Agenda and minutes

Councillor Fozia Mubashar   - Personal

Councillor Georgia Power  - Personal

Councillor Ethan Radford   - Other Council Business

Councillor Naim Salim   - Unwell

None.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2023

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2023 were confirmed as a true record and singed by the Chair of this meeting.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Nick Lees, Director of Education introduced the report detailing the work of the Priority Education Investment Area. Attending alongside him was Sally Gladwin, Department for Education, Helen Pledger, Department for Education

Liz Anderson, Independent Consultant – commissioned by Department for Education, Samina Ring, Raleigh Learning Trust, Carl Pattison, Flying High Multi Academy Trust and Jennifer Hardy, Project Manager. They highlighted the following points during their presentations:

a)  Since Nottingham City was identified by the Department of Education as a Priority Education Investment area work has been undertaken to build a partnership between the Council, the DoE and Multi Academy trusts across the city.

b)  A Local Partnership Board was formed in 2022 with a focus on harnessing and sharing good practice. The Board acknowledged that there are a wide range of social factors impacting education both locally and nationally but established that improvement of 2 factors, literacy and attendance would have the widest reaching impact.

c)  A consortium of local providers offering evidence based interventions around literacy bid through a tender process to provide interventions across both Nottingham and Derby. An Attendance Board was established building on the best practice work already established at the Djanogly Academy which is being delivered by the Council in partnership with the Raleigh Education Trust.

Priority Literacy

d)  The Literacy offer focuses on writing at KS2 as good results at this stage usually lead to good results in secondary education. There are two elements to the offer provided by Priority Literacy, the first, a Literacy Audit for all schools to assess their current offer and to signpost to resources and best practice where needed. The second element is a programme to encourage a culture of reading across schools and communities

e)  The Literacy Audit is completed through a self assessment tool, that is then reviewed by literacy specialists. It establishes what tools are in place, where support is needed and signposts schools to additional resources. Instilling good practice across a wide range of schools will help to ensure that the impact of the project outlives time limited funding.

f)  Alongside the universal offer there is a target offer that identifies, through the audit process a specific menu of resources to encourage fluency in  literacy and provide additional support in specific areas. Target schools are also assigned a bespoke literacy specialist to work with them to establish best practice.

g)  Following the initial audit and self assessment the literacy specialist then checks back in with the school through the online portal at six, twelve and eighteen months to support assessment of progress. If the school achieves targets before the end of the programme then additional work is done to further challenge them and agree additional actions to further push improvement.

h)  The Programme also aims to improve the transition between primary and secondary education by developing a consistent approach across the city, especially for more vulnerable learners.

Attendance

i)  Attendance is a national issue, and the Attendance Board is looking strategically at how it can  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

To receive a verbal update from the Portfolio Holder on progress made on the improvement journey

The meeting was adjourned at 12:12pm to allow for a short comfort break, and reconvened at 12:20pm.

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education provided an update to the Committee on the progress of the Children’s Services Improvement work. The following points were highlighted in discussion:

a)  A further Ofsted inspection took place on 22 and 23 November focusing on Care Leavers Services. Inspectors met with a range of staff and care leavers and also interviewed the Portfolio Holder. No grading will be given for this inspection and the full report is due to be published on the Ofsted website on 12 January 2024.

b)  Feedback from the inspectors, pending the final report, was largely positive and highlighted:

·  staff were tenacious and consistent in practice.

·  strong links with support services and specialists and care leavers mental and emotional wellbeing needs were met.

·  Strong Education, Employment and Training offers including options for further education and University.

·  Good range of suitable supported accommodation for transitioning into adulthood

·  Good learning tools were available for Personal Advisors.

c)   Areas highlighted for further focus were:

·  Consistent pathway plans ensuring that the plan has impact and continues to remain live and relevant to the individual.

·  The Dashboard is used to focus on practice management

d)  There is likely to be one further inspection between now and the end of March 2024, most likely to focus on Children in Care services.

e)  Where improvement was needed the inspection team acknowledged that work was already underway to implement change.

The Chair thanked the Portfolio Holder, and the Head of Children’s Strategy and Improvement for attending to provide an update to the Committee. 

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

The Chair introduced the work programme highlighting the upcoming items. 

Additional items were put forward by members including an item on what support schools were offering pupils around the cost of living crisis and the impact this may have on mental health. The Scrutiny and Audit Support Officer advised that there was limited space in the Committee’s work programme for the current municipal year, but that it would be added as soon as possible.

Members noted the work programme.