Agenda item

For the Committee to receive an update on progress with Ofsted work and to receive the  annual engagement meeting letter from Ofsted with regards to  social care and education, 30 June 2023.

Contributors:

Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Portfolio holder for Children’s Services and Education

John Macilwraith, Corporate Director for Children’s Services

Richard Nash, Service Director Children’s Social Care

All local authorities have an annual meeting with Ofsted. At our recent Ofsted meeting, three inspectors attended and received a presentation by our Officers on the work of the department. The letter in the agenda was the response from Ofsted as an account of the meeting.

In response to Councillors comments the following points were made:

-          The Buckinghamshire Challenge work had commenced four years ago to address the issue of the attainment gap at all stages of children’s lives across Buckinghamshire. As a result of work, a project handbook had been produced for schools to use to work collaboratively with the Education Endowment Foundation to address the issues. The handbook was launched in June and communication relating to this were sent to councillors.

-          The Opportunity Bucks project has an education sub group which would ensure that information was escalated to others including to the Opportunity Bucks Boards.

-          The availability of apprenticeships would be flagged to Bucks College and Bucks Business First so that young people were aware of them and that they are accessible.

-          The January 2023 Education Standards report showed data relating to attainment. We have not yet received full information relating to all secondary schools so will be bringing outcome data of the recent academic year in January 2024.

Action: Richard Nash / Gareth Drawmer to discuss with the Corporate Director the level of information which it is possible to share relating to schools’ attainment in particular relating to the 10 wards focussed on in Opportunity Bucks

-          Buckinghamshire is a large area with diverse communities and we need to ensure services are aligned with them. In Opportunity Bucks wards there are larger numbers of pupils with the pupil premium and therefore there is more funding to use. In 187 areas, headteachers have challenge champions to go back into groups of schools to support the methodologies to reduce the attainment gap and support inclusion.

-          The gap has narrowed more at secondary level. 2022 figures were the first set of full figures since the pandemic and most authorities have seen large numbers of changes since before the pandemic. Key stage 1 and early years are a focus going forward and  there are some good indicative for the trends.

-          90% of our children are in good or outstanding schools. More are outstanding than good. Overall the standards are still high.

-          There are national issues for recruitment into teaching. Together with the teaching alliance we are encouraging recruitment fairs to help this issue. Recruitment into teaching has fallen by 30%.

-          Staff are supported with continuing professional development opportunities to further their career.

-          We have a programme to develop headteachers. There is a two year induction programme with mentoring to ensure that they are supported as they need. Headteachers also have the option of termly supervision with the educational psychologist team.  There is support for Ofsted inspections.

-          There has been a significant rise in complaints to Ofsted. This is a national trend and not Buckinghamshire specific. We manage complaints robustly. Ofsted have said that our investigation of complaints is more thorough than required so we are assessing our triage system.

-          For children with special educational needs our focus in on improving the support for the children and their families. There is a significant increase in demand for EHCPs. This gives a time pressure on staff.

The school improvement team has increased to help support schools. They work closely with schools in the side by side strategy but every school who hasn’t received a visit last year, will be visited during this year. This is offered to academies as well.