To
review the minutes of the previous meeting. The minutes will be
formally agreed as a true and accurate record of proceedings at the
next public meeting of the Select Committee.
It
was noted that a Member had requested that the Cabinet Member for
Communities’ commitment to email her regarding the lift in
Guildford Library be added to the minutes.
All
Members present are required to declare, at this point in the
meeting or as soon as possible thereafter:
I.Any disclosable
pecuniary interests and / or
II.Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in
respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this
meeting
NOTES:
·Members are reminded that they must not participate
in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest
·As well as an interest of the Member, this includes
any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the
Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the
Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)
·Members with a significant personal interest may
participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that
interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.
1.The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm
four working days before the meeting (Tuesday, 11
January).
2.The deadline for public questions is seven days
before the meeting(Monday, 10 January)
3.The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the
meeting, and no petitions have been received.
The
public retain their right to submit questions for written response,
with such answers recorded in the minutes of the meeting;
questioners may participate in meetings to ask a supplementary
question. Petitioners may address the Committee on their petition
for up to three minutes. Guidance will be made available to any
member of the public wishing to speak at a meeting.
Matt Ansell, Director – Family Resilience and
Safeguarding
Liz
Mills, Director – Education and Lifelong Learning
A question had been
received from a resident, Maria Esposito.
As a supplementary
question, the questioner asked what happened when there the systems
in place failed. She added that systems were prone to failure and
that the boundaries of services were not joined up.
The Director for
Corporate Parenting responded that there was little that could be
added to the written response as it described the systems in place.
She apologised for the occasions where failures had
occurred.
A question had been
received from Fiona Davidson.
Asking a
supplementary question, the Member queried whether November 2020
was the latest data available.
The Director for
Family Resilience and Safeguarding apologised for the typographical
error and explained that the data was from November
2021.
A second question had
been received from Fiona Davidson.
The Member, as a
supplementary question, highlighted that data provided in response
to an action from the October 2021 meeting of the Select Committee
showed that approximately 51% of Education, Health and Care (EHC)
plans were completed in the south west quadrant, whereas data in
the answer to her current question showed a decline in timeliness.
The Member asked whether improvement had occurred, as the narrative
in the response to her question stated.
The Director for
Education and Lifelong Learning replied that improvement had taken
place, although there was a dip in performance in the autumn term,
which was explained in the answer. The Director added that a report
on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) was to come to
the Select Committee in April 2022, when further information could
be provided on performance improvements.
The Member
highlighted that data had been requested as part of a supplementary
question at the meeting of the Select Committee in December 2021
and had not yet been provided. The Chairman noted this and
requested that it be followed up by officers.
This report seeks to provide
oversight of the current position in relation to:
Our work on Inclusion
in relation to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) activity
we are undertaking and the activities that are supporting schools
and other educational settings to be more inclusive
The alternative
provision offer within Surrey for compulsory school age
pupils
The current position
of the post-16 rate of participation in education, training and
employment (and subsequent proportion of young people who are not
in employment education or training, NEET) and
The work of Schools
Alliance for Excellence (SAfE) in
securing school improvement.
Finally, the report considers
the challenges and opportunities for local authority (LA)
maintained schools in a new education landscape.
Denise Turner-Stewart, Cabinet Member for Education and
Learning
Liz
Mills, Director – Education and Lifelong Learning
Tina Benjamin, Director – Corporate Parenting
Jane Winterbone, Assistant Director – Education
Sandra Morrison, Assistant Director – Inclusion and
Additional Needs
Maria Dawes, Chief Executive Officer, Schools Alliance for
Excellence
Key points raised in the discussion:
The Cabinet Member
for Education and Learning introduced the report and highlighted
that the work described therein was underpinned by the
council’s corporate priority that ‘no one is left
behind’.
A Member sought
clarity between the classifications of ‘children missing
education’ and ‘children missing full-time
education’. The Director for Education and Lifelong Learning
explained that a child missing education would not be on the roll
of any school, for example if they had moved into the county and
were awaiting enrolment. A child missing full-time education would
be on the roll of a school but receiving less than 25 hours of
education per week; mechanisms were in place to support such
children and help them return to school when appropriate. The
Assistant Director for Inclusion and Additional Needs added that
children with medical needs may be supported by a medical Pupil
Referral Unit (PRU). Other children could be supported by the
Access to Education Service if, for example, they had a mental
health issue. On occasion, as agreed with the parents, a child may
attend school on a part-time basis to accommodate specific needs.
