Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs Birch be elected Chairman of the Panel for the municipal year 2018/19.

RESOLVED that Councillor Brossard be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Panel for the municipal year 2018/19.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 18 April 2018.  The actions arising from the previous Panel meeting are appended to the minutes.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Children Young People and Learning Overview & Scrutiny Panel held on 18 April 2018 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests and the nature of that interest, including the existence and nature of the party whip, in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an Affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest relating to any items on the agenda, nor any indication that members would be participating whilst under the party whip.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive submissions from members of the public which have been submitted in advance in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

No submissions had been made by members of the public under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

Staff from the Family Safeguarding Teams will be attending to share case study examples.

During closed session the Panel received a presentation by members of the Children, Young People & Learning Team (Jackie Wilton, Project Officer; Sinead Rippington, Social Worker in Family Safeguarding Team; Kate Simmons, Social Worker for Under 11’s Team; Stella Kahonde, Relief Senior Child Care Practitioner; Louise Duffy, Adult Mental Health Practitioner in Family Safeguarding Team) about how they used the Family Safeguarding Model (FSM) during the course of their work. Lorna Hunt, Chief Officer, Children’s Social Care, then gave a presentation on the Family Safeguarding Model Baseline Evaluation and drew members’ attention to the areas highlighted in the report which was circulated to members prior to the meeting.

The Chairman thanked the Family Safeguarding team for their presentation about their work, especially their case studies that showed clearly the importance and benefit of this model of working where professionals are directly working and in touch with each other on a daily basis.

This report provides members with an overview of the Children’s Centre visits by members on 17 May. The Panel are invited to consider the issues raised in the report and decide if any further visits are required.

The Chairman thanked Cherry Hall, Strategy & Development Manager for Under 5’s and her team for organising the visit to the Children’s Centres and for their outstanding work. Members noted the benefits staff said they felt at being co-located.

Members are asked to consider whether a Task and Finish Group should be set up to review the use of Pupil Premium Funding by schools in the Borough, specifically focusing on children with Special Educational Needs or disabilities.

Zoe Livingstone, School Standards and Effectiveness Partner, Learning & Achievement, outlined the complexity of need by children in receipt of Pupil Premium funding who were doubly disadvantaged due to also having a Special Educational Need (SEN). She referred to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation research paper ‘Special educational needs and their links to poverty’ which focused on 10 key areas, a number of which were thought to be relevant to Bracknell. The report explicitly requested policy makers and school leaders to look at policies for children in receipt of Pupil Premium funding; ensure staff in schools and early years settings were trained to identify needs as early as possible; and review targeted funding for pupils with SEN at risk of exclusion.

Zoe Livingstone informed members a sample of last year’s Year 6 pupils across Bracknell found 34% of children in receipt of Pupil Premium funding were in good or outstanding schools, which reflected the national picture. This year group had one of the largest numbers of children in receipt of Pupil Premium funding. It was suspected part of the problem was the difficulty in recruiting teachers in schools where there were large numbers of children receiving Pupil Premium funding (mainstream and academies). To try and address this issue Bracknell’s Learning & Improvement Strategy had already focused on retaining and recruiting inspirational leaders. Zoe Livingstone drew members’ attention to the data contained in the first table on Page 5 of the Supplementary Report ‘Pupil Premium Task and Finish Group’ which showed 21% of the cohort was disadvantaged in comparison to 28% nationally. However, the proportion of those who also had SEN was broadly in line with the national figure of 33% so it was thought the data required further exploration. In terms of outcomes, 35% of doubly disadvantaged children in Bracknell gained Expected Standard in reading compared to 28% of the same cohort nationally. It was thought this may largely be down to the local authority making this a priority for all schools across the Borough. However, the combined result for this cohort was much poorer as the number of doubly disadvantaged children achieving the Expected Standard was lower than the national percentage for both writing and maths. Indeed, 15% of children with SEN achieved the combined Expected Standard in comparison to only 11% of doubly disadvantaged children. Interestingly, the outcomes for Bracknell’s doubly disadvantaged children in last year’s Key Stage 4 cohort outperformed Bracknell’s children with SEN.

