Agenda and minutes

As Councillor Naim Salim was absent and no Vice-Chair had yet been appointed, the Committee agreed to appoint Councillor David Mellen as Chair for this meeting.

Resolved to defer the appointment of the Vice-Chair to the next meeting of the Committee.

Councillor Maria Joannou  -  on leave

Councillor Fozia Mubashar  -  personal reasons

Councillor Naim Salim  -  unwell

None

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2024

The Committee confirmed the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2024 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

The Chair presented a report on the Committee’s Terms of Reference, the Council’s structure for the Overview and Scrutiny function and the Overview and Scrutiny Protocol to provide clarity on the Committee’s purpose, objectives and terms of operation so that it can work efficiently and contribute effectively to the good governance of the Council. The following points were raised:

a)  The Committee queried how it could hold the Chief Executives of Academy Trusts and other external partners to account effectively, given that the Council was not responsible for the management of many schools in the city. It was explained that, although the Committee cannot require the attendance of external partners, officers engage closely with Nottingham’s Academy Trusts and they have often been glad to attend Committee meetings in relation to relevant topics. There are good operational relationships in place with partners across the city and a number of joint working parties are in place, with good representation from the Academy Trusts.

b)  The Committee noted that the Terms of Reference referred to Executive Assistants, which were roles that were not being used in the current municipal year.

The Committee noted the report.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Nick Lee, Director of Education, Liz Anderson, Priority Education Investment Area (PEIA) Education Consultant, and Samina Ring, PEIA Project Lead presented a report on the work of the local PEIA programme. The following points were raised:

a)  Nottingham was named one of 24 PEIAs and is receiving funding to support work around three key areas: writing at Key Stage 2, reading across all ages and school attendance. Funding from the Department for Education runs through to March 2025. At the start of the project, a Partnership Board was established with representatives from the Council, many of the Academy Trusts established in the city and the local universities. Discussions have already started about the sustainably of the Partnership Board beyond March 2025 and Nottingham Trent University, as the existing Chair, has confirmed it is happy to continue hosting, ensuring better cohesion moving beyond the life of the programme.

b)  The Programme is now about halfway through, and attendance is improving faster than the national average at both primary and secondary level, and primary levels are now in line with the national average. Children who have an attendance between 40% and 70% are considered to be persistently absent. There are still a significant number of children within this cohort and there has been less impact on this number than on the cohort with higher overall attendance.

c)  As part of the work, the language used was altered to articulate the number of days’ absence, rather than as a percentage. This allowed families and children to more easily understand the impact of their absence. A focus has also been to ensure a good start to the term, and not missing days at the start of the school year so that they do not remain in the persistent absent cohort for the rest of the year. Rather than highlighting schools with lower attendance, the programme is looking at data on a ward basis, identifying that attendance has been lowest in Bulwell, Aspley, Clifton East and Bestwood. Schools within these areas were targeted first for support and, over the Autumn and Spring terms, overall attendance improved.

d)  The launch event had attendance form 95% of Academy Trusts, and a recent meeting of Designated Safeguarding Leads had the highest turnout since the Coronavirus pandemic. A network event took place in May which saw 150 attendees, so it is clear that across the city enthusiasm and passion for this programme remains high. A focus on safeguarding and seeing attendance as a big part of safeguarding has moved to make this a wider responsibility and, of those who joined the network event in May, around 78 schools now have funded access to specialist resources around improving attendance.

e)  A total of 388 cases have been triaged by the PEIA team in both primary and secondary schools across the city, with 249 being accepted – mostly where other services were not involved with the family already. Where other services such as Social Workers and Family Support Workers were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, Nick Lee, Director of Education, Sarah Nardone, Interim Director of Children's Integrated Services, and Kathryn Bouchlaghem, Head of Early Years, presented a report on the implementation of the national childcare reforms designed to support early education and help parents return to work. The following points were raised:

a)  The changes outlined in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget are a national requirement and there are additional statutory duties for the Council to deliver:

·  working parents of 2-year-olds being able to access 15 hours of childcare from April 2024;

·  working parents of children aged 9-23 months being able to access 15 hours of childcare from September 2024;

·  working parents of children aged 9 months to primary school age being able to access 30 hours of childcare from September 2025; and

