Agenda and minutes

In the temporary absence of the Chair, Councillor Cheryl Barnard, nominations were sought for a Chair.

Resolved for Catherine Underwood to temporarily chair the meeting.

Councillor Cheryl Barnard (for unavoidable lateness)

Becky O’Brien (CityCare Director of Nursing and AHPs)

Karon Foulkes (NHS ICB)

John Rae – Engagement and Participation Lead (NCC)

Mohammed Ramzan (Nottingham College)

Jules Seblin (Nottingham CVS)

As no nominations were received, this item is deferred to the next meeting.

None.

Of the meeting held on 28 March 2023, for confirmation.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 March 2023 confirmed as a true record.

Presentation by Jennifer Hardy, Interim Head of Access to Learning

Nick Lee, Director of Education, introduced the item which has been brought forward due to the increasing number of pupils being permanently excluded (pex), which needs to be addressed, as a partnership approach.

Dr Maddi Popoola, Education Psychologist and Manager of Mental Health Support Services, and Jennifer Hardy, Interim Head of Access to Learning, jointly delivered the presentation, which is included in the agenda pack.

Highlighted points are summarised as follows:

a)  It is well documented that pexs have long-term negative impact on the young person and into adulthood, including employability, economically, with the likelihood of entering custody being 33% higher than pupils who had not been pex;

b)  From 181 youth offending cases examined, 65% had been excluded from school, with 47% permanently excluded. It is noted that 80% of the prison population have learning difficulties, or have not learnt to read;

c)  Compared to statistical neighbours, Nottingham historically and currently has higher rates of exclusions and a challenging educational landscape;

d)  All secondary schools in the City are signed up to the holistic inclusion funding model brought in during 2022 to try to prevent pexs, but exclusion rates continue to rise;

e)  Research has been undertaken to find common identifiers were exclusion is most likely. This has been achieved by speaking to school staff, parents and pupils, to identify root cause themes which led to exclusions and for which interventions and support have been helpful or succeeded;

f)  The presentation sets out the 10 key themes identified as follows:

i.  creating a vision/shared understanding of inclusion;

ii.  multi agency working;

iii.  preventative work;

iv.  ethnicity;

v.  relationships between local authority and settings;

vi.  teacher factors;

vii.  work with parents and carers;

viii.  funding and provision;

ix.  transition;

x.  mental health;

g)  The decision to permanently excluded pupil is not taken lightly, but pexs in Nottingham are at the highest rate in 10 years with five weeks of term still remaining. 125 pexs have been applied so far this academic year, compared to 112 in total last year, with 18 primary pexs, compared to a total of 11 last year;

h)  The vast majority of excluded pupils have complex lives which schools alone cannot mitigate against, but with co-ordinated multi-agency working, it is believed that pexs can be reduced;

i)  In an effort to prevent pexs, schools identify pupils at risk and refer their cases to the multi-agency ‘Children at Risk of Permanent Exclusion Panel’ which meets monthly for examination and consideration of supportive action to prevent an exclusion;

j)  To date, 32 young people have been referred to this multi-partner team, of those 7 have been permanently excluded or are still at risk of pex, so it is evident that this approach does work well, but requires more focused resourcing;

k)  ‘Include’ is a multidiscipline team consisting of mental health and education professionals who will be working with three high excluding secondary schools focusing on children at risk of exclusion in years 7 and 8. Up to a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Mary-Anne Cosgrove, Head of Children in Care, to deliver a presentation.

Mary-Anne Cosgrove, Head of Children in Care, delivered a presentation, which is included in the agenda pack.

Highlighted points are summarised as follows:

a)  Some children may come into care quite late, at the age at 15 and 16;

b)  every councillor is a corporate parent;

c)  corporate parents now have new duties;

d)  One of the 8 areas which the 2022 OFSTED inspection identified for improvement was the clarity and quality of information available to care leavers, including  of their rights and entitlements, and the statutory requirement for the local authority to provide a personal advisors to support care leavers post-21 years of age;

e)  From April 2023, the OFSTED framework included an additional judgement area focusing on care leavers and ensuring that they are aware of the local offer and continue to be supported up to and beyond 21 years of age;

f)  The presentation sets out how the local authority has responded to the new requirements, including:

i.  providing an app based accessibility platform specifically for local care leavers;

ii.  establishment of a local task and finish group under place-based work;

iii.  provided an enhanced Local Offer around transport and plans around Council Tax, Leisure and a Conference with City employers in the Autumn;

iv.  a cross-department strengthened local offer, including mental health, housing and employment;

v.  increased personal adviser and management capacity;

vi.  contact with city and local authority employers;

vii.  ensuring that locally, care leavers are considered a protected characteristic;

viii.  the breadth of how the local offer has since been increased set out within the presentation;

g)  Due to a Barnardo’s Children’s Charity mystery benefactor and grants from Central Government, further work is possible to expand and extend the local offer;

h)  Partnership members and colleagues are requested to consider how they, or someone they know, who has influence and power and could contribute to corporate parenting, possibly creatively/ operationally/with sharing their experience and /or support, mentoring or championing our care leavers, be aspirational and passionate for these young care leavers. Training can be provided, including virtual LGA sessions on Corporate Parenting;

i)  The Pathfinders initiative will open up opportunities in the health sector, with supporting managers to support care leaver and understand their specific challenges. In addition the autumn conference is inviting commercial business and asking what they can offer. The champion’s initiative is website which could match people to children and care leavers for one-off meetings, longer term mentoring, and multiple different championing paths;

j)  The Positive Destinations Pathway officer at Futures was closely with the specialist personal advisor for children, not in education, training or employment to identify talking about care and work with them and companies to improve links. Futures will also be managing tutor for 18 to 25-year-olds.

Comments from the partnership included:

k)  It’s really important to involve people from across the city to assist with supporting local offer to care leavers;

l)  The involvement of head teachers and the Police would be most welcome;

m)  It is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

There were no key messages or items for information at this time.

Recommended to:

1)  Agree the future meeting dates of:

26 September 2023

12 December 2023

26 March 2023

2)  Note the items suggested for future consideration;

3)  To agree to contact Sam Morris with suggestions for any further items for consideration.

Resolved

1)  to agree the future meeting dates (virtually at 4pm) as follows:

26 September 2023

12 December 2023

26 March 2023;

2)   to note the following items suggested for consideration at the next meeting:

·Ofsted update (Ailsa Barr) if the results of the recent monitoring visit are in the public domain by then;

·Youth Charter (Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner);

·Small Steps Big Changes (Karla Capstick)

3)   for partners to contact Sam Morris (sam.morris@nottinghamcity.gov.uk) with suggestions for any further items for the Partnership’s consideration.