Staff were aware of the need to collate and scrutinise data better and this was part of Bracknell’s SEN Action Plan. Parental engagement was also thought to be an area for improvement, and fitted with the Family Safeguarding Model, to give parents the skills to help their children. Zoe Livingstone informed members that doubly disadvantaged children were over represented in figures nationally in terms of being identified as having an SEN but the support did not always follow through. The School Improvement Team were already keen to look at transition points and where children previously in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Members are asked to consider if the Children, Young People and Learning (O&S) Panel should submit a response to the Government’s call for evidence on greater oversight of children whose parents elect to educate them at home and the consultation on revised DfE guidance documents.

The Chairman informed members about a Department for Education consultation ‘Elective Home Education Consultation: call for evidence’ and Panel members discussed whether or not to respond.

In order to support the Panel preparing a response the Chairman requested the following data:

·         the number of children currently educated at home

·         how many of those children are in each year group

·         how many of those children are engaged with the local authority

·         how long has each child has been educated at home

Nikki Edwards, Director of Children, Young People and Learning explained that they would not be able to provide data on how long a child had been educated at home as they had no statutory duty to collect this data.

Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning reported that a recent South East regional meeting had raised a common concern about the scope of the review and the lack of parental accountability. Panel Members echoed these concerns and gave examples of parents who saw home education as an easy option and there was potentially a lack of real education and socialising opportunities for these children.

Members agreed to send a robust co-ordinated response and requested Governance and Scrutiny organised a meeting to agree their views which could feed into the Bracknell Forest Council response.

Actions:

·         Governance & Scrutiny Co-ordinator to arrange meeting for Panel members to meet to discuss their response to the consultation and forward to the Executive Member for inclusion into the Bracknell Forest Council response

A verbal update on the Cornerstone Project within the Family Placement Team will be delivered by Lorna Hunt, Chief Officer, Children’s Social Care.

It was agreed that Governance and Scrutiny would circulate the presentation and Panel members would email Lorna Hunt, Chief Officer, Children’s Social Care, any questions.

Actions:

·         Overview & Scrutiny Co-ordinator to send presentation out to Panel members

·         Panel Members to direct any questions on the presentation to Lorna Hunt, Chief Officer, Children’s Social Care

Members consider the outcome of the consultation with members of the Panel on the topics for inclusion in the Work Programme 2018-19.

Members of the Panel considered the Work Programme topics which had been prioritised in advance of the meeting and agreed Pupil Premium funding with a focus on double disadvantaged children, as per agenda Item 10, should be one priority.

It was noted that the Health & Wellbeing Board were currently focusing on the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) transformation plan and that it may be useful to have an Overview & Scrutiny focus on this at a later date.

Following discussion it was agreed that Special Educational Needs (SEN) should be their focus of another substantive topic to be completed by February next year. The Panel agreed that the scope of the SEN work should focus on the topics members had suggested such as early years, underachievement in boys and assessments.

Actions:

·         Governance & Scrutiny Co-ordinator to set up scoping meetings to discuss the two identified priorities – Pupil Premium and SEN

Members are asked to consider the Larchwood Short Break Unit Annual Inspection Report. The report can be found at http://democratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/documents/s122407/180626%20Barnard%20-%20Larchwood%20Draft%20SOP%2018-19%203%204%203.pdf

Panel members noted the report and expressed their thanks and appreciation of the work carried out by Larchwood Short Break Unit Team.

To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the fourth quarter of 2017/18 (January to March) relating to Children, Young People and Learning. Members attention is drawn specifically to data on:

·         Exclusions – a verbal update will be provided by Rachel Morgan, Chief Officer Education and Learning

·         Children in Need; Child Protection and Looked After Children data – an update will be provided by Lorna Hunt, Chief Officer Children’s Social Care

Panel members are asked to give advance notice to the Overview and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the QSR where possible.

It was agreed questions regarding QSRs be sent to Nikki Edwards, Director of Children, Young People & Learning ROLE to deal with separately.

In response to a query from Councillor Mrs Temperton regarding the new town centre youth facility being considered members were advised that a full update about the facility would be provided when more information was available publicly.

Councillor Mrs Temperton updated members that Easthampstead Park Community School had received a bronze award for their work with young carers.

Actions:

·         Councillor Dr Barnard to provide a further update regarding the new town centre youth facility, when available

·         Panel Members to send questions regarding QSRs to Nikki Edwards, Director of Children, Young People & Learning

To consider scheduled Executive Key and Non-Key Decisions relating to Children, Young People and Learning.

Members received and noted the scheduled Key and Non-Key Executive Decisions of a corporate nature.

RESOLVED that pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:

(1)        Information relating to any individual  (Item 8).