Agenda and minutes

The Chair reminded Members of the need to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting. 

Councillor Barbara Parry made a personal and non-prejudicial declaration of interest in respect of agenda items 5 (School Exclusion and Attendance), 6 (Elective Home Education, Children Missing Education, Schools Leavers process update and School Attendance reporting update) and 7 (Children’s Summary of Performance 2019/20) as she worked for Ridgeway School.

Councillor Bazil Solomon made a personal and non-prejudicial declaration of interest in respect of agenda items 5 (School Exclusion and Attendance), 6 (Elective Home Education, Children Missing Education, Schools Leavers process update and School Attendance reporting update) and 7 (Children’s Summary of Performance 2019/20)  in his capacity as a part time teacher.

To receive the minutes of the meetings held on 25^th September and 17^th October 2019.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meetings held on 25^th September and 17^th October 2019, be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

(Report to follow)

The Secondary Commissioner and Additional Provision and Reintegration Manager submitted a joint report setting out information in relation to fixed term, and permanent exclusions from schools, the reasons for such exclusions and actions arising from those exclusions.  The Secondary Commissioner and Additional Provision and Reintegration Manager drew Members’ attention to the following issues during their presentation of the report:

·       That there were 47 permanent exclusions in Swindon during the academic year 2018/19 which was an increase of one on the previous year.

·       Of the 47 permanent exclusions 13 involved primary school pupils, which was the same figure as the previous two academic years.

·       The Council’s pupil referral unit had doubled in size to 16 places for the current academic year.

·       Provision for primary aged pupils who had been excluded from school were being supported through additional education provision.

·       Swindon had followed a national trend seeing pupils being excluded from school at an earlier age with 7 pupils being excluded from key stage one.

·       An outline of activities being undertaken to support schools in preventing/reducing secondary schools exclusions, including staff training in association with the Department for Education who had supported and funded four days of training for secondary school staff on their behavioural strategy which had been well received by participants.

·       That the Swindon Challenge aimed to bring national best practice to Swindon schools.

·       The positive feedback received from schools to training opportunities provided, including Children Looked After, from the Virtual School.

·       A recent inclusion conference for behavioural attendance leads and secondary head teachers in June 2019 focusing on pupils with Special Educational Needs and those having an Education, Health and Care Plan. This was in accordance with the Written Statement of Action Priority 7 and highlighted good practice and joint working practices between schools and the local authority.

·       Work to reduce in-year school transfers and to keep children in school, particular where they hasn’t been a change of home address.

·       The development of the Council’s Fair Access Panel for primary schools to facilitate early intervention to support pupils at risk of exclusion, to mirror arrangements in place for secondary schools.

·       The implementation of a new Education Other than at School process and structure to offer a support package for children at risk from exclusion through a partnership of a panel supported by two secondary head teachers.

·       The recently negotiated agreement with all secondary head teachers of a flat rate maximum charge for any permanent exclusion.

·       The revised Fair Access Protocol which was been drawn up in liaison with head teachers of secondary schools.

·       Work to keep schools updated in respect of potential implications arising from the Timpson Report and the Child in Need Report.

·       The benchmarking of exclusion data against other local authorities and the sharing of best practice between local authorities.

·       The monitoring of part-time timetables which allowed more timely overview and challenge by the local authority.

·       The increase of fixed term exclusions for primary schools and reduction in secondary school and special school fixed term exclusions.

·       The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

(Report to follow)

The Early Help Operational Manager and Senior Education Welfare Officer submitted a joint report setting out information in relation to (a) Elective Home Education, (b) Children Missing Education, (c) the School Leavers Process, and (d) School Attendance Reporting.  The Early Help Operational Manager and Senior Education Welfare Officer drew Members’ attention to the following issues during their presentation of the report:

·       The current position of Elective Home Education in Swindon and challenges faced when implementing guidance on Elective Home Education.

·       That as at the end of September 2019 there were 225 children being electively home educated in Swindon although these numbers were fluid for a number of reasons.

·       That a recent audit of electively home educated children had been undertaken and officers were confident of the numbers of children and that home visits were being undertaken to ensure an appropriate level of education was being provided.

