Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Committee Room 'C' - The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston. View directions

Contact: Habib Patel  Tel: 01772 536099, Email  habib.patel@lancashire.gov.uk

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were presented on behalf of Mr Fred Kershaw (representative for Church of England schools) and County Councillor Andrea Kay.

 

The Chair welcomed County Councillors Carl Crompton, Alan Schofield and David Smith who were attending in place of County Councillors Bernard Dawson, Keith Iddon and Anne Cheetham respectively.

 

Guests

 

The Chair welcomed:

 

·  Bob Stott, Director Children's Services.

·  Mike Heaton, Skills Co-ordinator.

·  Steve Palmer, Operations Director, The Lancashire Colleges

·  David Wood, Principal, Lancaster & Morecambe College and Chair The Lancashire Colleges

·  John Doyle, Head of Ormskirk School

·  Ajay Sethi, Head of Service, Traded Services (Start Well)

·  Raeleen Duthoit, Lancashire Work Based Learning Forum

·  Kirsty Houghton, Youth Council Development Worker

·  Hal Meakin, Member of the UKYP(Fylde)

 

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest in relation to matters appearing on the agenda.

 

3.

Appointment of Chair and Deputy Chair

To note the appointment by Full Council on 21 May 2015 of County Councillor Cynthia Dereli as Chair of the Committee and County Councillor Susie Charles as Deputy Chair for the following year.

Minutes:

Resolved: That the appointment by Full Council on 21 May 2015 of CC Cynthia Dereli as Chair of the Committee and CC Susie Charles as Deputy Chair for the following year be noted.

 

4.

Constitution, Membership and Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A report was presented on the Membership and Terms of Reference of the Committee.

 

Resolved:  That the Membership, Terms of Reference of the Committee, and programme of meetings for 2015/16 as now reported be noted.

 

5.

Minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2015 pdf icon PDF 182 KB

Minutes:

The minutes from the meeting held on 24 March 2015 were presented and agreed.

 

Resolved:  That the Minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2015 be confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

 

6.

The breadth and quality of the 14-19 learning offer for young people in Lancashire pdf icon PDF 176 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report introduced by Bob Stott, Director of Children's Services, provided an overview of the current position regarding the offer of learning available to young people aged 14-19 in Lancashire.

 

It explained that local authorities had a statutory duty to secure sufficient and suitable education and training provision to meet the reasonable needs of all young people in their area, by influencing and shaping provision through local partnerships and by identifying gaps, enabling new provision and developing the market. The young people covered by this statutory duty were those aged 16-19 and those aged 19-24 who had a learning difficulty and/or disability and were the subject of a learning difficulty assessment.

 

From 2013 all young people were required to continue in education and training to the end of the academic year in which they turned 17. This would rise to their 18th birthday from 2015. Raising the Participation Age (RPA) defined the three primary routes to participation as:

 

·  Full-time education (school, college or home education)

·  An Apprenticeship

·  Part-time education or training alongside full time employment, self-employment or volunteering for at least 20 hours a week.

 

Mr Stott pointed out that the RPA was not the same as ROSLA (Raising of the School Leaving Age) that had been introduced in the 1970s. The participation route through the RPA was diverse and the options for young people were many and varied. 

 

Mr Stott drew attention to the Education and Adoption Act 2015, which focused mostly on education and which was to bring changes to the academy process across the country; he suggested that it would be appropriate to bring an update report to the Committee later in the year when the implications of the Bill were clearer, particularly how the academy process would be taken forward.

 

Invited guest speakers had summarised information about their provision as set out in the various appendices to the report and now attended the meeting to present the information and answer members' questions.

 

David Wood, Principal Lancaster and Morecambe College, and Chair of the Lancaster Colleges, explained, in some detail, the offer from the nine further education colleges in Lancashire, the financial pressures, the size and quality of the sector, and progression routes from FE.

 

He also referred to challenges ahead which would be brought about by the forthcoming Government review of the FE sector. He emphasised the need for Lancashire to be clear about what it wanted in the future. He was confident that Lancashire had many strengths in terms of its financial position and the quality of its provision.

