Agenda item

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 in place, the team has opted to not involve an additional Support Worker, but offer advice and signposting to existing workers in touch with the family.

f)  Of 96 cases where the initial six week cycle of work has taken place, 81% of families show improved attendance. This also has knock-on impacts that are not recorded formally, such as changed attitudes to attendance and learning, and better safeguarding for children whose location would otherwise not be known. These families continue to be monitored by the Attendance Support Worker, who can intervene again should it become necessary. Feedback from families the Attendance Support Workers have been engaged with has been positive. Research has shown that fining families around attendance is not effective and work with the Support Worker has improved attendance. However, where families have refused other intervention, then there is no other recourse than to issue fines as required by law.

g)  There are many reasons reported to Family Support Workers for non-attendance, a main one being mental health issues affecting both children and their parents and carers. This has become more prevalent since the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Unmet needs is the second highest reason stated by parents and carers, with significant numbers of children waiting specialist provision. Data around reasons for non-attendance has been helpful to ensure that resources are targeted for each family to ensure best outcomes. Other reasons cited included domestic violence issues, which are referred to a specific task force, and problems with school uniforms. Schools are becoming much more responsive to issues with uniforms and many primary schools use a less strict policy to ensure inclusivity.

h)  Through the project so far, there has been a number of learning points. The way the project uses language has changed since it started and now talks to families about days of education missed rather than percentages and reducing and revising use of legalistic jargon as it is more easily accessible and relatable. The way in which data is recorded at schools and then reported has been updated and developed, and schools now record that children that have left when appropriate rather than keeping them on roll.

i)  The voice of the child has become one of the most important factors in working with families, establishing from the child why they are not attending in their words and working towards resolving issues and barriers. The narrative from schools has shifted to working more closely with the Support Workers around attendance. For the last two terms of the project, the team will be returning to the schools where attendance has not shown as much improvement and will be undertaking targeted working with families to help improve attendance moving forward.

The Committee raised the following points in discussion:

j)  The Committee asked whether there was a link between low attendance leading to fines and the increase in home-schooled children. It was explained that there has been a national increase in the numbers of families opting for home-schooling, which has risen since the pandemic. There does appear to be a link between families who are being fined and the choice to home-school, although there is more work needed to confirm the link. The legal process does not stop if a child is withdrawn from school for home-schooling, and if families wanted a child to return to mainstream education they would need to go through the application process for places.

k)  The Committee asked how the project linked the data-driven work with the actual outcomes achieved for children and families. It was set out that the data is used to report back to the Department of Education on the progress and impact of the programme so is the main metric used to communicate the effectiveness of the programme, however, behind the data is a wealth of information around how the work has positively impacted the lives of children and families across Nottingham and the work of the project remains outcome-driven.

l)  The Committee asked how the project was helping to address the significant rise in mental health issues in children since the pandemic, which had impacted attendance. It was reported that there is an proposal being developed to increase provision of mental health support in schools resourced through the Higher Needs Block funding. This will be driven forward from September with a focus on young girls and the impact of the rise of misogynistic content on social media. Schools are also working hard to tackle to impact of social media on pupils who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The Government has made a number of pledges around mental health in schools, but there has been no formal announcement as yet.

m)  The Committee noted that school exclusions were not being addressed specifically as a piece of work within the programme. It was explained that, at the very start of the programme, there was discussion around whether exclusion should be considered as a workstream in its own right, but the programme leads felt it sat better within the attendance workstream as many of the facts impacting exclusion numbers were the same as those impacting attendance numbers. Schools continue to work on ensuring children feel welcomed and valued in the classroom, and the Attendance Support Workers engage with families to build confidence in pupils to attend school. Many schools have strategies in place to help pupils feel comfortable, with quiet break-out areas, reflection areas and opportunities to step away if they are feeling overwhelmed.

n)  The Committee asked what support would be available to schools and families after this project ends in March 2025. It was reported that it is important that the services and support offered by this project are integrated into the Early Help Strategy currently under development, with a focus on preventative work. The Council is keen to build on the work of the Family Support Workers and helping to reinforce the learning and good practice across the schools involved in the project. The Council has a statutory obligation to pursue fines and would be in breach of its legal duty if it did not enforce fines where thresholds of attendance were not met. However, a focus will be on support and working with families and schools to avoid having to go down that route wherever possible.

o)  The Committee asked what impact the cuts in the Household Support Fund had been on families in terms of affording uniforms, and what was being done to support families with the cost of uniforms where it was a barrier to attendance. It was set out that various options for support for families whose children attended maintained schools were being considered. In some cases, Academy Trusts are introducing their own measures and many schools are far less prescriptive around branded items, which has helped to reduce the cost of uniforms. Many schools have introduced schemes that allow families to donate and receive uniform items. Access to a uniform is not one of the main reported barriers to attendance, although it is mentioned occasionally speaking to families the project is working with.

p)  The Committee asked what support was available to children and families who were waiting for a special needs assessment within schools, whether schools had the resources and strategies in place to support families in this situation, and how Fair Access was being supported. It was explained that there is extensive training in schools around supporting children and families awaiting an assessment for additional needs support. Schools within the programme are very good at working together to share learning and best practise. Additional needs have increased significantly, especially within Early Years and primary schools. Work is taking place in partnership with Special Educational Needs and Disability professionals to establish better pathways and practice. Work is also taking place with the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board to commission a joint strategy around this.

The Chair thanked the Director of Education and the representatives of the Priority Education Investment Area programme for attending the meeting to present the report and answer the Committee’s questions.

Resolved:

1)  To request that further information is provided on the delivery planning underway for the implementation of the Early Help Strategy (particularly on how there will be effective integration with other support services to reduce barriers to attendance, including for children attending schools outside the City Council area).

2)  To recommend that all possible partnership work is done to grow inclusion activity, and the development of schools as welcoming environments to all needs (including through the effective training of teachers and the resourcing of their professional development), to overcome barriers to school attendance in a proactive way that is directly informed by the voice of children and their families.

3)  To recommend that the Council maximises its engagement with all schools to seek to avoid the need for their issuing of a fine for non-attendance wherever possible.

4)  To recommend that there is close partnership engagement with the provider organisations that deliver mental healthcare services to ensure that early intervention activity connects children and young people to the support that they need to break down potential barriers to school attendance.