Agenda and minutes

Resolved: The Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement noted:

i.  the appointment of County Councillor J Mein as Chair of the Cabinet Committee for Performance Improvement for the 2013/14 municipal year.

ii.  the membership of the Cabinet Committee for Performance Improvement for the 2013/14 municipal year as follows:

County Councillor Jennifer Mein, Leader of the County Council (Chair)

County Councillor David Borrow, Deputy Leader of the County Council

Relevant Cabinet Members will be invited to attend appropriate meetings as and when required to consider matters on the agenda that fall within their portfolio.  The Cabinet Members shall be regarded as members of the Cabinet Committee for those meetings that they attend.

iii.  the Terms of Reference of the Cabinet Committee for Performance Improvement for the 2013/14 municipal year.

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor Geoff Driver.

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.

None declared.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 April 2013 were agreed as an accurate record.

The Quarterly Corporate Performance Monitoring and Improvement – Corpoarate Scorecard was presented.  It was reported that monitoring revealed that 12 indicators missed their challenging year-end 2012/13 targets. Of these, 7 indicators have been highlighted as part of quarter 4 monitoring as not having met their year-end targets. Updates were provided on the 7 indicators as follows:

Reduce the proportion of pupils on free school meals in Year 1 who are persistently absent, from 9.7% to 9.2% for the Autumn term 2012

It was reported that the current performance for this indicator is 10.2 of FSM pupils were persistently absent in the Autumn term 2012

Reasons for the apparent underperformance:

Evidence from the data collected for the whole of academic years 2010/11 and 2011/12 shows that the number of pupils indicated as persistently absent in the Autumn term is not reflective of the annual total. 

This is mainly due to raised levels of seasonal illness but also reflects the fact that many pupils who are identified as being "at risk" of persistent absence are effectively targeted for support and, as a result, their attendance improves markedly taking them out of this category.

Performance across the whole year

It was reported that by using data from the complete academic years of 2010/11 and 2011/12 it can be demonstrated that the percentage of year 1 pupils who were eligible for free school meals and who were persistently absent has fallen.

·  Persistent absence fell for all groups (gender groups, Free School Meal, English as an Additional Language and Special Educational Needs).

·  Overall persistent absence reduced from 4.9% in 10/11 to 3.4% in 11/12.

·  Persistent absence for pupils known to be eligible for FSM fell from 12.6% (299 pupils) to 8.6% (224 pupils) from 10/11 to 11/12.

Actions being taken to put the indicator back on track:

It was reported that future targets will be developed using data across the whole academic year for 2012/13.

Increase the proportion of pupils achieving 5 GCSEs grades A*-C including English and maths from 60.1% to 61%.

It was reported that the current performance for this indicator is 59.9% of pupils attained 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and mathematics (5+A*C[EM])

Reasons for the apparent underperformance were reported as follows:

·  Well-publicised unannounced changes to the grading of GCSE English papers took place in the summer 2012 exam season. This specifically affected the number of marks required to achieve a grade C pass in English, making this harder to achieve. 'Borderline' pupils were most affected including FSM pupils, those with Special Educational Needs at School Action stage, and boys.

·  A further consequence of the changes to English marking particularly impacted those schools serving pupils with lower prior attainment, who were more likely to have 'borderline' attainment.  The number of schools performing below 40% 5+A*CEM had fallen steadily from 19 in 2009 to 5 in 2011; the dip in English in 2012 increased this to 7 schools below 40% (only 3 of which had been below  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

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 Chairman 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 Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

None.

The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee will be held on Thursday 1 August 2013 at 2.00 p.m.at County Hall, Preston.

The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement will be held on 4 October 2013.