Agenda item

The Chair welcomed to the meeting Delyth Mathieson, Head of Service Education Improvement.

The report to the committee presented the draft Lancashire Education Strategy 2022-25 for consideration. The Strategy was due to be reported to a future meeting of Cabinet for approval.

The Education Strategy set out the authority's priorities for Education for the next three years. It was anticipated that an annual report would be presented to the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee against the key priorities within the Strategy.

The Strategy linked with the following Corporate Priorities which were agreed at Cabinet on 7 October 2021:

·  Delivering better services

·  Caring for the vulnerable

·  Protecting our environment

·  Supporting economic growth

The ambition of the Strategy was to support integration across services so that barriers to learning could be overcome, particularly in vulnerable groups.

The Strategy focused on five priorities aligned to the four corporate priorities. These were:

·  Improved outcomes in early years

·  Further reduce exclusions, both permanent and suspensions

·  Address risks associated with rising numbers of Elective Home Education (EHE) where this was not in the best interests of the child

·  Improve outcomes for vulnerable groups including those eligible for Free School Meals, Children in Need, children with a Care Plan, and Children Looked After, as well as those with SEN support and those with an EHCP

·  Increase the number of children and young people in Education, Employment or Training (EET)

In terms of delivering improvement it was important that the county council works in collaboration with its partners including locality boards. The county council also had to work proactively with its district councils and governor services.

A current recommendation as part of this Strategy was for an annual report to be submitted to the committee. Once this Strategy had been approved at Cabinet, it was confirmed that the annual report would be included as part of the committee's work programme.

Comments and questions raised were as follows:

·  It was pointed out that mental health and wellbeing was highlighted in the report but was not mentioned in the five priorities. Members were assured that mental health and wellbeing was threaded through everything that the county council was doing. It was also discussed at locality boards and through the Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs).

·  Members were informed that there would be an ongoing development of the Strategy and plans would be driven by the locality boards as each locality board had a different set of needs for their area.

·  There was concern about what success would look like regarding suspended and excluded pupils. It was highlighted that there were a series of development programmes in place for staff in schools in terms of exclusions and suspensions. In addition, there were behaviour hubs and inclusion hubs in place to provide support and guidance. Schools had their own behaviour policies which they set. The county council provided a model policy but it was a decision for the school whether to use it.

·  There had been an initial rise in Elective Home Education (EHE) when the pandemic started but these numbers were reducing slightly now. The committee enquired if there were certain groups in the community or particular areas where the rise had increased.

·  Members enquired if the pandemic had opened up opportunities for children studying at home.  Members were informed that there were a number of online learning provisions available. There were also networks available which provided support and guidance for parents. However for parents who have elected to home educate, remote learning was not available.

·  Lancashire County Council had worked proactively with all of its schools during the pandemic regardless if they were maintained schools, academies or independent schools. Advice and guidance had been given to all schools. The county council had worked in partnership with the Department for Education and had also worked proactively with children's services teams, facilities teams and health teams.

·  Members enquired about what level of authority the county council had regarding academies. There were academy chief executives and head teachers who sat on the authority's locality boards. The county council worked in partnership with all of Lancashire's schools including academies. Partnership boards had representatives from academies and maintained schools as well as other partners. The locality boards fed into the partnership boards.

·  High quality of nursery provision was of paramount importance to Lancashire County Council. The authority worked proactively with private nursery owners as well as maintained nurseries.

·  It was important that the county council worked collaboratively with its partners, including locality boards, so that it could support children in making the right choices.

·  In terms of how the Strategy would deliver improvement there was a collaboration between the services within the county council combined with the services and partners within the Team around the Schools and Settings and Locality Boards which would deliver the aspirations articulated within the Strategy and realise the shared ambition for all children and young people set out within the vision statement.

·  The locality boards were part of the mechanism around how the authority delivered the Strategy. It was important to bring together the right people and sharing data information.

·  There was concern over preparation for adulthood. It was highlighted that the county council worked proactively with Further Education colleges to ensure there were lots of different routes available for young people other than university. They were looking at traineeships and apprenticeships.

·  Members felt that career guidance should be provided by schools and the curriculum content should be reviewed.

·  The committee enquired about the duty of schools regarding equality and diversity. It was confirmed that equality and diversity underpinned everything that was embedded in all of the Education Act.

The following actions were agreed:

·  Committee members to receive a copy of the model behaviour policy provided by the county council.

·  Tracking data from the districts on the number of children in EHE would be provided to members.

·  A Bite Size Briefing or information to members around different levels of authority the county council has with maintained schools and academies with a request for clarity on the local authority's statutory duties to be included in the Strategy.

·  To identify a package of data to be provided to committee members to include EHE numbers, areas and levels of deprivation.

Resolved: That the;

  i.  Draft strategy be considered, and priorities supported.

  ii.  Request for an annual reporting cycle through the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee be supported.