Educational Panel Minutes27 January 2005

CSF EDUCATION CABINET PANEL

Thursday 27 January 2005

MINUTES

ATTENDANCE

Members of the Panel

Bernard Engel, David Billing, Robert Gordon, Seamus Quilty, Fiona Guest, Derek Hills, Ian Simpson, Elam Singam, Tanis Kent, Moyra O’Neil, Richard Smith, Mary Calvert

Others in attendance

Pat Cherry, Glynne Rowlands, Dave Williams, Ian Gibson

Officers in attendance

Justin Donovan, Deputy Director Learning & School Effectiveness

Clive Mitchell, Head of School Effectiveness (Primary)

Jan Hardy, Head of Inclusion and Pupil Progress

Claire Cook, Acting Head of Central Finance

Marianne Stevenson, Community Development Manager

Apologies

Apologies were received from Tony Dodd, Jon Reynolds and Trevor Longhurst.

MINUTES

The Panel agreed the minutes from the previous meeting.

PART I (‘OPEN’) BUSINESS

1. / Annual Report on School Performance / ACTION
Justin Donovan and Clive Mitchell introduced the report to members of the Panel.
The report provides a detailed description of standards which enables:
  • Monitoring level of achievement;
  • Comparison of individual schools performance;
  • Members to scrutinise services and their impact on standards.
The report provides a break down of standards and performance within:
  1. Each Key Stage
  2. Subjects
  3. Groups of pupils
Page 26 of the report looks at Gifted and Talented Pupils and members wanted to know if it is possible to make such provision available within school hours?
Officers explained that current provision is delivered during and after school hours. Master classes accommodate pupils from a variety of schools.
Officers informed members that the Key Stage 2 results for Sacred Heart Roman Catholic in Ware were incorrect and Justin Donovan will arrange for these to be changed.
Members were concerned that two-thirds of Hertfordshire schools achieved results that were below the county average at Key Stage 5 (mainly the smaller schools). Officers explained this underlined the need for collaboration between schools and between schools and colleges to increase the choice and diversity of courses. It was noted that Hertfordshire also has a number of schools which are well above the county average.
The report considered school improvement strategies and informed members that there was a temporary rise in schools in Ofsted categories following the introduction of the new Ofsted framework in September 2003. Members were concerned that schools could be on a downward trend. Justin Donovan and Clive Mitchell agreed to provide members with a supplementary briefing note in regards to this issue.
Members recognised the good work of the Youth Programmes Unit but wanted to know who will be funding these pupils as their cost per week is greater than the money received by their school.
Justin Donovan informed members that a strategic review of this provision is due to be undertaken.
Members would like to see a section of the report that considers the areas of underachievement. Officers agreed that currently this information is not pulled into one place and that it should be in future reports. / JD
CM & JD
2. / ALI Inspection Findings
Marianne Stevenson introduced a report which provides members with the findings of the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) inspection of the authority’s Adult and Community Learning (ACL) provision which took place from 29 November to 8 December 2004.
Officers informed members that the previous NIACE report and 3 year plan had identified the same areas of inadequate provision as the inspection, although the unsatisfactory grading of Hospitality, Sports and Leisure was a surprise.
Members were informed that the next step is to draw up a Post Inspection Action Plan (PIAP) and the recently reconvened ACL Quality Assurance Steering Group (QASG) will be responsible for monitoring the quality improvement aspects.
Members were asked to agree the process for signing off and monitoring the PIAP with the proposal that CSF Scrutiny Committee do a more in depth review of the report and proposed PIAP.
Members thanked Marianne for her work in this area and agreed that the PIAP be monitored by the Scrutiny Committee (22/06/05) who would then pass it to Cabinet when ready.
3. / The Impact of the Behaviour and Achievement Strategy
The report was introduced by Jan Hardy and aimed to provide an update on progress in implementing the Behaviour and Achievement Strategy and an initial analysis of the impact of the strategy whilst indicating areas for further development.
The report focused on proposals from previous panel papers and considered the following methods of provision:
  • Special School Places
  • Education Support Centres
  • Primary Support Bases (PSBs)
  • Behaviour Support Teams (BSTs)
  • Key Stage 4 Alternative Curriculum Places
  • Learning Support Units (LSUs)
  • The Behaviour Strand of the Key Stage 3 and Primary Strategies
  • The Hertfordshire Anti-bullying Initiative
  • Nurture Groups
Members were interested in whether there were plans to extend LSU provision in Hertfordshire as there are still pupils that would benefit from this provision.
Officers agreed that LSUs had been very effective and are now located in 21 out of 76 secondary schools in the county. Officers questioned how many units were required and whether it was feasible to have an LSU in each secondary school. Schools with very few behaviourally challenged pupils could provide their own provision based on the LSU model.
Members observed that several of the nurture groups were located in Stevenage thus not providing a good county distribution which members found disappointing. Officers explained that the number of nurture groups compared with primary schools is tiny which leads to the limited geographical spread.
Members welcomed this progress report and recognise these issues as being very important.
4. / School Funding Arrangements 2005/06
Claire Cook introduced a report which asked members to consider the outcomes of consultation with headteachers and governors on the proposed arrangements for funding schools in 2005/06 and later years.
It was noted that 89 schools (17%) responded to the consultation 4 less than last year and a summary of the responses was provided as Appendix 1. The responses from schools were further considered by the Schools Forum meeting on 20 January. The Forum saw no mandate for change and recommended the adoption of option 2.
The Panel agreed to recommend the proposals to the Executive Member with the exception of proposal 3.
5. / Update on Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Strategy
Justin Donovan presented a report written by Debbie Orton updating Panel members on the progress of the SEN and Inclusion Strategy.
Through a series of workshops the SEN and Inclusion Task Group identified a set of key themes for the strategy to address and confirmed priorities for action under each theme. The four key themes identified were:
  • school effectiveness and inclusion;
  • training and support;
  • resourcing;
  • meeting needs locally.
The Inclusion Task Group will complete a detailed Action Plan by April 2005 for wider consultation in the summer term.
Members argued that SEN funding needs to get to schools more quickly whilst resources still need to be targeted accurately.
Justin Donovan explained that he is pressing for a radical shift in funding allocation. The current system is very bureaucratic with panels deliberating over how much money is allocated to whom. There are two possible options:
  1. Children with very complex needs require specific funding. The LEA could give money to schools on a case by case basis for them to spend with careful LEA monitoring.
  2. A cohort of primary schools could hold back a substantial sum of money that could be taken when it is needed. This sum could be held by either the LEA on behalf of the cohort, or, 1 HT from the cohort would carry out this role.

6.Any Other Business

It was agreed that there was no further business to discuss and the Chair closed the meeting.

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