Agenda and minutes
Venue: Virtual Meeting via MS Teams
Contact: Kelly Sutherland
Media
Webcast: View the webcast
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Apologies for Absence/Changes in Membership Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman, Mr Dev Dhillon, welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologised for the delayed start which was due to technical issues.
Apologies were received from Mr Paul Kelly, Mr Mike Collins and Mr Robert Jones. |
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Declarations of Interest Additional documents: Minutes: The following declarations of interest were made:
· Mr Arif Hussain declared that he was a school governor. |
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To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 4th June 2020 as a correct record. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 4 June 2020 were reviewed. Mr Robin Stuchbury referred to the paragraph concerning the 11+ on page 10 of the agenda pack (5th bullet point) and asked whether monitoring of the 11+ would take place to ensure there was no negative impact on the percentage of children from disadvantaged families. The Chairman confirmed that there would be an agenda item on the Educational Standards Report at the next Children’s and Education Select Committee meeting.
Mr Dominic Barnes requested that his declaration of interest be amended as his wife worked at a grammar school in Buckinghamshire rather than the Education Department at Buckinghamshire Council. ACTION: Kelly Sutherland
RESOLVED: the minutes of the meeting held on 4 June 2020 were AGREED as an accurate record subject to the highlighted change being made. |
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Public questions have been submitted for this meeting and can be found in Appendix 4. Additional documents: Minutes: Mr Dhillon advised that, in future, the work programme would be a standing item on the agenda and public questions would normally relate to an agenda item. As the agenda was published after the deadline for questions to be submitted, Mr Dhillon stated he had agreed that the following three questions could be raised. The questions were read out by Kelly Sutherland, Committee and Governance Manager; Mr Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services provided the responses.
Question 1 What provisions had the Council put in place that supported children who were not able to access respite care as facilities were currently closed? When would respite centres open again?
Response Since the start of Covid-19, the service had sought to balance the overwhelming need to reduce the risk of infection for children, young people and adults and provide services in line with our statutory duties. Respite care for children with additional needs and their parents had continued throughout this period of time, although it had had to change. Initially, overnight respite care was not safe to provide; however, this was now available albeit in a limited capacity and designed around the need to reduce the risk of infection. Overnight respite care was subject to continual review.
Question Two Was the Council now able to continue their statutory duties on timescales from 25 September 2020 under the Children’s Act?
Response The Council had regular, and at least weekly, contact with colleagues from the Department of Education to discuss service delivery in the context of Covid-19. We, as a Council, remained confident that we would continue to be able to meet statutory expectations.
Question Three How had the Council allocated the extra catch-up funding it received for education from Government for the Covid-19 pandemic?
On 19 June 2020, the government announced £1 billion additional funding to help England's children catch up on what they had missed while schools had been closed. The funding was for the 2020-21 academic year and was split into two amounts:
· £350 million National Tutoring Programme to support the most disadvantaged pupils.
Universal Catch Up Premium: · This funding was available for all state funded mainstream and special schools, alternative provision and independent special schools to support all pupils in the 2020-21 academic year. The funding would be allocated directly to schools and the Council did not have any discretion in the allocation. · For mainstream schools funding would be allocated at £80 per pupil. · For special schools and alternative provision funding would be allocated at £240 per place. · Schools had the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances. · Based on the last school census it was estimated that the amount to be allocated across Buckinghamshire schools (including academies) would be approximately £6.4m.
National Tutoring Programme (NTP) This funding was to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who needed the most help. The NTP was a more structured programme where schools purchased ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Chairman's Update For the Chairman to update the Committee on Children’s Services and Education scrutiny activity since the last meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman reported that he had attended an informal meeting with some members of the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee. The purpose of the meeting was for members to be assured that the home to school transport plan for the return to school in September, which had been made more complicated due to social distancing requirements, was in place. The Service had been working hard with bus operators and school heads and the arrangements for the autumn term had gone smoothly.
