Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Emma Turnbull, with Councillor Susanna Pressel in substitution.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2020 (ESC3) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on  were approved and signed as an accurate record of the meeting with a number of typo’s to be amended and signed off by the Chairman.

1.10

The Committee have requested to receive an update on the impact of COVID-19 on Education and Oxfordshire Schools.  Accordingly, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, Kevin Gordon and the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good will attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current situation.

As part of the update, the Head of Learner Engagement, Deborah Bell will provide the Committee with an update on the Reintegration Timetable.

The Committee had requested to receive an update on the impact of COVID-19 on Education and Oxfordshire Schools.  Accordingly, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, Kevin Gordon and the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good attended the meeting to give a presentation on the current situation.  As part of the update, the Head of Learner Engagement, Deborah Bell would provide the Committee with an update on the Reintegration Timetable. A copy of the presentation is attached to the signed copy of the minutes.

During the presentation, the Director for Children, Kevin Gordon Services made the following points:

•             Schools remained open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers.  

•             Pressures on places for Critical Worker children remained; with 10 schools reporting that they had no places left for Critical Worker Children.  Officers had provided support and guidance to heads as well as working with public sector employers to ensure there are enough spaces for Critical Workers such as hospital workers.

•             From 8 March, Government hoped to begin 'wider' onsite school provision with all pupils returning to school.

•             There were significant challenges for schools at the moment including dual classes (virtual and onsite) and lots of staff and pupils self-isolating, with around 3-400 pupils and 160 staff self-isolating at present.

•             Asymptomatic testing was being carried out in schools:

–           staff in secondary schools were being tested on site twice a week.

–           Primary staff were ‘Home testing' + PCR if required. 

–           Students in secondary schools who were on site were able to be tested, following consent.

–           Early Years providers (mass testing as of 8th February at 3 OCC sites in the first instance).

•             Half-term: Free School Meals funding will be supported centrally by the Council – Covid Winter Grant. Government funded in 'term time’.

•             Increasing internal capacity to coordinate and drive initiatives around reducing digital exclusion across the Partnership.  Officers were doing a lot of work with the voluntary sector, though it was not just about getting laptops. Laptops had to be cleaned of data, configured, made secure, broadband or access and training and support to parents. 

•             There was a very high level of engagement from Headteachers, CEOs, Governors/ Trustees - 100% dedicated to ' get it right' for the pupils of Oxfordshire.  Weekly meetings were carried out with individual school groups which were very well attended and received very positive feedback.

Elective Home Education and Reintegration Timetable

Mr Gordon reported that there had been a rise in children Electively Home Educated (EHE), though it needed to be taken in the context of the pandemic taking into account parental fear and anxieties.  It was not really possible due to the pandemic to do a comparison with previous years, but numbers had gone up, though were below the National average and the average for the South East.  Oxfordshire figures were below comparator but still high with 881 from 661 pre-pandemic.   A lot of early intervention work had been carried out by officers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37/21

1.30

The report (ESC6) outlines the developments since November 2020 in transforming SEND services in Oxfordshire. 

The Education Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to note developments to date since November 2020, in order to transform the provision of education, health and care services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

The Committee had before it a report (ESC6) which outlined the developments since November 2020 in transforming SEND services in Oxfordshire.

The Deputy Director of Education, Hayley Good, introduced the report and summarised the progress set out in the report.  She explained that as a Council and as a local partnership they were committed to achieving the very best outcomes they could for children and young people with SEND within the total resources we have available. There was a growing demand on essential services, an increasing demand and complexity of needs amongst our residents. The financial challenge had provided an opportunity to fundamentally rethink and transform the way that local services were delivered.  The focus was on equitable provision with a drive to meet needs earlier to avoid expensive last resort options.

She reported that they were in the process of recruiting for a permanent Head of SEND in order to lead and deliver on strategic priorities for the Service. Whilst they invested time in the process, key senior leaders from within the SEND team were responsible for the APP, SEND Transformation, Strategy and Partnerships.  Other senior leaders within the Education SLT were supporting the interim line management of the various SEND services.

