Agenda and minutes

Councillor Georgina Culley

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2016

Subject to the inclusion of Maria Ward as attending, the minutes of the meeting held on 20 September 2016 were confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Corporate Director of Resilience

Councillor David Mellen, Portfolio Holder for Early Intervention and Early Years, Aileen Wilson, Head of Early Help Services and Jean Case, Senior Youth and Play Coordinator, delivered a presentation highlighting the following information:

(a)  Youth and Play service at one time employed more than 100 full time youth and play workers, the current service now employs 54 workers and yet the youth and play activity has not been proportionally reduced and continues to provide effective quality sessions;

(b)  the Youth and Play Service is divided into three localities, north, south and central, with two teams working in each locality and during the past year 4,652 young people aged between 5 and 19 years of age have attended youth and play service activities within the City;

(c)  to ensure that all young people can access the services, sessions are provided at low cost or free in all wards within the city. Resources are not available to provide full time day sessions during the summer holidays;

(d)  the voluntary sector is also funded via area based grants to provide youth and play sessions to support and complement the City Council’s work. The youth and play team meet with independent providers, such as Brownies and faith groups, to ensure that they have what they need to ensure adequate safeguarding;

(e)  in addition to the educational and fun elements aspects of sessions, there is also a mentoring element which can which can result in young people being referred for further support as the environment is more relaxed with youth workers than teachers and young people often feel more able to talk about issues of concern;

(f)  61 universal sessions are held across the city and they can be accessed by people from any area of the city. Venues vary and not all are City Council owned. The service aims to try and broach some issues which young people face in everyday life. To date this has included: bullying, safe internet use/sexting, healthy relationship, drug and alcohol use, gender, and fire safety;

(g)  to enable the delivery of the above sessions, members of the Youth and Play Service have undergone training on safeguarding awareness and how to identify the non-verbal signs of when young people are experiencing or at risk of harm such as domestic abuse (not necessarily directed at the young person), self-harm and mental health;

(h)  the service works closely with Young People’s Panels and where concerns are raised, partners share information and try to identify if there are areas of common concern  within the city, such as child sexual exploitation, which is then targeted with awareness projects at youth and play sessions;

(i)  workers try to ensure that sessions are appropriate for all you people of varying ages and abilities. Groups often identify the topics which they wish to address and where appropriate, workers try to create a safe and engaging environment for young people feel they can be listened to and can share their experiences and Concerns. Jon Rea,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Report of the Corporate Director of Resilience

Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Education, Employment and Skills and Sarah Fielding, Director of Education, delivered a presentation on provisional attainment data for Nottingham City pupils.

It is noted that whilst all data is invalidated, the overall results are positive. Information is yet to be received for Key Stage 2 pupils to the end of September and Key Stage 4 pupils to the end of October but the overall final results and analysis will be presented to the Committee at a future meeting.

The following points were highlighted:

(a)  there has been a clear improvement across the board on the last year’s results;

(b)  there are 17 areas of assessment for early foundation stage pupils, including personal, social, emotional and physical development, communication and language as well as maths and literacy. At 65.5% Nottingham is much closer to the national average of 69.3% achievement;

(c)  with regard to phonics which are tested at the end of Year 1, pupils have 40 words to read, both real and phonic, and are expected to achieve 32 correct answers. In 2015 Nottingham was ranked last of 150  education authorities but this year is expected to be ranked 142;

(d)  For Key Stage 1 pupils, in reading 66.5% Nottingham pupils achieved the expected standard against the national average of 74%. In writing, 58.2% of the pupils achieved the expected standard against national average of 65.5%, which is a narrower gap than in previous years. In maths, 67.9% of pupils achieved the expected standard, against the national average of 72.6%. The improvements in maths are very pleasing and can be attributed to focus initiatives and targeted interventions;

(e)  Key Stage 2 pupils have narrowed the gap in reading writing and maths to only 3.2% from the National average, which could raise Nottingham’s ranking in 2016 from 141/150 in 2015, to 109 in 2016. In Grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) Nottingham may rise 3 places to be ranked joint 116^th/150. In reading, 59.9% of Nottingham pupils achieved of the expected standard against the national average of 65.7%, potentially raising a Nottingham from 143/150 in 2015 to joint 129/150 in 2016. In writing, 70.7% of Nottingham pupils achieved of the expected standard against the national average of 74.1%, raising the ranking from 148/150 in 2015 to potentially joint 129/150 in 2016. In maths, 68.7% of Nottingham pupils achieved of the expected standard against the national average of 69.8%, which could raise the ranking from 108/150 in 2015 to 79/150 in 2016;

(f)  Key Stage 4 pupils are predicted to have achieved 52.2% of the expected basic standards against the national average of 59.2%, which is a rise of 6.5% on 2015 achievement. Progress 8 figures have shown improvements whilst Attainment 8 figures are yet to be confirmed;

(g)  Pupil Outcomes

(i)  80% of children are in schools judged ad ‘good’;

(ii)  Primary and Secondary School attendance exceeds the national average;

(iii)60.5% of eligible 2 year olds are accessing free nursery provision;

(iv)breakfast clubs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Report of the Corporate Director of Resilience

Rav Kalsi, Senior Governance Officer, updated the Committee on the work programme:

(a)  An invite will be made to the Regional Schools Commissioner for the East Midlands and Humber to attend a future Committee date.

RESOLVED to agree the work programme.