The Chairman reminded members that this committee was responsible for the scrutiny of changes in the policy of home to school transport which came under Mrs Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills; however, the operational side of school transport was the responsibility of David Martin, Cabinet Member for Logistics. Therefore, Mr Dhillon had agreed with the Chairman of the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee that they should take the lead on this area. A member of the committee commented that he understood why school transport was scrutinised by the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Committee but was concerned that the findings had not been shared with this Committee. Mr Dhillon replied that Sara Turnbull, Service Director for Transport Services, had provided a detailed presentation which would be circulated to the committee members for information. Mr Dhillon thanked S Turnbull, David Martin and the officers concerned for their hard work and added that he had not heard of any complaints about the service. ACTION: Kelly Sutherland
Mr Dhillon advised that the Children’s and Education Select Committee was able to appoint co-opted members to assist Members with scrutinising education matters. Following advice from the Service Director, Legal and Democratic Services, the Chairman proposed inviting two parent governors, Mark Skoyles (primary representative) and Clare Pease (secondary representative), who had previously served on the committee for a short time before the Unitary transition. If agreed, they would serve until May 2021.
RESOLVED: It was AGREED that Mark Skoyles and Clare Pease be invited to be appointed as co-opted members of the Children’s and Education Select Committee. |
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The Committee will receive an update on the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Children’s Services and Education.
Contributors: Mr Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services Mrs Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills Mr Tolis Vouyioukas, Corporate Director for Children’s Services Mr Richard Nash, Service Director, Children’s Services Mr Simon James, Service Director, Education Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Mr Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services; Mrs Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills; Mr Tolis Vouyioukas, Corporate Director for Children’s Services; Mr Richard Nash, Service Director, Children’s Social Care and Mr Simon James, Service Director for Education to the meeting. Mr Vouyioukas explained that the report contained two sections; Children’s Social Care and Education. Mr Vouyioukas acknowledged that it had been an incredibly busy time for everyone in the Directorate and schools and thanked staff and colleagues for their hard work.
Mr Nash reported that the Service had focussed on meeting the needs of vulnerable children and young people and had adopted a flexible approach in the context of Covid-19. The number of physical contacts with children, young people and their families had increased since the last meeting of the Committee. The Service had introduced new practice standards to see as many children as possible, face to face, and it was evident, due to the increased complexity of case work, that Covid-19 had had an impact on vulnerable families. There had been some positive outcomes such as the quality of the inter-agency work and the use of technology which had improved contact with some children. Professional contribution to meetings had also improved.
The following points were raised and discussed by members of the committee.
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SEND Improvement Plan PDF 725 KB The Committee will receive an overview of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Improvement plan and an update on progress to date.
Contributors: Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills Tolis Vouyioukas, Corporate Director for Children’s Services Simon James, Service Director, Education Additional documents: Minutes: Mr James introduced the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Improvement Plan report which related to the progress and improvement across whole local authority area. It was part of the work for the local area inspection and should be seen in line with the SEND Strategy, the improvement plan and self-assessment document. Demand for children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) was increasing each year and there were more children with complex needs, notably children on the autistic spectrum and also children and young people presenting with varying degrees of mental health concerns.
Governance was carried out by the SEND Board which was chaired by Mr Tolis Vouyioukas. This was an executive board, representative of the whole area and included parents, schools and partners. There were also a number of impact groups beneath the SEND Board which focus on specific areas of priority; e.g. Co-production (working with families and children preparing for adulthood), the quality of EHCPs, and the local offer (an online resource for families to access information).
Recent areas of improvement included the timeliness of EHCP assessments; there was a 20 week deadline for EHCP assessments to be completed and over 80% had been achieved in last four months with 89% at the end of August 2020. The Service had also focussed on the quality of the plans through an audit programme; 50% of all plans were good or better during the last month. Two of the biggest challenges were to ensure pathways were clear for young people moving into adulthood and to provide more focus on identifying children in need of SEN support.
The following points were raised and discussed by members of the committee:
ACTION: Mr James
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Draft Work Programme PDF 340 KB Members will consider and agree the forward Work Programme, which has been drafted on the basis of Members’ suggestions at the June meeting and subsequent feedback from Cabinet Members and the Corporate Director. There needs to be an element of flexibility in the work programme so that the Committee can respond to any urgent issues that might arise, therefore the work programme may evolve and will be reviewed at every Select Committee meeting.
Contributors: Chairman and all Committee Members Kelly Sutherland, Committee & Governance Manager Additional documents: Minutes: The following items were proposed to add to the Committee’s Work programme:
· Members suggested that the item on the mental health of children should be brought forward to the meeting on 7 January 2021 |
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Date of Next Meeting Thursday 5th November 2020 at 2pm Additional documents: Minutes: 5 November 2020 at 2.00 pm |