·  all primary school-aged children being able to access before and after-school provision from 8:00am to 6:00pm, during term time, from September 2026.

b)  This represents an opportunity for the Council to establish robust childcare infrastructure across the city that not only complies with these new statutory duties, but also helps to support people and business in the city. Looking at the current infrastructure, there is a rich provision already in place that can be built on to develop the further measures. There is already good, collaborative and partnership working in place to take learning from and established links into the voluntary sector. Developing this work links into the activity being done around developing Family Hubs, and Health visiting partnerships. Work has been done with health visiting colleagues throughout the pandemic and after to improve communication and signposting for families.

The Committee raised the following points in discussion:

c)  The Committee asked what understanding of capacity of provision by area of the city the Council had, as there was less provision available in some places – and even local provision was not necessarily easily accessible by public transport. It was reported that a Childcare Sufficiency Audit had been carried out in 2023 and there were some areas emerging that need a boost to provision, primarily in the Bestwood, Aspley, Clifton and Dales areas. Work is being done with the schools in these places to look at how provision can be developed, with an emphasis that the school does not have to make the provision directly. There are established and successful operating models that can be replicated and adapted that have worked in other areas of the city that will ensure provision is in place at no extra cost to the school.

d)  The Committee asked what the timescales were for ensuring that the new requirements were put in place effectively. It was explained that the Government have stated that September 2024 is when most of the new places should be delivered to allow them to embed and the market to settle before the start of the 2025/26 term. The Government’s ambition being that, by 2026, all parents will be able to access  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Verbal update from the Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, provided an update on the progress of the work on Children’s Services Improvement. The following points were raised:

a)  There has been no further formal inspection since the report to the Committee meeting in May, but a further inspection is due before the end of July. The next monitoring visit is likely to focus again on front-door services, which was the subject of the first monitoring visit. Since then, there has been steady progress in improvement work, with a peer review completed with Lincolnshire County Council.

b)  There has been improvement in the quality and timeliness of contacts, but there are still large number of contacts taking place. Work has been undertaken with recruitment funding through the Small Steps Big Changes programme, with the launch of the Early Help Strategy to ensure that more families get the support that they need earlier.

The Committee raised the following points in discussion:

c)  The Committee asked what was being done to mitigate against reduced funding when implementing the Early Help Strategy, support schools with capacity and that there was enough resourcing for training teachers in inclusion. It was explained that work is taking place within the Family Hubs to engage with partners and ensure the right service are in place to support families sooner. There is a strong focus on consistency in relation to the approach of practice and there is a push to ensure that partners, particularly schools who notice issues early, are well-informed to ensure effective signposting.

d)  The Committee welcomed the focus on partnership working and asked how the effectiveness and impact of that work would be tracked and demonstrated. It was set out that work with Lincolnshire is taking place to establish a system to track impacts that will work locally. Lincolnshire’s Early Help Strategy is robust and well-established, with a wealth of good practice to draw on, and it also has a good example of how to record and recognise work that partners (and schools in particular) are already doing.

e)  The Committee noted that the effective provision of support to Nottingham children either not in school or in school outside of the city area was extremely important.

The Chair thanked the Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education for attending the meeting to provide the update and answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee noted the update.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

The Chair presented the Committee’s proposed Work Programme for the 2024/25 municipal year. The following points were discussed:

a)  The Committee asked where the needs of and services provided to children in care were considered, and whether this should be a future topic for review. The Committee also considered that protecting children in schools from the influence of misogyny was an important issue.

b)  The Committee noted that there was a coming item to the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee on savings proposals within the NHS as part of the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board’s current and future budgets, which could have some impacts on the health services accessed by children and young people.

c)  The Committee asked whether it would be possible to see information relating to the establishment of the Council’s 2025/26 budget at an early stage of the development of proposals.

Resolved to agree the proposed Work Programme for the 2024/25 municipal year.

To agree to meet on the following dates at 09:30am at Loxley House, Nottingham:

11 September 2024

13 November 2024

15 January 2025

12 March 2025

Resolved to meet on the following Wednesdays at 9.30am:

·  11 September 2024

·  13 November 2024

·  15 January 2025

·  12 March 2025