Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence and to note the attendance of any substitute members.

Apologies of absence were received from Cllr Penfold

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.

Cllr Smith declared an interest as his wife is employed as a teacher at a school in Bracknell Forest.

The Virtual School Headteacher, Education & Learning has been invited to provide information on the services of Elevate and the virtual school.

Members are also asked to consider the data in the following scorecards:

department-for-education.shinyapps.io/neet-comparative-la-scorecard/

Assessments and Observations - Bracknell-Forest_neet_comparator_scorecard.pdf - All Documents

They will then respond to questions.

The Virtual School Headteacher, Education & Learning presented some slides.  The following points were noted:

·        Regarding careers plans Morrisby, a careers platform, is used to widen participation and raising aspirations, specifically for children looked after (CLA).  Morrisby involved a simple set of questions to provide and outcome report to identify strengths and weaknesses that can be used to help identify types of jobs and qualifications to suit individuals.

·        The platform is seen as aspirational for the users as it links qualifications to types of jobs and their outcomes.

·        The PEP (Personal Education Plan) has a careers section that is to be completed by the school in line with their statutory duty (Gatsby Benchmarks).  There are 8 Gatsby Benchmarks:

1 stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance

·        Any CLA who are at risk of need, or who have become need in years 12 and 13, would be referred to elevate for additional careers advice and guidance.

·        Virtual school were working with a Champion Higherto provide support for Year 12 and Year 13 students destined for university.

·        An alumni group was set up for former care leavers who have been to university to give advice and guidance to those in year 10 and 11 with aspirations to go to University themselves.

·        the Virtual School had arranged visits to Clifford Chance, a leading multi-national law firm based in London.  Young people were given the opportunity to speak with law professionals and tour the offices and facilities available to staff.  This gave them a chance to see the variety of jobs available in large companies such as security, secretarial, reception jobs that they may not have considered.

·        Study Higher, a partnership of universities, further education colleges and other stakeholders, was working with the Virtual School to offer a program (Future Pathways) of activities exploring FE, HE, and apprenticeships through workshops and visits, over the course of the academic year. It was a roll on roll off program that started in September 2023. Recent highlight of this was a trip to Mercedes and gave them a different perspective of jobs in a large company.

·        Work has taken place with John Lewis since 2022 whohad developed a Job Ready Programme which included a series of face-to-face sessions aimed to support care leavers in becoming ready for the world of work.  This continued to grow resulting with some young people getting jobs as a result of work experience.

·        Something on that virtual school is looking at and that would require further work is the provision of support for children who haven’t gone through the social care system but who are being looked after by other family members as they form part of the vulnerable group who share similar experiences to CLA.

o   A question about this was raised, how  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People has been invited to provide an update on performance and any issues around the transition from education to employment.

They will then respond to questions.

Cllr Bailey was unable to attend this meeting so an update was provided by Assistant Director Education and Learning.  Cllr Bailey would be invited back to attend a panel meeting at a later date.

Assistant Director Education and Learning provided an overview of the process of the school journey for those with EHCP’s and the transition between the key stages from starting school through to secondary school was provided. The key points relating to post 16 included:

·        Once a young person with an EHCP reached post 19 there would be plans in place to see if their educational outcomes had been met.

·        Once a young person leaves education for a job or to go to university their EHCP doesn’t continue.  If however they enter a supported internship the plan would continue until the post became permanent

The following responses were provided to questions:

·        If a young person stopped their university course or job and wanted to get their EHCP plan reinstated they would need to reapply for it. This however wasn’t a situation that had ever happened. 

·        Destination data of school leavers was tracked by schools.

·        Measurement of progression, whilst clear in terms of an academic route, was more difficult for non-academic routes and it was hard to specify a definition for progression.  The importance of addressing the availability of level one, two and three courses was noted to enable people to access and progress.  It was acknowledged that there are multiple routes available for young people to progress.