Agenda item

Purpose of the report: To raise awareness of changes associated with School Support Services Commissioning (including School Improvement) via the Babcock Joint Venture andto seek views on future options for delivery of the Council’s statutory responsibilities, which will ultimately require Cabinet decision in March 2018.

Declarations of Interest:

Liz Bowes declared a non-pecuniary interest
Chris Botten declared a non-pecuniary interest as an unpaid Additional Skills Governor (ASG) for Babcock 4S.

Witnesses:

Frank Offer, Head of Market Strategy
Alison Hurley, Director of Education Babcock 4S
Melanie Harris, School Commissioning Officer

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    Officers explained that the service was seeking the views of the Children and Education Select Committee regarding future options for delivery of the Council’s statutory responsibilities for school improvement. Officers advised that this was resultant of the upcoming conclusion of the Council’s annual service delivery agreement with Babcock 4S (B4S) due to the inability for the service to legally extend the contract period and the change in the landscape regarding school improvement. Officers stressed that B4S traded services were not being discontinued, but that the delivery of commissioned services needed to be reconsidered.

2.    Officers noted that there were a wide range of tasks and services that were provided on behalf of SCC as part of the current contract, which needed to be reassessed based on planned delivery. It was acknowledged that the service had identified options that were ascertained as being realistic for future delivery. The service stressed that they were looking at these options to ensure good outcomes for children, good performance and good value for money.

3.    Members noted concerns regarding isolated, smaller, financially challenged and rural schools that may not be able to afford traded services and whether these would lose out on services as a result. Members also expressed concern regarding a “one size fits all” approach and emphasised that the service work to ensure that any outlier schools do not suffer a significant impact from proposed changes.

4.    Members questioned whether Multi-Academy Trusts (MAT) and education partnerships were ready to take on governance functions that would have been provided by the B4S contract, and whether this could have a damaging effect on performance.

5.    Members felt that they were unable to make an informed decision regarding individual options for statutory and strategic services and recommended that the service provides a business case for individual services and how they could be delivered which could be examined in detail.

6.    The Surrey Education in Partnership programme was noted as running in tandem with the recommissioning process and that this would work to reinforce school to school support as part of strengthening improvement.

7.    Officers noted that schools were primarily concerned with ensuring that statutory services were delivered, rather than who provides the service. It was noted that this was inferred from the low level of survey responses from schools regarding the low response rate to the stakeholder survey.

8.    The representative of B4S noted that they would be working to strengthen their traded services following contract expiry and that they would be maintaining relationships with schools and Surrey County Council following the end of the contract.

Recommendations:

1.    That the service provides a business case of the statutory and strategic services currently commissioned from B4S and paid for by the Local Authority and any options for delivery upon contract conclusion for analysis by the Performance Member Reference Group.