Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Meeting and in particular the new Deputy Director lauren wroxton.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Jeannette Matelot and Mr Richard Brown.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 27 September 2017 (ESC4) and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the Meeting held on 13 December 2017 were approved and signed subject to, page 3 change ‘handwriting’ for ‘writing’ and in the resolution change ‘Exclusions’ to ‘Attainment’.

Councillor Emily Smith addressed the Committee in relation to Agenda Item 7 (Elective Home Education).  She referred to her motion passed at Council which had asked for more local authority powers to identify and check on children classified as Home Educated. As a result of the motion being passed, she had received media coverage and had a lot of feedback from home educators and schools staff about the current situation and wanted pass some of these on to this committee in the hope that it would inform your discussion under agenda item 7 on Election Home Education, and possibly 8 on SEND.

1.  Gaps in our data

-       Children leaving school and becoming EHE – many we do not know why. Why don’t we have this information. Did schools have it but not sharing it? Do we rely on parents for this info? What other ways can we find out?

-       The way EHE children all fall under one category was unhelpful. Was it possible to break down the data so that we could target support to different groups? If a child was being educated successfully at home, was registered, getting a decent level of support and education could we put them in one group, then maybe a group for those with SEND waiting for a special school place or just under EHCP threshold, then those with history of exclusion or persistent absence, etc.

-       Post 16 we record children as Participation in Learning, Not participating in Learning, and unknown. Perhaps we need an Unknown category for pre-16s so we can target resource to this group?

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2.  Reducing support for vulnerable children in school

-       concern about the increasing number of vulnerable students being pushed out of mainstream schools.

-       School funding cuts, along-side cuts to universal youth provision, long waiting lists of CAHMS support, league tables, were all making it harder for children to access the individualised support needed to thrive in the mainstream system. Could this committee look at the cuts this county had made to children’s services over the past 10 years and how that was impacting on the off-rolling figures? And exclusion and attendance rates?

-       Were there links to some of the issues raised in the SEND inspection. There were families who had been waiting months and years for special school places – who have considered EHE as their only option – despite not feeling qualified to home educate and having to give up work to do so.

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3.  Support for current EHE community.

-       Until there was compulsory registration, how were we encouraging Home educators to register voluntarily. Particularly as many of them would have had negative experiences of ‘the system?

-       Some asked why bother registering if we don’t get anything out of it? So, what do we currently offer and what could be offered to encourage more vulnerable families to register?

-       Specific things individuals said they would find useful were:

a.      Safeguarding training,

b.     physical space to store  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75/17

13.15

An overview of trends in absence from schools across Oxfordshire, underlying causes of persistent absence and particular areas of concern.

As a means of scrutinising school attendance in more depth and making recommendations that could help reduce absenteeism, the Committee is reminded that it agreed to undertake a deep dive into educational attainment in the early 2018.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to identify initial areas of focus for this deep dive.

At its programme setting Meeting in July 2017, the Committee had identified School Absence as an issue of concern and agreed to add it to its work programme for a ‘deep dive’ investigation.  The Committee now had before them a report which provided data and background information, together with any preventative action currently being taken on rates of absence from schools across Oxfordshire.

The Committee heard that the County Attendance Team had recently recruited and would now consist of 3 county attendance officers and 2 school liason officers.  A pupil tracking officer and elective home education team would work as wider members of the team. 

Links with safeguarding included pathways being developed with Locality Community Support service (LCSS) to ensure consistency across the county and developing new pathways to share information through multi-agency working. - developing a Community Around the School offer.

The Pupil Missing Out working group were highlighting this is a bigger piece of work and a Missing person’s panel, a formal meeting held once a month had been established to identify strategies for pupils missing more than 3 times (multi-agency).  There were current concerns that not all staff had access to right systems.

Prevention activity

Data analysis and sharing was key to identifying the gaps and patterns in relation to school absence and the implementation of a targeted approach. This was however, reliant on accuracy of data coming from schools.  Schools were not always reporting children on reduced timetables.  Senior Officers were collaborating with the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board to address how Reduced Timetable were being used in schools.  Only one third of schools had responded.

Enforcement

Parents could be prosecuted for their child’s non-attendance, although this was used as a last resort. The County attendance team challenged the measures and support school were putting in place before referral to the team. School attendance orders were primarily used around EHE. Not many were used.  Education supervision orders were used as a supportive measure to ensure multi-agency plans were adhered to. 4 members of staff (attendance officers and liaison officers) were working directly with 24 schools.

During discussion the following points were raised:

-        Secondary attendance was at a worrying level. Was there any exemplar practice that could be shared?

-        DfE changes authorised and unauthorised definition – were the figures consistent? –

-        Reduced timetables – if not on timetable authorised absence? Yes, but School attendance marking was at the discretion of the Head

-        Was there any data available on the length of absence for dental/medical appointments and trend in Oxfordshire?

-        Children in hospital would remain on school roll, but were registered with the hospital school, which was currently rated outstanding.

-        Paul Burnett was writing to schools who had not responded to the OSCB request for numbers on reduced timetables.

Following discussion the following areas of focus were indentified for the forthcoming deep dive investigation:

o    More in depth data on schools that were well performing and not (to inform school visits);

o    Why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76/17

14.00

The Education Inclusion manager will present the annual report on elective home education (EHE) in Oxfordshire.

The report provides an overview of the home educated children in 2016-17, the trends in EHE and the County Council’s responsibilities, challenges and opportunities in respect of EHE.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider and comment on the report.

