Agenda item

Question received for the meeting on 22 May 2018.

At Cabinet the following question was submitted to the meeting on 22 May and in error was not processed. Cabinet that the question and response be included in the addenda for the next meeting

Councillor Howson had given notice of the following question to Councillor Hibbert Biles:

“In reply to a question posed at Cabinet on 17^th June 2014 about whether the then Cabinet member would make representations to the regional school commissioner and Ofsted as to the very high non-attendance at St. Gregory the Great School, the then cabinet member replied that the School Improvement officer had been sent into the school to try and establish the underlying cause of the high absence rate.  She had further requested that an analysis of poor attendance be undertaken on a class by class and year by year basis. This has been successful in improving attendance in the past.  Should this not improve attendance, she would then consider contacting Ofsted?

Can the current cabinet member offer any explanation as to why this school, now an academy, should have had the worst attendance figures for any school in Oxfordshire for the autumn term of 2017 despite being declared ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted during the previous school year and the actions following on from my earlier question?”

Councillor Hibbert-Biles replied:

“Trish Murphy is the allocated school liaison officer for the County Attendance team and started in her role in December 2017. She was allocated St Gregory the Great, by Jo Goodey, the new interim Education Inclusion Manager at a time which coincided with the Ofsted report.

Trish has been into the school on three occasions, the first being with Rachael Etheridge on the 27^th February 18 to meet with Elizabeth Lutzeier and Anita Whyte. This meeting was delayed for various reasons including other county representatives going into the school. Since then Trish has repeatedly tried to go into the school on a number of occasions, twice the school have cancelled the meeting prompting further delay.

Trish visited the school on the 9^th May shadowing the LCSS link worker identified for the school.Trish again visited on 23^rd May and met with Anita to go over the school attendance, there is showing some improvement with attendance and new systems are in place to track attendance and behaviour within the school. Fixed term exclusions are starting to come down which is having a positive impact on PA’s.

Weekly attendance reports are now being produced for the Head of Years to have a better oversight of the students, Trish reports that the school seem to be offering more support to students.

The County Attendance team continue to receive referrals from St Greg’s.There is some signs of improvement in attendance, the school were set an initial target of 91% by Rachael Etheridge, they are currently at 90.7% according to the data.

Clearly efforts have been impacted on by the struggle to get into the school, Trish has been asked to wait for the exams to finish before going into the school again.

David Clarke, new Deputy Director for Education contacted the RSC office to raise this issue with them and they are very much aware of this and other issues. Following the recent Ofsted monitoring visit this has now been raised at Ministerial level. Regular meetings have been established at the school to monitor progress being made. The first took place in May and the next meeting is next week. David has asked to be invited to these and future meetings to be able to represent our concerns especially in relation to attendance and gain a greater understanding of how we could hold the school and system to greater challenge in order for the outcomes to improve. The RSC officer further explained that the school is in the process of being merged with another Multi Academy Trust but this is still in the discussion phase.”

Supplementary: Councillor Howson stated that he had met with governors and understood attendance was improving. However, given the importance of the issues involved including safeguarding he asked that everything possible be done to ensure the figures continued to improve. Councillor Hibbert-Biles replied that officers including the new Deputy Director would be visiting the school regularly. Recently the Government had recognised the difficulties Local Education Authorities had in asserting authority over academy schools but she was pleased to say that the Council had a good rapport with the school.

Questions received for meeting on 19 June 2018

Councillor Howson had given notice of the following question to Councillor Lindsay-Gale:

“In the last 2 Property Data Survey Condition  reports to the DfE what Grades were assigned to Northfield School in each survey and when were the returns sent to the government?”

Councillor Lindsay-Gale replied:

The PDS condition surveys were initiated by DfS in response to Michael Gove’s request to establish the public sector liability in terms of managing the education estate. They were undertaken by private technical advisors employed by DfS.

OCC did not participate and submit these PDS Condition Survey reports to DfS. We also do not have these reports in our possession or have access to any such reports on Northfields.

We do have our own condition surveys with the last one being undertaken earlier this year, this has been the basis of current action on the Northfield site.

These surveys were organised and run by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) (Condition Data Collection programme: information and guidance - GOV.UK; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/property-data-survey-programme), we are not aware that OCC provided condition data to any third party.

Supplementary: Responding to concern that the County Council had not taken part in the DfS initiated surveys and asking what condition had been assigned to Northfield School under our own survey Councillor Lindsay-Gale explained that the survey that had been carried out for us under the previous contract had not been good enough. The Council was still investigating and councillors would be kept informed.

Councillor Phillips had given notice of the following question to Councillor Constance:

“Oxford City -Controlled Parking Zones - Future Programme.

I welcome your decision on 7 June to include Sandhills and Risinghurst in the list of areas assigned priority 2 status for Controlled Parking Zones consultations. Would it be possible to publish the timetable for this programme given the limited budget and capacity within the Directorate to manage this programme?”

Councillor Constance replied:

“Following the approval of the CPZ priorities on 7 June officers are developing a programme for all the new zones.  Implementing CPZs involves a number of different teams across the council and their input will be required to identify a deliverable programme.  The intention is to publish the programme in late June or early July.  Local members will be kept informed and will be sent the proposed programme before it is published.”

Supplementary: Councillor Constance responding to a further question confirmed that she expected to be the decision maker.

Councillor Phillips had given notice of the following question to Councillor Constance:

'Oxfordshire Growth Deal

At the last Oxford City Localities meeting on 24 May we were briefed on the emerging development sites for Growth Deal investment.

I was pleased to see that the Collinwood Road Crossing in Risinghurst was included in this list. As you know the crossing is required to provide a safe route for pedestrians and cyclists across the A40 dual carriageways. However it also provides a great opportunity to provide a cycleway linking the communities of Barton and Risinghurst. Could I be advised on the progress of the decision making process with specific reference to the Collinwood Road crossing?'

Councillor Constance replied:

‘Thank you for your question regarding the Collinwood Road Crossing over the A40.

You are correct that the scheme is included in the Growth Deal Investment schemes and is contained within a programme of work, grouped together as ‘Oxford City Wide Cycle and Pedestrian Routes’. 

The Collinwood Road Crossing scheme is currently being reviewed, along with several other suggestions for schemes from various stakeholders, which will all be assessed for deliverability and likely costs by the end of July. A decision on the actual schemes that will be taken forward to feasibility design stages will be shared with the stakeholder groups in August this year.’

Supplementary: Councillor Phillips asked who would make decisions with regard to priorities and Councillor Constance indicated that this should be known by the end of July.