·       A number of Children receiving elective home educated had been RAG rated and the reasons for this was set out within the report.

·       That engagement by parents with the local authority when electively home educating their children was a parental choice but that the local authority had a duty to ensure the home education was appropriate.

·       That there were four school attendance orders being progressed by the local authority where the standard of education was not deemed suitable.

·       Priority would be given to those children who had a red RAG rating.

·       Work with Swindon Family Voice helped to engage families who were electively home educating their children acknowledging the right of parents to home educate their children and to ensure agreed actions were followed through.

·       Swindon were in the lower percentile for home educated children with 0.5% being educated in this way.

·       The number of children missing education tended to peak in September as children may not return to school for a number of reasons, for example moving address, extended holidays or attending a school that they had not been allocated.

·       That Swindon Borough Council tracked every child missing from education and held them on the Missing Education Register until the local authority was satisfied with their status and that they were receiving appropriate education even if they were living outside the United Kingdom.  There was currently 21 children on the tracker whose whereabouts had not been confirmed and this was kept under regular review.

·       The implementation of the JADU system which allowed schools to electronically inform the local education authority of any child who has left the school.  Work was being undertaken to rectify some teething issues with the system (this was a national issue) and which allow cross referencing of census data more speedily and would allow any issues to be followed up quickly.

·       The Education Welfare Service would be reporting on attendance data and work was being undertaken to allow schools to update this data on a daily basis which would allow intervention before non-attendance became a major problem.

Following their presentation officers responded to challenges and questions in respect of:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

The Director of Childen’s Social Work submitted a report setting out a summary of performance in children’s services for the period April to September 2019.  The Director of Children’s Social Work drew Members’ attention to the following issues:

·       The high volume of work being reported through the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub with an average of 1172 referrals on average per month to social work teams; although it was noted not all would progress far into the system.

·       Around ¼ of cases were referred at the moment and work to embed confidence levels with partner organisations to ensure a more streamlined approach.

·       The on-going challenge of the recruitment and retention of social workers and measures being undertaken to attract new social workers to Swindon and to retain existing staff.

·       The current mix of permanent and agency social worker staff and how this impacted on the budgetary pressures facing the service.

·       The current level of 234 children subject to a Child Protection Plan at the end of September 2019.

·       The outcome of Serious Case Review Q which had been reported earlier in the day.

·       The monitoring and auctioning of service improvement through pillar 4 in relation to the Quality of Practice.

·       The reduction of the number of Children Looked After to a figure of 335 with approximately eight new cases per month.

·       That 64.3% of Care Leavers were in Education, Employment of Training and whilst work was on-going to improve this figure this was a relatively positive position when compare to other local authorities.

Following her presentation the Director of Children’s Social Work responded to Members’ scrutiny in respect of:

·       The increased complexity of many of the cases of children entering care and work to support children stay with the families where this was an appropriate option.  However children being brought into care were requiring more intensive support.

·       The reasons for the complexity of cases of children entering into care including children moving to Swindon from outside the Borough, the complexity family situations.

·       The re-referral rate for cases to social services in comparison to national averages and work being undertaken with partners to better manage the underlying causes of these referrals.

·       Quality Assurance in respect of partner organisations and how Councillors could assess information to satisfy themselves especially where work was being undertaken on behalf of the Council.

·       Thresholds for safeguarding work undertaken through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and the work of the Local Safeguarding Board in overseeing this work.

·       The role of the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services in overseeing exceptional safeguarding cases.

·       That the positive performance in respect of infant’s breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks was noted.

·       Concerns raised by primary school head teachers in respect of the number of children arriving at school with significant needs and working close to their expected level of attainment and the drain this had on school resources. The change in assessment team’s skill mixes to better assess needs and the forthcoming focus on early visits by Council staff was noted.

Resolved – (1) That  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

The Committee considered a report by the Chief Legal Officer on the results of the work programme consultation and the suggested priorities for the work for the Municipal Year, 2019/20.

Resolved – (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That an update from the Youth Participation and Education, Employment and Training Sub-Groups be submitted to the January meeting of this Committee.

(3) That the update on paediatric services be deferred until the March meeting of the Committee.