Meeting documents

BCC Cabinet
Monday, 10th September, 2018 10.30 am

  • Meeting of Cabinet, Monday 10th September 2018 10.30 am (Item 10.)

The recommendation is that Cabinet:

AGREE a number of recommendations as set out within the report.

Minutes:

Mr D Dhillon, Chairman of the Children’s Select Committee and Mrs K Sutherland, Committee and Governance Manager attended the meeting to present the recommendations from the Permanent Exclusions Inquiry undertaken by the Select Committee.

 

Mr Dhillon introduced the report and highlighted the following:

  • Mr Dhillon thanked members of the committee, Mrs I Darby, Mr G Williams and Mrs S Hawkswood for the work on the inquiry.
  • Following a 100% increase in 2015/16 and a 6% increase in 2017/18, Permanent Exclusions were down by 35% this year.
  • Meetings had taken place with primary and secondary schools including academies and all head teachers were keen to bring the numbers of permanent exclusions down.
  • The inquiry included meeting with parents and Mr Dhillon was really grateful for their input.
  • Mr Dhillon asked Cabinet Members to consider the recommendations as set out in the report.

 

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

  • Early Help presentation on Bucks Exclusion Hubs was welcomed and Mr Dhillon confirmed that the hubs were working well
  • The need for training on how to manage disruptive behaviour in schools.  Mr Dhillon highlighted that although the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) provided training, there was still a low uptake and this needed to be improved.  Mr Dhillon urged all teachers to take the training.
  • The importance of identifying those that need help early so that pupils aren’t moving to secondary school without being supported.  Mr Dhillon reiterated the importance of this, as it did not only effect the classroom but also the effects on the wider society.
  • Cabinet discussed the input of parents and parental responsibility.  Mr Dhillon confirmed that there are a number of factors that could impact a child’s life including issues already happening at home.  Recommendation 8 outlined the importance of information and support being accessible by families and parents.

 

Cabinet responded to the recommendations as follows:

 

Rec

Focus

Cabinet Response

1

Early Help representation on Bucks Inclusion Hub

Agreed

2

Collaborative work to raise the profile of managing low

level disruptive behaviour within Bucks schools

 

Agreed

3

Ensuring schools have up to date information on the

Bucks Permanent Exclusions Toolkit

 

Agreed

4

Support and facilitation from the Education Service to help schools embed a system-led model of SEN audits

 

Agreed

5

More Effective promotion and signposting of Education

Health Care Plan guidance and alternative provision

 

In Part

6

Review of the impact of the Educational Psychology

Service and consideration of local clusters

 

Not agreed

7

Formation of formal locally-based networks of head

teachers to support each other on permanent exclusions

 

Agreed

8

Accessibility of information on the Bucks CC website for

parents and families

 

Agreed

 

In relation to Recommendation 6, Mr Tett stated that Cabinet could not agree the recommendation due to the national shortage of Educational Psychologists.  It was also stated that working with schools regarding their Educational Psychology resource was key.  Mr Dhillon highlighted that the Select Committee had identified two schools that had successfully engaged and used private psychologists. The issue needed further discussion.

 

The Cabinet Member for Resources confirmed that all broken links on the webpage had been fixed but if any were picked up to report them to the Web Content Team.

 

RESOLVED:  Cabinet responded to the recommendations as set out in the table above.

Supporting documents: