Agenda and minutes

After a number of technical difficulties with the audio-visual equipment in the room which resulted in a delayed start to the meeting, the Chair welcomed those attending.  The Chair explained that the meeting had been called to consider the report of the Education Commission and the report of the Local Area SEND Inspection.  These had both been on the agenda at the Committee’s meeting on 14 September 2023 but the Committee had resolved to defer the former and the latter had not been published at that point.

The Chair reiterated the Committee’s apologies to the Chair of the Education Commission and her colleagues for having deferred the item.

Apologies had been received from Cllr Walker.

No declarations of interest were made.

Members of the public who wish to speak at this meeting can attend the meeting in person or remotely.  If you wish to speak, you should contact scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk no later than 09.00 on Tuesday 26 September 2023.

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that, if the technology fails, your views can still be taken into account. Written statements should be no longer than one A4 sheet.

If you do not wish to speak at the meeting but do wish to have a written statement circulated to members before the meeting, please email it to the above address by 13.00 on Friday 29 September 2023.  The Committee reserves the right to share this communication, or sections of it, during the meeting.

The Committee was addressed by Melody Drinkwater, Claire Brenner, Anna Antell, Terez Moore, Darren Moore, and Theo Moore.

Each spoke to the inadequacies of the support they had received from the Council and the impact that this had had on them.

The Committee thanked them for addressing them for sharing their very moving experiences and assured them that the Committee was seeking to ensure that improvement happened.

Consideration of the report deferred from 14 September 2023

The Oxfordshire Education Commission reported to Cabinet on 19 September 2023 when Cabinet resolved to note the report.

The Independent Chair of the Commission, has been invited to present the report.  Cllr Liz Brighouse, Cabinet Member for Children, Education, and Young People’s Services, Stephen Chandler, Interim Executive Director: People, Transformation, and Performance, Anne Coyle, Interim Corporate Director: Children’s Services, have also been invited to answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee is recommended to consider the report, to ask any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising from the report and discussion.

Gail Tolley, the independent chair of the Oxfordshire Education Commission, attended the Committee to present the Commission’s report, Time for Change: Improving Educational Opportunity for All Oxfordshire’s Children and Young People.  Jeremy Long, Martha O’Curry, and Jan Davison-Fischer, three of the Commission’s nine members, were also in attendance.  The Leader of the Council, Cllr Liz Leffman, and the newly-appointed Cabinet Member for Children, Education, and Young People’s Services, Cllr John Howson, also attended as did the Interim Executive Director for People, Transformation, and Performance (‘the Interim Executive Director’), Stephen Chandler, and the Interim Corporate Director for Children’s Services (‘the Interim Corporate Director’), Anne Coyle.

The Chair of the Commission introduced the Commission’s report which explored data for the 2021/22 school year as well as the experiences of stakeholders and made 17 recommendations to the Council which were primarily intended to deliver on the recommendations from the voices of children and young people which the Commission had summarised as:

·       Help children who find things difficult; not everyone learns in the same way;

·       Let children be good at something in their own way;

·       Be ambitious for every child; do not put children in boxes;

·       Foster a sense of belonging for every child. 

Ms Tolley reminded members that members of the Committee had been given a progress update on the work of the Commission in March 2023 and she expressed the Commission’s thanks to those members who had provided responses to the research questions posed.

Ms Tolley drew the Committee’s attention to the fact that Oxfordshire’s performance data, on first appearances, looked positive when considered nationally.  However, it compared unfavourably with its statistical neighbours.  Those who find it harder to succeed faced particular challenges and did not achieve the outcomes the Council would desire for them.  It was highlighted that there are elements of intersectionality with black heritage pupils on free school meals with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) facing particular challenges to success.

The Commission spoke to a range of young people as well as to some parents and to school leaders.  There was a consensus that, as set out in part four of the report, there needed to be a reckoning in Oxfordshire.

Ms Tolley emphasised that the focus of the Commission’s research was on children and their experiences rather than on structures and that the Commission had been agnostic on the merits of different varieties of school governance.  Instead of whether a school was maintained by the local authority or not, the Commission’s focus was on results.

There had been a breadth of responses but the Commission had identified a need for clear and collaborative leadership with a shared, clear vision for education and called for partners to play ‘the same game not the blame game’ (4.6.1).  4.6.3 set out that there were agreed strategies for Early Help and SEND as well as the Practice Framework but there was a need for stakeholders to identify synergies between the implementation plan of the SEND strategy and the action plan based  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27/23

The report of His Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate following the Local Area SEND Inspection has been published since the Committee last met.

The Committee has also received a report by the Interim Corporate Director for Children’s Services setting out the indicative action plan development process and proposed governance arrangements.

Cllr Liz Brighouse, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children, Education, and Young People’s Services, Stephen Chandler, Interim Executive Director: People, Transformation, and Performance; and Anne Coyle, Interim Corporate Director for Children’s Services, have been invited to answer questions on the reports.

The Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee considered the report on Thursday 21 September 2023 when it focused on Health and Wellbeing aspects.  The People Overview & Scrutiny Committee is encouraged to focus on the Education aspects.

The Committee is recommended to

(a)           NOTE the report of His Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate;

(b)           NOTE the indicative action plan development process and proposed governance;

(c)           AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Liz Leffman, as well as the newly-appointed Cabinet Members for Children, Education, and Young People’s Services and for SEND Improvement, Cllrs John Howson and Cllr Kate Gregory respectively, attended alongside the Interim Executive Director: People, Transformation, and Performance, Stephen Chandler, and the Interim Corporate Director for Children’s Services, Anne Coyle.  They attended to present the cover report which set out the indicative action plan development process and proposed governance arrangements in response to the Local Area SEND Inspection report which had been undertaken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) in July 2023 and which had been published on 15 September 2023.

The Leader introduced the report by thanking the public speakers and by acknowledging that the Council had consistently let down parents over a long period of time and that the Council accepted the report in full.  The Leader expected to see significant improvements in a very short period of time and was grateful to the Interim Executive Director and the Interim Corporate Director for their work on the Priority Action Plan (‘the Plan’) for the Local Area Partnership (‘the LAP’) which was due to be submitted by 27 October 2023.

The Interim Executive Director expressed his sorrow that the Council had let families, children, and young people down and stated that, to recover, prompt, clear, and concrete action was needed and that the Council was committed to that.  There was not much time before the Plan needed to be submitted but workshops had taken place with different stakeholders and the importance of preparing the Plan in partnership was extremely important.

The Interim Executive Director recognised the importance of improving trust and the culture within Children’s Services and that would be addressed in the action plan.  It was intended that there would be an independent chair of the Oxfordshire SEND Strategic Improvement and Assurance Board (SIAB) and the Interim Executive Director was committed to have having the voice of parents and carers represented at every level.

The Committee recognised that the inspection was of the Local Area Partnership as an whole and the Priority Action Plan was therefore the plan of the LAP as an whole.  The Committee noted that the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (‘HOSC’) had considered the report at its meeting on 21 September 2023 and that its questions focused on the partnership and on the health-related aspects of SEND provision.  The Committee focused its questions more on education matters and on the Council’s provision.

The Committee was pleased to hear an unequivocal acceptance of the report and the apologies made on the Council’s behalf and of the resolve and commitment to rapid and systemic improvement.  The Committee welcomed the ongoing openness to scrutiny of the Interim Executive Director and the Interim Corporate Director.  At the same time, the Committee was conscious of the fact that the core leadership team is largely made up of interim appointments and that stability and continuity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28/23