 

Members were invited to ask questions at this point and a summary of the main points arising from the discussion is set out below:

 

·  A question was asked about how FE colleges were changing as a result of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Skills Board, and what the findings were from research commissioned into the local labour market, referred to in Appendix A. In response, it was explained that the ageing population was leading  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Young Peoples perspective on the routes to 14 -19 Education & Training provision pdf icon PDF 38 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report explained that Lancashire Youth Council had been invited by the Education Scrutiny Committee to carry out a piece of research to find out young people's perspective on the routes to 14-19 education and training provision and to report their findings.

 

The Youth Council had now conducted their research through group discussion and by distributing a questionnaire to young people across Lancashire and had consulted 220 young people. A copy of the questionnaire was at Appendix A and the results of the consultation were at Appendix B to the report now presented.

 

Hal Meakin, Member of Lancashire Youth Council, drew attention to the finding that 31% of young people consulted felt that they did not know what provision was available to them, with the most attributed reason for this being lack of careers guidance in school.

 

It was noted that there had been varying level of responses from the twelve districts, indeed there had been no responses at all from four districts. Hal Meakin confirmed that there was a desire to carry out further research to gather a more representative response.

 

The Lancashire Youth Council had made the following recommendations:

 

i.  That provision for advice and guidance of 14-19 Education and Training should be of a high quality throughout the county. It was felt that, at present there did not appear to be a consistent approach.

 

ii.  In light of the findings from the questionnaire it may be beneficial to carry out a further piece of work focusing on the 31% of young people who were not aware of what routes were available to them and identifying how this could be resolved.

 

iii.  That the findings of the consultation be shared with the Lancashire Association of Secondary School Headteachers (LASSH) and Lancashire County Council Cabinet Members with whom the Lancashire Youth Council currently meet on a quarterly basis.

 

 

The Committee supported the recommendations and agreed that:

 

Recommendation i - that the words "and this could be investigated" be added to the last sentence. Bob Stott said that he would ask Jonathan Hewitt, Head of School Improvement, to provide an update on the models of provision provision of IAG (Information and Guidance) currently in use across the county for the next meeting of this Committee.

 

Recommendation ii - Hal Meakin confirmed that the Youth Council would carry out a further piece of work focusing on the 31% of young people who were not aware of what routes were available to them and identify how this could be resolved.

 

Recommendation iii – Bob Stott confirmed that the report would be presented to the LASSH Executive. It was noted that to some extent the findings were positive in that many young people, generally, knew where to go for information and advice, however, since the removal of the National Careers Advice service, particularly the funding, it was most important to maximise good quality Information and Guidance in a consistent manner. He was confident that Children Looked After would receive attention through the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Work Plan pdf icon PDF 19 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Appendix A to the report now presented set out a draft work plan for the Education Scrutiny Committee, including current Task Group reviews.

 

The Chair noted that it had been agreed earlier in the meeting that the following be added to the agenda for the November 2015 meeting:

 

·  Update report on the implications of the Education and Adoption Act 2015, particularly how the academy process is to be taken forward.

 

·  Update on the progress being made by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Skills Board.

 

The Chair also noted from the minutes of the March 2015 meeting that the following items were to be included on the agenda for the April 2016 meeting:

 

·  Pupil Premium Task Group Final Response - A further update report be provided in twelve months, to include:

 

Ø  information about progress with schools where there are community or locality barriers to achievement,

Ø  information about progress regarding the longer term objectives in response to the Task Group's recommendations; and

Ø  Achievements for this cohort of students.

 

·  School attendance of pupils in Lancashire and the rate of exclusion from school - A further update report be provided on the school attendance of pupils in Lancashire and the rate of exclusion from school.

 

Resolved: That the work plan, as now amended, be noted.

 

9.

Urgent Business

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business for discussion at the meeting.

 

10.

Date of the Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee is due to be held at 10.00am on the 17 November 2015 in Cabinet Room 'C' at County Hall, Preston.

 

Minutes:

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 17 November 2015 at 10:00am, County Hall, Preston.