Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Naim Salim  -  unwell

Councillor Maria Watson  -  personal reasons

Ailsa Barr  -  Director of Children's Integrated Services

Jill Colbert  -  Corporate Director for Children and Education

Services

Robert Griffin  -  Assistant Chief Constable, Nottinghamshire

Police

Rosa Waddingham  -  Chief Nurse, NHS Nottingham and

Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board

None

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2024

The Committee confirmed the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2024 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education; John Matravers, Head of Safeguarding and Partnerships; Ben Osifo, Business Manager at the Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership (SCP); and Steve Edwards, Independent Scrutineer, presented the NCSCP’s Annual Report for 2023/24. The following points were raised:

a)  The NCSCP is a statutory partnership between the Council, Nottinghamshire Police and the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to provide the safeguarding arrangements under which partners and agencies work together to co-ordinate their safeguarding services; identify and respond to the needs of children in the City; commission and publish local child safeguarding practice reviews; and provide scrutiny to ensure the effectiveness of these arrangements. The Council and the ICB provide 42% of the SCP’s overall funding each, with the remainder contributed by the Police. The SCP is supported by an Independent Scrutineer.

b)  A great deal of work has been done to ensure that the Annual Report is as accessible to children as possible, so they know about the structures that are in place to safeguard them. The NCSCP’s priorities have been developed on the basis of direct engagement with and listening to children and their families, working with local communities to provide the services that they need. Although the Council, the Police and the ICB are the statutory partners, the NCSCP emphasises that child safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and works with a wide range of stakeholders and community groups to establish this message. The NCSCP’s website has been updated to provide effective and easily accessible safeguarding resources for children, parents and carers.

c)  Overall, there are around 66,000 children in the City, with 34% living with some level of deprivation. The NCSCP’s ‘Working Together’ policy has been updated to ensure that there is a strong layer of leadership across the Partnership to drive the safeguarding agenda, and there is also close engagement with the County Council. A quarterly newsletter is circulated on the development of the Partnership, which provides a helpful overview and enables effective messaging to take place on what the safeguarding outcomes for children have been.

d)  Currently, there is a high number of children who have been excluded from school (189, which represents an increase on previous years) or who are being home-schooled, and there are also increasing numbers within the Youth Justice system, which presents some significant safeguarding challenges. However, the number of children with Child Protection Plans in place has decreased. Ultimately, it is vital that support is delivered to the most vulnerable children as soon as possible, to prevent their reaching a point of crisis. As a result, a substantial level of activity is carried out with a wide range of partners to identify potential safeguarding issues at an early stage.

The Committee raised the following points in discussion:

e)  The Committee noted that it was extremely disappointed that all members of the Partnership’s Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) could not attend and had been unable to send representatives to the meeting to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education; Nick Lee, Director of Education Services; Neil Langham, Inclusion Manager; Jennifer Hardy, Project Manager; and Elizabeth Browne, Executive Principal for Alternative Education at the Raleigh Education Trust, presented a report on the alternative education provision available for children who have been permanently excluded from their school. The following points were raised:

a)  There is a historically high level of permanent exclusion in Nottingham, with averages often 50% higher than the national figure – and the current local levels of exclusion are higher than in recent years. There are 19 Alternative Education Provision settings in the city, with five specialist schools and three Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) – though there is no Key Stage 1 provision for permanently excluded children and the PRUs are experiencing capacity issues. As capacity within the available Alternative Provision is so limited, the Department for Education has approved plans for a new Free School – but this will take time to build and staff. A great deal of work is also being done to identify children at risk of exclusion to provide support at as early a stage as possible.

b)  The Council commissions the Raliegh Education Trust to manage the Alternative Provision and PRU process. An Alternative Provision providers network is in place and it works both to try and slow the rate of exclusions and to provide the best support possible to children in PRUs. Alternative Provision seeks to deliver the full National Curriculum with children on site wherever possible (though there is also Virtual School provision), while working to find appropriate permanent school places. A great deal of work is done to assess individual need and to seek to reduce barriers to learning.

c)  When a child is excluded, Alternative Provision works with the child and their family on a pathway to bring them back into permanent education. Engagement is carried out with the school to learn what needs the child has and the barriers they experienced, to both help identify an appropriate new permanent place and ensure that the right support is provided in the meantime. Oversight structures are in place and reviews are carried out regularly to ensure the quality of provision and that vulnerable children are safe. Teams have been established to support the families of excluded children with the admissions process and work to try and prevent new placement breakdown. Given that many children who are excluded have a high level of need, Safety and Welfare officers are available, alongside Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provision.

The Committee raised the following points in discussion:

d)  The Committee asked what strategies were in place to seek to reduce the current rates of school exclusion and ensure that SEND needs were addressed properly. It was reported that work is carried out with schools to ensure that the needs of as many children as possible can be met within mainstream education, and that investment is being made into identifying those  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education; Nick Lee, Director of Education Services; Neil Langham, Inclusion Manager; and Jennifer Hardy, Project Manager, presented a report on the education access arrangements for children without a school place. The following points were raised:

a)  There is a significant need for in-year school places due to families frequently moving into the Nottingham area, or because of a child needing to move from one school to another. However, most schools are now oversubscribed, so the Council works closely with broad panels of schools to ensure that children admitted in-year are placed in a range of schools across the city. Ultimately, all Local Authorities must then have a Fair Access Protocol in place for children who have been unable to secure a school through the normal admissions process, or who are deemed as ‘hard to place’.

The Committee raised the following points in discussion:

b)  The Committee asked what the main drivers were behind the growing number of Fair Access cases, and whether the current upward trend was likely to continue. It was reported that the upward trend in Fair Access cases seems likely to continue, across all school years. Work is underway to expand secondary provision and a strategic approach is being taken to meet the increasing demand for future school places. Predicting the likely level of in-year changes is extremely difficult, but the Council works as closely as possible with schools and the Department for Education (DfE) to seek to ensure that school places are available.

c)  The Committee asked why a large number of children were moving from one city school to another, and queried to what degree changing a school place resulted in better outcomes for the child. It was explained that around 40% of supported transfers to a new school were considered as being successful – while the outcome of an unsuccessful transfer is often permanent exclusion.

d)  The Committee asked to what degree health and wellbeing needs were being taken into account within the Fair Access Protocol. It was set out there are triggers in place within the Protocol in relation to a child’s eligibility to transfer school, and the assessment panels must consider the overall best interests of a child when making supported transfers. The Protocol is being developed to make specific reference to complex and mental health needs, so there is potential for health and wellbeing to also be included. Some children have been excluded from school because of non-attendance arising from a mental health condition, so work is being done to invest in further mental health support and prevention, and reducing the barriers to attendance for children suffering from poor mental health.

e)  The Committee asked how school needs were forecast for individual communities in the City. It was reported that there is a national set formula that must be used to calculate the overall school places requirement for the city area. However, local knowledge is collected and taken into account  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

The Chair presented the Committee’s current Work Programme for the 2024/25 municipal year.

The Committee noted the Work Programme.