Interim contract management support was now in place, reviewing contractual arrangements for out of county placements. An interim procurement officer had been appointed and was monitoring and implementing improvements to the procurement of placements in independent non maintained special schools.  A more permanent commissioning structure for Education would be implemented in 2022 through the development of the Health, Education and Social Care arm of the new OCC commissioning hub.  Combined, this additional capacity would have a very positive impact on the rate of progress against actions, specifically on securing best value out of county placements.

An interim casework team was being recruited to work alongside the existing team in order to ensure statutory responsibilities were met in regard to timeliness. The expectation was that the team would-be live-in February 2021 and would take a lead on annual reviews, helping to address the backlog in this area.

The Chairman, Councillor Michael Waine welcomed the update.  Part of the problem was that when schools reached a certain stage with children, schools would feel that it was the County Council’s responsibility and the County Council had little fallback on what the school had not put in place beforehand.  He felt that the word ‘delayed’ could be added to paragraph 15 of the report to reflect this.

The Director for Children’s Services, Kevin Gordon stressed that Councillor Waine had made an important point.  There had to be a change in the roles of how all the different stakeholders and actors play within this system.  The current system for SEND was dysfunctional to distribute resource and pitched stakeholders up against one another.  The County Council did not hold the budget for SEND in Oxfordshire.

Kate Bradley, SEND Strategic Development Improvement Officer reported that part of her role was relationship building, talking to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38/21

1.50

The Committee have requested to receive an update on the delivery of the Children Education & Families Capital Programme including the additional school places successfully delivered in 2020 and the additional school places the council plans to deliver in 2021 and 2022 (ESC7).

The Committee had requested to receive an update on the delivery of the Children Education & Families Capital Programme including the additional school places successfully delivered in 2020 and the additional school places the council plans to deliver in 2021 and 2022.

Accordingly, the Head of Access to Learning, Allyson Milward attended the Meeting to update Members on the current position.  She reported that as well as directly delivering capital projects the Council also worked closely with academy trusts who wished to self-deliver their expansion project. This is managed via a formal funding agreement between the academy Trust and the Council.

If a new school was required, the Council sought to secure land and funding from housing developers. As part of the Option Appraisal process the Council explored opportunities for relocation and expansion of existing schools on to new sites alongside the need for new academies to be created.

The Council often delivered new schools, directly managing the design and procurement process. In some cases, developers and academy sponsors had opted to self-deliver new schools, where this was the case the Council worked closely with the third party to support the design process and coordination of the delivery programme.

In recent years the Council has also been successful in securing the provision additional pupil places by the creation of new schools through the DfE ’wave’ Free School programme. This involved working closely with academy sponsors to make a case for a new Free School and supporting a successful bid application. Successful projects were usually directly delivered by the Department for Education (DfE), for example the new Bloxham Grove SEND Free School currently in development

Details of the capital investment programme to provide additional pupil places in 2020, and the planned investment for additional pupil places in 2021 and 2022 was summarised below; a detailed breakdown of individual projects is provided at Annex A to the report.

2020 (Complete)

·            9 schools expanded

·            3 new primary schools

·            1 new secondary school

2021 (Planned)

·            11 schools expanded

·            1 new primary school

2022 (Planned)

·            6 schools expanded

·            2 new primary schools (includes relocation/expansion of an existing school)

·            1 new SEND school (externally funded ‘wave’ Free School)

The delivery of the Council’s capital programme, including CEF basic need, was managed in accordance with the council’s capital governance framework and is subject to regular review and monitoring at a corporate level.

All the critical mainstream pupil places required for September 2020 had been provided. This had been achieved either through the completion of capital works in time for September occupation or, where completion was not possible, using contingency arrangements agreed with individual schools.

Projects providing additional pupil places for use in 2021 and 2022 were being progressed and in some cases construction work was already underway. All projects were closely monitored to ensure that appropriate contingency plans were in place in the event of additional accommodation not being completed in time. This was particularly important as the council continued to deliver its capital programme during the Covid19  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39/21

2.10

The Committee have requested to receive an update on Educational Attainment in Secondary Schools.  Accordingly, the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good and the Head of Learning and School Improvement, Kim James will attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current data available.