The Member asked whether a proportion of children missing full-time
education was still due to a lack of suitable transport
arrangements, as well as the impact of missing full-time education
had on children. The Director stated that home to school transport
was not a focus of this report but recognised the connection. The
Director explained that each individual child would have a
learner’s plan and the school would have a responsibility to
ensure that their outcomes were in line with their peers. It could
be the case that a child’s education would need to be adapted
to meet their needs. Leadership and locality teams reviewed the
data of these cohorts regularly.
A Member asked about
how the council monitored the number of children who were
electively home educated and their education and safety. The
Director for Education and Learning explained that legislation
relating to elective home education did not provide the council
with all the powers to identify this cohort fully: parents were not
obliged to tell the council that they were electively home
educating their child, but the council encouraged parents to
provide this information. Close monitoring arrangements were in
place for children who had been on the roll of a school and
withdrawn to receive home education. The Assistant Director for
Inclusion and Additional Needs explained that a risk assessment
would take place for a child whose parents wished to home educate
them and the Service would encourage the parents to keep the child
in school. If the parents proceeded with home education, there
would be an annual monitoring visit. If ...
view the full minutes text for item 5/22
This report provides an update
on the improvement of Surrey’s children’s services, an
overview of our readiness for a full Ofsted ILACS inspection, a
summary of the recent Ofsted Monitoring Visit (September 2021)
findings/feedback, our response and any impact on our improvement
priorities.
Clare Curran, Cabinet
Member for Children and Families
Rachael Wardell,
Executive Director – Children, Families and Lifelong
Learning
Tina Benjamin,
Director – Corporate Parenting
Matt Ansell, Director
– Family Resilience and Safeguarding
Key
points raised in the discussion:
The Cabinet Member
for Children and Families introduced the report and provided
context, noting the key challenges within Children’s Services
and the Ofsted inspection taking place between 17 and 28 January 2022.
A Member asked why
the Corporate Parenting Service was confident, from the work of
Creative Solutions, that No Wrong Door (NWD) would be successful.
The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning
provided an overview of the NWD programme and explained that
Creative Solutions was the early work undertaken to think and work
differently with young people and families, similar to the approach
of NWD. The Director for Corporate Parenting explained that the
work of Creative Solutions provided opportunity to train and
prepare staff ahead of the introduction of NWD. The North Yorkshire
County Council’s NWD accreditation process presented
constructive challenge, and this provided reassurance around the
success of the model. The Service was well set up in terms of
collecting data and understanding the implications of NWD, and
colleagues from North Yorkshire County Council would provide
support in this area. A Member asked how many of the young people
supported by Creative Solutions who did not enter care would have
been expected to enter care without that support, and what impact
on looked after children numbers was expected of NWD . The Director
explained that financial predictions were based on conservative
estimates based on data from North Yorkshire County Council’s
NWD. Creative Solutions had engaged with 75 children in the last
nine months and had finished working with 35 of those children,
work with the rest of the children was ongoing. Of this cohort,
only two of those children still entered the care system, which was
very low compared to figures from previous years.
In response to a
question on the first NWD hub, the Director for Corporate Parenting
shared that the hub was on track to open in January 2022, a staff
restructure had been completed and recruitment to additional posts
had taken place, whilst there were a few vacancies still to fill,
including foster carers. The Member also asked about the progress
of the ‘getting to good’ phase of the children’s
improvement programme and inspection readiness. The Executive
Director explained that the ongoing Ofsted inspection of Children’s Services would
provide an answer regarding service improvement. The compilation of
evidence in preparation for the inspection had illuminated the
considerable progress made during the previous phase of improvement
between the 2018 inspection and 2020 . The Executive Director
stated that significant positive feedback had been received
regarding improvement, but acknowledged that there were still areas
where the Service needed to improve further in order to receive a
grading of Good.
For the Select Committee to review the
attached actions and recommendations tracker and forward work
programme, making suggestions or amendments as appropriate.
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