Agenda item

11.40

Rebecca Matthews, Interim Deputy Director, Education & Learning will attend for this item (ESC11).

The Committee received a report on the implications for the Education Scrutiny Committee following the serious case review. Rebecca Matthews, Interim Deputy Director, Education & Learning attended for this item and highlighted four key areas as set out at paragraph 4 of the report.

During discussion the following points were made, with Rebecca Matthews responding to questions:

1)    With regard to children missing from education most of these children were vulnerable because they were not engaged with an individual school. The measures described in the report were intended to ensure that various groups share information. There was a problem solving approach with a focus on ensuring that the right people were round the table.

2)    It was explained that there were a number of reasons why a child could end up without a school ranging from being an unaccompanied asylum seeker to permanent exclusions and health reasons. She agreed that the children of travellers could also find themselves without a school.

3)    There was some discussion of how the Council could ensure that it know of all such children. Rebecca Matthews advised that although it was true that they only knew what they knew systems were in place and local knowledge was good. She explained the use of the fair access panels.

4)    Referring to the work of the fair access panels it was suggested that children did not suddenly become vulnerable at age 11 and it was questioned whether there was work to be dome with primary schools to aid early recognition of vulnerable youngsters. Rebecca explained that often the issues were handled in a different way at primary schools but that there may be the need for something similar to a fair access panel at primary school level and there were pilots in place.

5)    Rebecca Matthews agreed with comments that the relationships with families were the key to effecting change at primary school level. There was some good work around the innovative use of cyber space to reach parents and children.

6)    There was discussion around the information provided on exclusions.  The Committee noted with concern that there were incidents where schools persuaded parents to remove children under threat of permanent exclusion (paragraph18). A member expressed concern that there was a difficulty with collecting data on fixed term exclusions from some academies and queried whether this should be raised with the Regional Commissioner. It was suggested that the Council had a strong case to take to Government over non co-operation if it was putting children at risk, It was noted that free schools did not have to take children who had been permanently excluded.

7)    There was some discussion of the process to claim back money from a school where a child was excluded in order to fund alternative provision.

8)    On home schooling parents are not obliged to inform the authority where they choose to home school. In many cases the authority would know because a child is taken out of school. Where a child was never enrolled the Council would not necessarily know. In addition there was no right of access to the home to monitor provision.

9)    Rebecca Matthews commented that it might be useful for the Committee to have some of the figures underpinning the report on an annual basis and undertook to circulate this information to members.

In conclusion the Committee recognised that there was good work going. The awareness of schools had been raised and there was possibly scope for the local authority to include attendance and exclusions in the position statement. There was a need to follow up academies that did not provide the necessary information. There was concern that there was a group of children who are not being tracked. A member suggested that the Committee needed to report upwards to ensure that action was taken and there was general support for the suggestion of a cross party motion to Council from members of the Committee to put pressure on central Government.

The Committee noted the report and that the Chairman, with Councillors John Howson, Gill Sanders and Michael Waine draft a possible motion for circulation to members of the Committee with a view to it being considered at a meeting of the County Council.