Agenda and minutes

County Councillors Carl Crompton, Gina Dowding, Alan Schofield and David Smith attended in place of County Councillors Gareth Molineux, Sandra Perkins, Peter Buckley and Keith Iddon respectively.

None

Guests

The Chair welcomed:

·  Bob Stott, Director of Children's Services

·  Jonathan Hewitt, Head of Quality and Continuous Improvement

·  Barbara Bath, Head of Service for Fostering, Adoption, Residential and Youth Offending Team

·  Audrey Swan, Headteacher for Children Looked After

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.

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

The minutes from the meeting held on 21 July 2015 were presented and agreed.

Resolved: That the minutes from the meeting held on 21 July 2015 be confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

The report was introduced by Bob Stott, Director of Children's Services, and presented by Barbara Bath, Head of Service for Fostering, Adoption, Residential and Youth Offending Team. It provided information on the support for young people's education provided by the Youth Offending Team (YOT) to those young people in the criminal justice system.

It set out information about: the makeup of the YOT; the delivery model; how young people are referred to the service; and how they are assessed and monitored. It also explained how performance of the service is measured, and some performance data was included at Appendix A to the report presented.

Members raised a number of comments and questions and a brief summary of the main points is set out below:

·  It was considered most important to keep young people engaged in education.

·  It was confirmed that performance information against three key targets is regularly reported to the multi-agency Partnership Board. Officers undertook to provide this more detailed performance information, which was later received and is now appended to these minutes.

·  It was confirmed that there was a low rate of re-offending generally, although there was a small cohort of young people who were well known to the YOT. The number of young people in custody was very low.

·  The role of volunteers and the training provided to them was explained.

·  It was accepted that as the two targets set by the Lancashire YOT were comfortably being met it would be appropriate to consider revising them when the Continuous Improvement Plan was next reviewed.

·  In terms of challenges facing the service, it was explained that the young people accessing the service tended to have a range of complex issues which could require specialist interventions such as speech and language therapy or emotional support. The behaviour of young people could also be ingrained and very difficult to manage. A more robust, holistic assessment tool was currently being implemented.

·  Funding pressures for the service and its partners also presented challenges going forward.

·  It was important to be mindful that, depending on the nature of the offence, some young people might have very limited contact with the YOT or would be difficult to engage. The service would always strive to engage them in some meaningful activity or refer on to the youth service for continued support.

·  It was suggested that, as the 'Raising of the Participation Age' to 18 had resulted in a wider cohort of young people being NEET, a report about this be brought to a future meeting of the Committee.

Resolved: That,

  i.  Officers be thanked for the report and that all members of the Youth Offending Team be thanked for their work.

  ii.  A report about young people who are NEET be brought to a future meeting of this Committee

Jonathan Hewitt, Head of Quality and Continuous Improvement and Audrey Swan, Headteacher for Children Looked After presented the report which described the current offer for Lancashire Children and Young People placed in alternative provision and a number of developments being implemented. It set out the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) offer for both primary and secondary pupils and the main functions of the Alternative Provision Team. It also summarised the outcomes, key areas for development and actions.

It explained that the local authority is also working to improve the assessment process to help identify pupils' needs consistently in a timely way and review the intervention offer in the primary phase to include early response and assessment.

During the course of the discussion members asked that data be provided to help them understand the trends and the pressures facing the service. Officers undertook to provide data for the last 3-5 years set against national figures, broken down by gender, and indicating whether the pupil was subject to a short-term or permanent exclusion, or whether they were attending the PRU for some other reason.

The Committee was assured that schools were reluctant to permanently exclude pupils and Alternative Provision was intended to support them in this.

One member raised concern about the transition from primary to secondary school and suggested that there should be improved continuity.

It was felt that the term 'Pupil Referral Unit' was unhelpful. It was explained that as PRUs are schools in their own right, many of them in Lancashire had changed their name, referring to themselves as schools rather than PRUs.

It was confirmed that there was much emphasis on providing Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) to young people in Alternative Provision; there was recognition that this cohort of young people were at risk of developing other issues and/or becoming NEET. There was much intensive work ongoing around IAG and officers undertook to provide further information to the Committee about this work also.