The Committee have requested to receive an update on Educational Attainment in Secondary Schools.  Accordingly, the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good and the Head of Learning and School Improvement, Kim James attended the meeting to give a verbal update on the current data available.

Hayley Good reported that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer exam series was cancelled in 2020. Students scheduled to sit GCSE and A/AS level exams in 2020 were awarded either a centre assessment grade (based on what the school or college believed the student would most likely have achieved had exams gone ahead) or their calculated grade using a model developed by Ofqual - whichever was the higher of the two.

As a result, the 2019/20 data should not be directly compared to attainment data from previous years for the purposes of measuring changes in student performance.

Nationally the Attainment 8 score increased from 46.8 to 50.2 as a result of an increased number of pupils with higher grades following this years’ GCSE awarding process. In Oxfordshire the Attainment 8 score increased from 47.4 in 2019 to 50.2 in 2020, in line with the national average.  Oxfordshire ranks 60th out of 151 local authorities for this measure.

52.0% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths in 2020, an increase from 46% in 2019.  Oxfordshire remained above the national average of 49.9% for this measure, ranking 47^th out of 151 local authorities.

The DfE state that the national increase for this measure was a consequence of the way GCSE grades were awarded in 2020 and the higher proportion of entries graded at 5 and above.

63.9% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved grade 5 and above in English in 2020. This is an increase from 60% in 2019. This was in line with the national average of 63.6% and Oxfordshire ranked 63^rd out of 151 local authorities.  79.7% of Oxfordshire pupils achieve grade 4 and above in English, compared with 80.7% nationally.

58.4% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved grades 5 and above in maths in 2020. This was an increase from 52% in 2019.  Nationally 55.9% of pupils achieved grade 5 and above in maths. Oxfordshire was ranked 43rd out of 151 local authorities for this measure (2^nd quartile).  77.1% of Oxfordshire pupils achieved grade 4 and above in maths, compared with 75.3% nationally.

Pupils with No SEN, an EHCP or a first language of English were the characteristic groups where the average Attainment 8 score in Oxfordshire was above the corresponding national average.  Pupils with an EHCP in Oxfordshire had a higher Attainment 8 score (18.0) than that nationally (15.2). For this indicator, Oxfordshire ranked 40th out of 150 local authorities.

Attainment 8 scores for pupils with either SEN support; free school meals disadvantaged or a first language other than English were less positive and below national averages.

Oxfordshire ranked in the top quartile of local authorities for attainment at grade 5  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40/21

2.25

The Committee have requested to receive an update on what is happing in relation to school buildings in light of the Council’s agreed commitment to Climate Change, including the capital programme for new schools/retro fitting of existing schools and to receive an update on whether school transport vehicles are being looked at in terms of pollution.  Accordingly, the Head of Access to Learning, Allyson Milward will attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current data available.

A briefing note form the Corporate Director Communities is attached (ESC9).

The Committee had requested to receive an update on what was happing in relation to school buildings in light of the Council’s agreed commitment to Climate Change, including the capital programme for new schools/retro fitting of existing schools and to receive an update on whether school transport vehicles are being looked at in terms of pollution.  Accordingly, the Head of Access to Learning, Allyson Milward was invited to attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current data available. 

Before the Committee was also a briefing note form the Corporate Director Communities. It explained that when the council renewed its terms and conditions in 2019 for awarded contracts, it set a minimum standard of Euro 3 for its school buses and coaches, one of the first authorities to do this. In doing this, it was recognised that it wasn’t setting the bar particularly high but given where the market was, it was considered a good start to its longer-term ambitions of awarding carbon neutral contracts in 2031.

Working closely with the market and the council’s own climate change team, environmental standards would be raised every four years as the Dynamic Purchasing System (through which contracts are awarded) is renewed. This would be in 2023, 2027 and then with the carbon neutral target in 2031.

