Agenda

To receive any apologies for absence and temporary appointments.

See guidance note on the back page.

The Committee is recommended to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 2025 and to receive information arising from them.

Members of the public who wish to speak on an item on the agenda at this meeting, or present a petition, can attend the meeting in person or ‘virtually’ through an online connection.

Requests to speak must be submitted no later than 9 a.m. three working days before the meeting, i.e., 18 November 2025

Requests should be submitted to the Scrutiny Officer at scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that if the technology fails, then your views can still be taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9am on the day of the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

Where there are a number of requests from persons wishing to present similar views on the same issue, the Chair may require that the views be put by a single spokesperson. It is expected that only in exceptional circumstances will a person (or organisation) be allowed to address more than one meeting on a particular issue in any period of six months.

The public is reminded that the Committee is not a decision-making body and that it cannot investigate individual complaints.  The Committee requests that no individual children are named when addressing the Committee.

The Committee has requested a report on attainment including attainment gaps.

Cllr Sean Gaul, Cabinet member for Children and Young People, Lisa Lyons, the Director of Children’s Services, Annette Perrington, Interim Deputy Director: Education, and Kim Wilson, Assistant Director: Schools and Settings – Standards, Effectiveness, and Performance , have been invited to present the report and to answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and raise any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

Report to follow

The Committee has requested a report on the Virtual School.

Cllr Sean Gaul, Cabinet member for Children and Young People, Lisa Lyons, the Director of Children’s Services, Annette Perrington, Interim Deputy Director: Education, and Clare Pike, Head of the Virtual School, have been invited to present the report and to answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and raise any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

Report to follow

The Committee has requested a report on the fostering service. 

Cllr Sean Gaul, Cabinet member for Children and Young People, Lisa Lyons, Director of Children’s Services, Delia Mann, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, Charlotte Davey, Assistant Director, and Julie McNally, Service Manager: Fostering, have been invited to present the report and to answer the Committee’s questions. 

The Committee is asked to consider the report and raise any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

The Committee has received a report updating it on co-opted membership.  The Committee is recommended to: -

1.1  NOTE the update on activity undertaken to fill the Committee’s vacant co-optee post for a parent governor;

1.2  AGREE to terminate Hana G’s appointed as a co-opted young person members; and, if agreed,

1.3  AGREE to begin a recruitment process for the subsequently vacant post.

The Committee is recommended to AGREE its work programme for forthcoming meetings, having heard any changes from previous iterations, and taking account of the Cabinet Forward Plan and of the Budget Management Monitoring Report.

The Committee is recommended to NOTE the progress of previous recommendations and actions arising from previous meetings, having raised any questions on the contents.

Attached are the Cabinet responses to the Education and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee reports on School Catering Services and Corporate Cleaning Services, and the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Annual Report. The Committee is asked to NOTE the responses.