual Health

·       Looked After Children

·       Safeguarding - Children

·       Youth Services

·       Family Services

·       Children’s Centres

(2)       To oversee and monitor school improvement, as follows:

(a) To receive feedback on the Ofsted inspection of schools.

(b) To support the work of the County Council and the progress of schools on the School Intervention and Support Programme in specified categories.

(c)  To receive an annual report about the number of schools that have been on the School Intervention and Support Programme, the reason(s) for their inclusion, the support given by the Council and the success of this support.

(d) To receive an annual report on the performance of schools.

The Membership and Terms of Reference for the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, as agreed at Full Council on 4 May 2022 were provided for information.

The Chair welcomed Councillor M Richardson to the Committee.  He also advised that a Development Session was to be arranged in order that Members of the Committee could be briefed on the purpose and role of the Committee. 

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

Apologies had been received from Councillors Ball, Dunbar and Thorne, along with L Houghton.

The minutes of the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committees held on Thursday 21 April 2022 and Thursday 5 May 2022, as circulated, to be agreed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committees held on 21 April, 2022 and 5 May 2022, as circulated, be agreed as a true record of each and be signed by the Chair.

To note the latest Forward Plan of key decisions for June to September 2022. Any further changes made to the Forward Plan will be reported to the committee.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

The Education Strategy Board Annual Update is provided to committee members to highlight the work and impact of the board in 21/22.

D Street, Deputy Director of Education provided a comprehensive introduction to the report, advising of the work that had been undertaken by the Education Strategy Board (ESB) since its inception and the wide range of its membership across all spectrums of the educational system.    The key priorities were highlighted.  Councillor Renner-Thompson, Cabinet Member advised that the ESB was a perfect example of how the previously fragmented educational sector had been brought back together for the benefit of all children within Northumberland.

In response to a question regarding priority 6, ensuring that all children were school ready, Members were informed that there had been a significant increase in the measure for the end of early years which was now in front of the national average and the disadvantaged gap had also closed at this stage. The Early Years team had grown in numbers and capacity with an excellent lead officer in place. There was a good blend of Early Years providers and a lot of work done around the development of a digital Northumberland passport, which approximately 90% of providers were now using, in order to ensure that children were school ready, and that information on each child’s development from 2 years of age was available when they transferred to school.  The development of the passport had been a significant undertaking and the ESB would now like to see it continued into KS1 as it provided information on whether each child was meeting their potential.  A key element of the passport that schools received information in the same format from all Early Years settings.  The North of Tyne Combined Authority were now going to pilot it in some of their partnerships.  

A suggestion was made in relation to priority 9, that building up a child’s resilience should also be included as a tool to ensure that they were well prepared for any potential setbacks in later life.  This would be fed back to the ESB.

RESOLVED that it be noted that the Committee had reviewed the performance of the Board in its first year and it’s ability to review, develop and drive the Education and Skills key priorities.

This report is provided to committee members to highlight the work and impact of the School Improvement Team.

D Street provided an introduction to the report and power point presentation which highlighted the work and impact the School Improvement Team (SIT) had, with improvements across the County, and advising that the service was now valued with the majority of maintained schools and some academies also purchasing the service.  The report was endorsed by both Councillor G Renner-Thompson, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and A Kingham, Interim Co-Director of Children’s Services, who advised that there was also an opportunity for the Council to be part of the Test and Learn Phase of Local Authorities being able to bid for schools to become part of a Multi Academy Trust. 

Councillor Renner-Thompson advised that Cabinet had already been appraised of the removal of Government Funding and had requested the Director of Finance and S151 Officer to look at budgets to enable the service to continue and he hoped that this Committee would also endorse this way forward.

Members welcomed and endorsed the report advising that there had been transformational change since 2013 and the work across partnerships was very pleasing.  There was concern regarding the withdrawal of Government funding and the Committee would support the proposal for this Council to continue to fund the service which would give schools reassurance that improvements would continue to be seen.  It was commented that schools and their staff had felt very supported by the Council during the pandemic.

Members were advised that strong leadership in schools was seen as the best way of achieving good outcomes for learners and there were good examples of this across maintained, academies and Diocese schools within Northumberland.  KS1 results in Northumberland had always been very strong with the challenge being to maintain these going into KS2.  There were currently 19 secondary schools within Northumberland of which 9 were Local Authority schools and 10 Academies and of those 4 were currently rated as inadequate by Ofsted, however whilst the SIT were not working directly with these schools, assurance had been provided that progress was being made at all 4 schools.   The cost of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for the SIT had not increased in 7 years and it was not thought that the cost of the SLA was a barrier for schools using the service at the current time, however a number of Academies used their own in-house teams. 

The Chair commented that the SIT had a significant impact on education in the County and the service was now respected and recommended by peers.  He asked that this Committee endorse a message to Cabinet that it was imperative that funding for the SIT be provided until the end of this Administration’s term of office and asked that the Cabinet Member take this message back to Cabinet.  Thanks and appreciation were also provided to the whole School Improvement Team for their work.

It was unanimously RESOLVED that:

1.    The performance of the team and their ability to develop the quality of education in Northumberland be noted;

2.    The changes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Members are asked to review and note the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and Monitoring Report.

The work programme had been circulated for information and any issues which Members wished to bring to the Committee should be raised with the Chair or the Scrutiny Officer in the first instance.  The Scrutiny Officer advised of changes to the work programme as follows:-

7 July

·       Education Funding from Residential and Commercial Builds (S106) – deferred to 6 October.

·       The Northumberland Inclusion Strategy – deferred to 1 September.

·       Recommissioning of an Integrated Sexual Health Service – added to 7 July

6 October

·       The Regional Schools Commission will attend the meeting.  A briefing note will be provided in advance on the parameters of the visit.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.