In 2018, surveys were carried out to assess the current carbon output from supported transport activities. This showed that each day some 50,000 miles were travelled performing this function accounting for around 3,800 tonne CO2e per year.

From September 2021 there was an ambition that tracking devices would be installed in all vehicles allowing detailed monitoring of emissions allowing a targeted action plan to be developed in 2022 on how it might meet its 2031 ambitions and the standards it would need to set when the dynamic Purchasing System was renewed in 2023.

Allyson Millward reported that the Council were looking at the Carbon Neutral response in relation to building works in their existing schools and new schools.  Carbon natural did mean more expensive generally, but funding had been added to the Capital Programme, which would be used to potentially top up and enhance some of the new build schemes that were subject to development agreements which had already been signed.  They could also use the fund to enhance expansion schemes and they were in the process of formulating a new policy for future negotiations on new schools which would be making its way through the governance structure in due course.

Councillor Ted Fenton queried why school buses and coaches were not electric vehicles given the fact that school buses were only used briefly for a period in the morning and at the end of the day and could be charged up over night and during the day.

Councillor Howson queried about cooking by gas and whether there was any knowledge about how many Oxfordshire schools still cooked by gas and if there were any plans for replacement with electricity?

In response,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41/21

2.45

The Committee have requested to receive an update on Elective Home Education and the Oxfordshire situation.  Accordingly, the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good and the Head of Learner Engagement, Deborah Bell will attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current situation.

The Committee have requested to receive an update on Elective Home Education and the Oxfordshire situation.  Accordingly, the Head of Learner Engagement, Deborah Bell attended the meeting to give a verbal update on the current situation.

The Chairman reported that he had asked for this item to be put on the Agenda as the Performance Scrutiny Committee had requested that the Committee look at the recent Serious Case Review to see if there were any issues for the Committee to take forward.

Deborah Bell reported that the serious case Review was a matter of public record and could be found on the OSCB website.  She stressed that the events surrounding the circumstances were aged from an Education perspective and that there was no one in the Local Authority now who was around at the time and they were operating from a very different place now regarding services to electively educating children and families.  Although the legislation hadn’t changed, there approach very much had.  A lot of work had gone into changing their approach, and she believed that the action plan which would come out of the serious case review, would reflect many of those significant changes, that had already been put in place.  The learning and the consequential action plan would also be a matter for public record.

The Chairman stated that from the figures they had been given, they were aware that numbers of parents who were knowingly home educating their child had gone up, it would be a matter of record once they were through the worse of the pandemic how many of those trickle back into school and what the new number was.  From conversations held at the Performance Scrutiny Committee it was felt that there was work to be done with colleagues in other sectors like Health, to underline their understanding of what rights the Local Authority had in terms of entry into properties.

The Secretary of State had been written to several times now, asking for a full review of Elective Home Education and the rights of local authorities, so that the rights of local authorities could match in some way to the responsibilities.

Deborah Bell reported that two letters had been sent to the Secretary of State, with a third pending regarding the existing legislation and in terms of learning from Child K, the arrangements for health colleagues to record a child’s educational status had been expanded to incorporate elective home education, which health colleagues were unsighted to at the time.  There was now a system in place whereby all electively home educated families were written to annually, for the explicit purpose of highlighting health services that are available for them to access, including school nursing service, who were responsible for the rollout of inoculations to all pupils in Oxfordshire.  They wanted to incorporate all electively home educated children in that cohort.

When a child became electively home educated in Oxfordshire, they now had an information pack that was sent out, highlighting health services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42/21

3.05

An opportunity to discuss and prioritise future topics for the Committee, potential approaches to its work and to discuss the schedule for future meetings.

The Committee considered the forward plan and AGREED the business for April 2021 as set out in the report, subject to the additional of an update on Elective Home Education being moved to the next meeting and the addition of and update on SEND being added and that the Chairman and Vice Chairman, together with officers would manage the business on the current work programme for the efficient running of the Committee.