The Committee was assured that many systems and safeguards had been put in place to ensure that young people, not on a school roll, were carefully tracked to ensure that they were receiving 25 hours education or the equivalent on a one-to-one basis, unless this was not possible for medical/emotional reasons. Providers were asked to explain reasons and say what plans were in place to increase time for those young people not in receipt of 25 hours education per week.

The Committee was assured that factors outside school were relevant and it was important that background factors, such as family situation, were known. There was a partnership approach and PRUs work closely with the family and external services.  

It was noted that one PRU in Lancashire had recently received an Ofsted rating of 'inadequate' and this had been highlighted through a Motion at the July Full Council meeting. Details of the support provided to all schools in the event of such a rating were provided to the Committee and officers undertook to provide to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This report was also presented by Jonathan Hewitt and Audrey Swan. It provided information on the attainment, progress and achievements of Lancashire Children Looked After (CLA) in 2015. The findings for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 were based on unvalidated assessment information released by the Department for Education (DfE) and local authority information on CLA.

The Key Stage 4 data was school reported data and therefore provisional. The data showed that there were improvements in achievement at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2, but achievement for CLA remained well below that of other pupils in Lancashire. The information indicated that levels of attainment at the end of Key Stage 4 rose in 2015, but remained very low when compared with other pupils.

The report also highlighted pupil progress in key areas of development and the steps taken to implement the Recovery Plan, which were set out at Appendix A to the report now presented.

Whilst it was acknowledged that there were ongoing concerns regarding the achievements of CLA particularly at KS4, it was emphasised that the most important factor to consider was progress rather than attainment in isolation, and not simply attainment in an academic sense but on a broad range of measures.

The Committee's attention was drawn to the five indicators, set out in the report, against which progress was monitored on a termly basis, which helped identify issues in good time for appropriate and effective interventions. They gave a holistic view of how each CLA was progressing and provided an effective tracking system.

It was emphasised that the majority of CLA were making satisfactory or good progress and attendance was good. Schools were responding well to the new system.

The Committee was informed that a guide for meeting the needs of CLA in school was currently being produced, which was intended for all involved. It was confirmed that 'Designated Teachers' received regular training and it was important that CLA knew who the Designated Teacher in their school was.

There was a brief explanation of how the Pupil Premium Grant, which was used for raising the attainment of disadvantaged children, was allocated.

Resolved: That,

  i.  Officers be thanked for the report and for their attendance at this Committee.

  ii.  A further report be provided to the Education Scrutiny Committee when appropriate, to include the recovery plan for 2015/16.

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 items scheduled for April 2016 were:

·  School Attendance and

·  School Admission Process and Transport to School

Items that had previously been suggested were:

Update Report on the Implications of the Education and Adoption Act 2015 – a bite size briefing was now to be delivered to members about this.

Pupil Premium Task Group Final Response – This was to be added to the work plan for the next meeting on 5 April 2016.

Update by LEP Skills Board – The Chair reported that she and the Deputy Chair had recently met with Michele Lawty-Jones, Director of the Lancashire Skills Hub, to receive an update on the work of the Skills and Employment Board, and information had subsequently been circulated to members. Dr Lawty-Jones had agreed to attend Committee in April 2016 to provide an update on the work of the Skills and Employment Board when the position regarding priorities and funding was clearer.

Information, Advice and Guidance – At the July meeting it was agreed that the Youth Council would carry out a further piece of work and it was now expected that their report would come to the April 2016 meeting together with an update from Jonathan Hewitt on the models of provision of IAG currently in use across the county.

Fire Suppression Measures Task Group - The recommendations of the Task Group had been considered by the Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 13 November and had been fully supported, subject to a slight amendment in the wording for clarification, which would be recorded in the Scrutiny Committee minutes. A link to the report had been circulated to Members of this Committee via email.

It had also been agreed earlier in this meeting that a further update on the Attainment of CLA be brought back in 12 months and that an update report on Alternative Provision be provided to the Committee when this was considered appropriate.

The Chair also invited members to suggest topics if they felt there was an issue requiring scrutiny, which was not scheduled on the work plan.

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

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.

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

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee is due to be held at 10.00am on the 5 April 2016 in Cabinet Room 'C' at County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 5 April 2016 at 10.00am, County Hall, Preston.