Agenda and minutes

Councillor Brian Parbutt – Work Commitments

Councillor Chris Tansley – Work Commitments

None.

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor Glyn Jenkins as Vice-Chair for the municipal year 2018/19.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 20 March 2018

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 March 2018 were confirmed as a true record and were signed by that Chair.

Jane Garrard, Senior Governance Officer, introduced the report on the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference. The terms of reference were agreed at Council meeting on 14 May 2018.

RESOLVED to note the Terms of Reference for Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee.

Pat Fielding, Chief Executive Officer, Nottingham Schools Trust, gave a comprehensive presentation on the Nottingham Schools Trust, running through its history and development and future aims. He highlighted the following points:

(a)  The Nottingham Schools Trust is not an academy trust, it is a collection of maintained schools and single academy schools that work together sharing knowledge, support and resources;

(b)  Key priorities for all schools within the Nottingham Schools Trust are:

·  Safeguarding

·  School improvement

·  Support for vulnerable schools

·  School governance

·  Succession planning

·  Shared data sets

·  Common policy sets

·  Business functions leading to efficiencies

(c)  Each school pays a membership subscription fee for 5 year membership to the Trust. This fee is matched by Nottingham City Council and the Trust also receives grant funding from the government;

(d)  Schools within the Trust receive:  

·  School improvement services, including advisory, challenge and support services

·  Risk assessment, analysis and intervention

·  Teaching and learning consultancy

·  Subject Leader Networks

·  Agreed policy sets

·  School to School Support

·  Continuing professional development

(e)  Schools within the Trust retain autonomy over budget, curriculum and day to day management;

(f)  Each term subject leaders’ networks take place and act as a way of passing on learning and best practice. There are also support networks for new staff who meet with experienced staff ;

(g)  The trust has a website, www.nottinghamschoolstrust.org.uk which staff can use as a portal to access the Trust’s resources. There is also a twitter account which is used to celebrate the achievements of the pupils within the schools;

Following questions and comments from the Committee the following information was given:

(h)  There have been a number of other local authorities who are interested in Nottingham Schools Trust model and although it would be possible to make it work in other authorities it has worked so well in Nottingham because those involved have an in depth knowledge of Nottingham schools and their staff;

(i)  The Trust and its work are reviewed annually and will continue to be reviewed. If after 5 years the decision is made to dissolve the Trust it is possible to do so. Schools will also be able to leave the Trust after 5 years if they choose to;

(j)  The main challenges facing the Trust are financial. The Local Authority may choose not to match fund the schools’ fees, or grant funding from the Government could be reduced. The Trust would not be able to run on the schools membership fees alone;

(k)  The Trust also has a variety of programmes looking at the social aspect of children’s lives, and a close working relationship with the Virtual School to allow closer working around exclusions;

(l)  The Trust is not recognised as a statutory body. This does not limit its work in anyway and allows schools to remain autonomous where within an academy trust they would lose that;

(m)  The Trust is still in its infancy, as new opportunities to work with the voluntary and community sector arise and the capacity to work with them builds the Trust will encourage further engagement;

RESOLVED to thank Pat Fielding for his attendance and to note the content of the in depth presentation.

Nick Lee, Head of Access and Learning, and John Dexter, Education Director, gave a presentation on SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) in Nottingham City updating the Committee on the work done this year. They highlighted the following points:

(a)  14% of young people in Nottingham City have SEND. This is slightly above the national average. Most of these young people are in mainstream school;

(b)  Specialist provision is provided for those with an Education, Health and Care Plan and there is a growing demand for plans for those children not previously identified as needing one;

(c)  There is specialist support in place for schools at both a pupil level and a strategic level to help identify the most appropriate interventions;

(d)  There are a number of specialist provisions in Nottingham City for children and young people with SEND, of these 3 are ranked outstanding. There are two that currently require improvement and this is a focus of a particular work stream;

(e)  A large proportion of the young people who are over 16 with SEND in Nottingham are in further education, training or employment. There are a number of significant changes occurring in and around Nottingham regarding further education so this will be monitored;

(f)  One of the major focuses is around exclusion and SEND. There are concerns nationwide that a high proportion of SEND young people are excluded;

(g)  In Nottingham City the proportion of SEND young people excluded from primary school is favourably comparable to the national average, however the proportion of secondary school exclusions is more in line with the national average;

(h)  Improvements have been made in identifying children and young people with SEND and primary schools are particularly good at providing good packages of support in place. However more work needs to be done around identification as many young people entering referral units and alternative provision are found to have SEND;

(i)  There are 5 areas of priority focus going forward:

·  Improvement of inclusion provision

·  Development of specialist provision

·  Transition to secondary

·  Co-production with young people and families

·  Multiple agency support to schools

(j)  The Accountability Board is responsible for drive and direction of strategic priorities of SEND provision. Membership is mixed with representation from a number of different services;

Following questions and discussion from the Committee the following points were made:

(k)  Personal allowance budget is put into a controlled account which allows families to choose the additional personal care services which will most benefit their child. These funds are monitored by Disability Services to ensure that they are spent appropriately. Unspent money comes back to the council to be reallocated;

(l)  Transition to secondary school is a very important time, it is perhaps more difficult for young people with SEND.  There are a number of different models run across the range of academies to try and ease the transition. Special educational needs coordinators are spending a lot of time with pupils focusing on transition, but secondary schools have a large number of schools they intake from and this makes focusing on SEND more challenging;

(m)  The authority works closely with the Regional Schools Commissioner to ensure that the office is aware of exclusion data;

RESOLVED to:

(1)  thank  Nick Lee and John Dexter for their attendance and to note the content of their presentation;

(2)  review progress in improving support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including the work of the Accountability Board, in one year’s time; and

(3)  consider the findings of the expected CQC/ Ofsted Local Area Inspection of provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and the response to those findings.

Jane Garrard, Senior Governance Officer, introduced the report on the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee Work Programme. The Committee discussed topics they would like to see on the work programme and identified further education as a topic of interest.

RESOLVED to note the content of the work programme.

To agree to meet on the following Tuesdays at 11am:

·  17 July 2018

·  18 September 2018

·  20 November 2018

·  22 January 2019

·  19 March 2019

RESOLVED to meet on the following Tuesdays at 11am:

17 July 2018

18 September 2018

20 November 2018

22 January 2019

19 March 2019