At its programme setting meeting in July, the Committee had identified Elective Home Education as a top priority for scrutiny and agreed to give further consideration as to whether the Committee should undertake an investigation into this area.

Accordingly, Rachael Etheridge, Education Inclusion Manager and Joanna Goodey, Senior County Attendance Officer attended the meeting to present an overview to the Committee on the causes of the rise in the number of children being Electively home educated and the challenges this may present for the Local Authority

In introducing the report, Ms Etheridge outlined team changes including a new rag-rating system which had been developed to ensure the limited resources within the team were utilised effectively, and that those children and families identified receive the appropriate support quickly.

The team consisted of 3 officers, equalling 2 full-time equivalent posts.  2 of those officers were qualified teachers, and visited the EHE families at home to support and offer advice as well as assess the level of education taking place.

There were 558 recorded cases of EHE within the last academic year, an increase of 21%.   70 children returned to school, compared with 90 the previous year (see Annex 1).

The main reason given for removing from school roll to home educate was ‘other/unknown’; where parents had, either been unable to identify the reason from those offered or had refused to let the Local Authority know.

The second most common reason was ‘dissatisfaction with the system’.  This also applies nationally. There had been a drop in the number of students who were EHE and had a statement or Education Health Care Plan. 43.88% of EHE children had school attendance of 90% or less and 8.67% of students had exclusions, either fixed term or permanent.

The number of EHE children in the various key stages were as follows:

There were 9 children known to the Local Authority who were EHE and of non-statutory school age.

There were spikes in years 5, 7 and 9.  Information from secondary schools may suggest there is inadequate information being shared between schools at transition stages to ensure the child’s needs are being met.

A school exit form was required by the Local Authority.  In completing this, schools are asked to provide information that may question the child’s safety, and indicate any known risks to them, that may be associated with being educated at home. The form also asked for information regarding any agencies that were involved with the child. If there was any known social care activity around the child, EHE officers would follow this up with the social worker, and attend any Team Around the Family or Child Protection meetings.  If the child has an EHCP, the Annual Review may be brought forward.  If the child attends a special school, he/she cannot be removed from roll until an Annual Review has been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77/17

14.40

The outcome of the recent Ofsted and CQC joint local area inspection of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) arrangements.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED consider the outcomes of the recent local area inspection and the County Council’s action plan to address areas for improvement in education.

The Committee had before it a report which outlined the outcome of the recent Ofsted and CQC joint local area inspection of Oxfordshire to judge the effectiveness of the area in implementing the disability and special educational needs reforms as set out in the Children’s and Families Act 2014.

15.10

In response to a motion from Council about reviewing the prevalence of prejudice-related bullying in schools and online, the Committee will receive a short report outlining policy and guidance on cyber bullying and how the Council is working to tackle this issue.

The Committee is invited to identify areas of focus for a more detailed discussion on this topic at a future scrutiny meeting, including scrutiny of how this issue is being overseen by the Children’s Trust and Corporate Parenting Panel.

In response to a motion from Council requesting that the Committee review the prevalence of prejudice-related bullying in schools and online, the Committee had before them report which outlined the current local evidence and action being taken to prevent and reduce bullying in Oxfordshire, including information about the local authority’s legal obligations and how current work to address bullying met the local vision and priorities for Children’s Services.

The report also included a brief overview of work being carried out as part of the current Anti-Bullying Strategy and the work to address both online and prejudice-related bullying and the specific focus on work to mitigate the impact on vulnerable groups.

The Committee was invited to identify areas of focus for a more detailed discussion on this topic at a future scrutiny meeting, including scrutiny of how this issue was being overseen by the Children’s Trust and Corporate Parenting Panel.  Accordingly, Ms Jo Brown, Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator had been invited to attend the meeting for an initial discussion on this topic.

Ms Brown in introducing the report, explained that Oxfordshire’s Anti-Bullying Strategy had a detailed action plan which was refreshed annually at the start of each school year. There was a wealth of both national and local evidence that indicated a link between bullying and not feeling “safe to learn” in school. There was also clear evidence of a link between bullying and reduced school attendance and attainment and evidence that bullying could impact on mental health and well-being.

Oxfordshire had a free online bullying survey that schools could access all year round. Schools who participated were provided with a unique link in order that they could identify and address issues locally. Last year 6,457 children (from 9 secondary and 15 primary schools) took part. Participating schools had used results to develop effective Anti-Bullying practice and thus create greater safety for students.  Results were then analysed centrally in depth to inform the Anti-Bullying strategy action plan and ensure that it was evidence-based.

Results from last year’s survey showed that, in line with national trends and previous local results, those young people who were “different” from the majority in terms of experience of a long-term illness or disability, race, religion, or sexuality were likely to experience increased frequency of bullying and “feeling unsafe”. Of this group, secondary age young people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) appeared to be very vulnerable with 10% never feeling safe in the classroom (compared to 1% of those identifying as heterosexual). Those results had been consistent over several years and, whilst showing some improvement, action to address prejudice-related bullying had remained a high-priority within the strategy. Work of the Anti-Bullying strategy therefore supported the local vision for Children’s Services to ensure the children within Oxfordshire are healthy, safe, supported and successful. It also contributed to the current Children’s Services obsessions specifically increasing school attendance – leading to improved attainment.

During discussion the following points were raised:

The Chairman queried whether there was a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79/17

15.25

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 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.