Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, Cabinet Member for Education and Cultural Services and Mr Donald McEwan, Council of Oxfordshire Teachers’ Association (COTO).

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2021 (ESC4) and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2021 were approved and signed as an accurate record of the Meeting subject to a number of typos to be signed off with the Chairman.

Matters Arising

Minute 41/21

Councillor John Howson queried whether there was an update available on how many schools cooked by Gas.  In response, Ms Milward responded that they were only aware of the split and number of schools that used gas rather than electricity for those schools that used the OCC School Catering Service, which was 59 Primary Schools and 1 Secondary School.  Within those schools there was currently around a 50/50 split of Gas and Electricity.  The County Council had a Replacement Equipment Program which the 35 Maintained schools were automatically part of (although all schools could receive advice or help with procurement of larger items).  Currently, there was no program to change gas to electric and it was usually changed on a ‘like for like basis’.

Minute 39/21

Carole Thomson noted that the School Maintenance List had not yet gone in the schools’ news and queried if any further thought had been given to the dissemination of the information.

Ms Milward confirmed that it had not yet been put in the schools’ news as she had been waiting for confirmation on the funding stream by the DfE.  She was in discussions with Property Services about increasing their presence on ‘Schools Insight’ on the Website to give more information about who to go to about issues, together with listing helplines and services.

The Chairman expressed the need for the list to be kept up to date.

The Committee paid tribute and thanked those members sitting on the Education Scrutiny Committee who would be retiring from the Council in May, Councillor Gill Sanders, councillor Emma Turnbull and Councillor Anda Fitzgerald O’Connor.

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 following the return to school in March.

The Committee had requested to receive an update on the impact of COVID-19 on Education and Oxfordshire Schools.  Accordingly, the 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 following the return to school in March, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.

The Corporate Director for Education, Kevin Gordon reported that a key priority had been attendance and to ensure children came back to school after the latest period of Lockdown.  The Government had been monitoring attendance which allowed officers to do a comparison against the National picture. The overall attendance rate across the board had been above the National average and they were very pleased with the secondary school attendance rate.  He believed that it showed that parents had confidence in Oxfordshire Schools. 

Special school attendance was also good but had been affected by illness and ‘bubble closures’ due to the complex needs of the children.  Officers had carried out a lot of work around covid support to reduce the need for bubble closures.  Additional work had also been carried out to help children on EHCP return to school.  The data from that morning was as follows:

•         Overall daily attendance – 94.6%

•         Primary        - 97.5%

•         Secondary   - 91.3%

•         Special         - 89.8%

•          

Overall attendance rate had dropped slightly from Monday (probably more as a consequence of more schools opening on Tuesday).  Interestingly attendance rate at primary schools had increased (the decrease was at secondary and special schools).  There were currently 25 children self-isolating, compared to over 1000 in January and only 5 children were positive for Covid.  Currently there were no staff with Covid or self-isolating.

In relation to Free School Meals, he reported that they had just received some funding announcements from Central Government about the Covid Support Grant.  The grant had to be used on Free School Meals, but Oxfordshire along with many other authorities had decided to use some of the funding to provide Free School Meals over the Holiday Period (Half Term).  There was no funding for this locally, so they were waiting to see whether any further provision would be forthcoming to provide free school meals over the Summer Holidays.

He further reported on the Holiday Activity Programme which ran over the Easter Holidays which also included a meal for Children as well as some Social Education around food and nutrition.  4537 places had been available across Oxfordshire for the Easter break.  The provision had been set up quickly, but had gone very well, they had received a lot of positive feedback.  Planning for Summer Provision was now underway, with plans to increase the scale and reach of the provision including liaising with partners and the voluntary sector, with the hope to get the provision closer to the 10 – 12 thousand mark.

The Chairman questioned whether the partners included district Councils.  The Director confirmed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47/21

1.40

To provide an opportunity for the Committee to reflect upon the achievements and successes of the Committee, together with lessons to be learnt for the future.

The Committee had before it a list of issues that had been considered over the last year as follows:

February 2020

Improving Educational Outcomes

A strategic review is being been undertaken on how Oxfordshire County Council and key stakeholders, including settings, schools, Trusts, Diocesan Authorities and parents can all contribute to further improve education outcomes for young people in Oxfordshire. This review is commissioned by Lucy Butler, Director for Children, Education and Families.

As part of this review, the Committee’s view and opinions on the document ‘Improving Education Outcomes – a strategic review’ are sought.

Our aim is to develop joint priorities which all stakeholders can support and work towards achieving.  Consultation is essential to develop an effective local school improvement system which is fit for purpose, led by schools and multi-academy trusts, yet with the active engagement of key strategic partners including Oxfordshire County Council.

The Management of Changing Rolls in Oxfordshire Schools

Members of Scrutiny Committee received an update on population trends affecting the provision of education services for children and young people in the county at its meeting on 4 September 2019.  The aims and objectives of a strategy to meet changing demand and promote sustainability for schools is set out in the report. 

Aims

a)       Ensure sufficient places in mainstream schools for Oxfordshire’s growing population.

b)       Ensure sufficient provision for children with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities, not only to meet population growth, but also related to changing policy, practice and incidence of specific needs.

c)       Ensure sufficient Alternative Provision.

d)       Support Oxfordshire’s schools to respond to changes in demand, both down as well as up. 

Objectives

a)       Monitor demographic changes and housing growth in order to inform annual pupil forecasts.

b)       Plan for new schools and expansions of existing schools.

c)       Identify emerging spare building capacity which could be reallocated to other uses.

d)       Provide guidance to schools on maintaining their affordability/sustainability.

Alternative Provision Commissioning Progress Update

Education Scrutiny Committee has requested an update on the Recommissioning of Alternative Provision for children and schools in Oxfordshire.

Educational Attainment Working Group Report

The report is the result of a deep dive by the Education Scrutiny Committee, as set out in its Forward Plan of work. The Committee formed a working group to take the deep dive forward, which met with key officers in the Education Service and visited four secondary schools to learn about good practice and innovation in teaching disadvantaged children.

This report sets out why attainment (and progress), particularly of disadvantaged children, was chosen as a deep dive topic, what examples of good practice in education of disadvantaged pupils at secondary schools the working group learned about, and sets out the Working Group’s conclusions for officers, Education Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet Member for Education and Cultural Services. The Education Service is beginning the development of a comprehensive 3-year Education Strategy for Oxfordshire. This report is therefore presenting the findings of the deep dive investigation, and the Working Group's conclusions in the interim, ahead of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48/21

2.00

An opportunity to discuss how Education Scrutiny might look in the future.

This item had been placed on the Agenda to provide an opportunity for the Committee to discuss how Education Scrutiny might look in the future.

The Chairman commented that a number of issues had come to light in the previous discussions of the Committee for areas that the new Committee might wish to consider in the future.  Following discussion, the Committee put forward the following list of items for the new Committee’s consideration:

·            The whole area of SEND and SEND funding;

·            The Management of Changing School Roles;

·            The Demography of school places across the County, together with the National Funding Formula and how that interacts for schools with diminishing or small numbers;

·            Alternative Provision Commissioning;

·            Zero Carbon Agenda;

·            Maintaining the Meeting with the Regional School Commissioner and Ofsted;

·            Parental choice and parental preference to lead to shift in parents thinking (school sustainability, transport, inclusion);

·            The impact on Young People who had been out of school for a long period of time, link between absence to attainment;

·            Encouraging children into more physical activity.