Agenda and minutes

No apologies were received.

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

             No declarations of interest were received.

The minutes of the meetings held on 26 July 2011 were approved as an accurate record.  Councillor Nadeem wished it noted that he had attended the meeting on 26 July but that it had not been recorded in the minutes.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions. If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for Call-in to consider.

The report informed the Committee on the progress of the work and developments with Young Carers in Peterborough since last reported to the Committee in November 2009.  Key areas highlighted were:

·        The contract to provide services to young carers had been awarded to KIDS in autumn 2010 and they had started to deliver services in November 2010.

·        There had been an increase in the number of referrals to the service, an increase in the number of young carers and families supported and an increase in the range of activities/ services provided.

·         The Young Carers Strategy had been endorsed and was being implemented.

A young carer, Sam was in attendance to talk about a day in her life as a young carer , and how she helped look after her disabled sibling.  A representative from KIDS  a national charity which had been commissioned to deliver the young carers service in Peterborough was also in attendance.  Members were informed about the organisation and that it  already supported  fifty families and sixty young people  locally and provided  them with a range of support.   The KIDS project helped safeguard young carers who were taking on significant responsibility for a parent or sibling who was ill or disabled, and gave those young people the opportunity to meet others, make friends, share experiences and have fun.   They ran holiday and after school activities and clubs and held regular meetings outside of the family home.  One of the main challenges was the cost of the venues to run events and finding space to hold them.

The Chair thanked the Young Carer for attending and providing an interesting insight into the life of a young carer.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the report and requested a further report in six months time.  Future reports to include challenges and issues.

                      The Head of School Improvement presented the report and informed the Committee that he led the team of School Improvement Advisers and Learning and Teaching Consultants.  Early Years Foundation (EYFS) data and Key Stage One had been validated other results had remained unvalidated.  Areas highlighted were:

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) outcomes had improved by +5%  in the key measure of % achieving at least 78 points and 6+ scale points in all Personal, Social and Emotional development (PSE) and Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL) scales. 

Outcomes in CLL, whilst improving overall by 3%, had shown only a 0.1 scale point improvement in the average score, and only a 0.2 average scale point improvement for the lowest 20% pupils.  These areas would be a key focus for work in 2011-12.  CLL outcomes had been below those expected, causing a negative effect when pupils began Key Stage 1. 

Key Stage 1 (KS1) (Y2, age 7) LA Results.   KS1 outcomes had been disappointing.  Whilst consistently ahead of outcomes achieved in 2007 and 2008, they had fallen below the levels achieved in the past two years.  Performance levels had been maintained, with some small declines, at the higher levels of L2b+ and L3, which remained some distance ahead of those achieved up to 2008.  There had been a continuing difference in attainment levels between boys and girls and this year’s focus would be on raising attainment in boys.  Resourcing had been targeted at leadership of schools with Head Teachers and at class room teacher level to bring about an improvement in classroom teaching.

The gap to national performance had widened slightly in reading and writing, but less so in mathematics, where outcomes at L2+ had shown a slight improvement (+0.2%) from 2010.

Key Stage 2 (Y6, age 11) LA Results

·                Performance at L4+ in English was 75%, unchanged from 2010 and 6% below the 2010 national average performance;

·                Performance at L4+ in mathematics was 76%, unchanged  from 2010 and 4% below 2010 national average performance;

·                Performance at L4+ in both English and mathematics was 68%, 1% improvement on 2010 and 6% below the 2010 national performance;

·                Performance at L5 in English was 22%, a 4% decline from 2010 and 10% below the 2010 national average performance;

·                Performance at L5 in mathematics was 28%, a 1% decline from 2010 and 6% below the 2010 national performance.

Members were informed that validated data when returned in January 2012 was likely to show that L4+ English would be 78%, mathematics would be 79% and the combined subjects would be 71%.  Those results would be the best that schools in Peterborough had ever recorded.

The number of schools judged to be Below the Floor Standard (BFS) had declined from 14 in 2010 to 6 in 2011. 

The number of schools judged to be vulnerable had declined from 17 in 2010 to 12 in 2011.

Key Stage 4 (Y11, age 16) LA Results had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report informed the Committee on school developments across Peterborough highlighting steps being taken to address the shortfall of school places. 

The Assistant Director, Education and Resources presented the report and a power-point presentation on School Admissions and School Place Planning, which detailed the following:

• The Local Authority’s responsibilities
• Admission process
• Size of schools and legal issues (Infant Class Size legislation)
• Types of schools
• Why there were pressures on school places
• Demography of Peterborough
• Current projects underway
• Future projects and funding

There had been several contributors to pressures on school places in the city:

•          Birth rates had increased by 30% in the last 5 years.  The current growth in under 5’s would not reach secondary schools until 2020 at the earliest

•          Migration – local, regional and international.  There were 96 distinct languages in schools.  It was not possible to predict further inward migration especially with opening of the EU to Turkey, Albania and Macedonia.

•          Due to economic growth / stability / employment in the city people had stopped leaving the city.

•          Success of schools gaining ‘outstanding’ status had attracted students from other local authorities

Large scale building works were being planned to address the current shortfall in places which would create around 4000 extra places.  Funding was critical and came from various sources.

•          Developer contributions – Section 106 agreements contributed about 25% to the development of new schools/ CIL (community infrastructure levy) some signed prior to LGR.

•          Direct grant from government

•          Funding financed by the council provided the bulk of the capital funding but there was still a shortfall.  The pressure to find school places in the future remained.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         How much does it cost to home school a child and how many were being home educated.  Children educated at home would not cost the authority anything as it would be the responsibility of the parents.  There were currently less than one hundred home educated children.

·         How many new primary schools are planned?  Currently six new primary schools were planned, some would be completely new developments and some would be within existing developments.

·         Members were concerned about school places in the PE1 area of Peterborough.  The PE1 area was heavily urbanised and there had been little available land to build new schools.  Plans were in place to build a new junior school on the Thomas Deacon Academy site Alternative options were being looked at e.g. using former school buildings, former office accommodation and the expansion of existing schools.

·         Members commented that the Authorities response to the shortfall of places over the past three years had been good.

·         How were the providers selected for the new Free School at the Hereward site?  The provider had been selected from five of the leading providers nationally and internationally for schools.  Each of the providers had been visited to understand the context in which they worked. From the selected five providers one from Nottingham had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and University addressed the Committee and informed the Committee that the previous two items on the agenda had provided an update on the Educational area that fell within the remit of his portfolio.  The Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and University introduced the Lead Officer responsible for Skills who updated the Committee on the progress that had been made in that area of his portfolio. 

Members were informed of the Peterborough Skills Vision which was a new initiative that had been launched in December 2010.  It had been launched in response to conversations that had been held with local businesses who had found it difficult to recruit people with certain skills. City Businesses and Education providers were invited to sign up to the Peterborough Skills Vision and commit to:

• Actively encourage and support employees to gain skills and qualifications that help to meet the needs of their business, as well as assisting their future employability.
• Raise their employees’ skills and competencies to improve their business performance by investing in economically valuable training.
• Engage with Opportunity Peterborough through an annual survey to share information on their existing and future skills requirements.
• Be positive about Peterborough’s young people contributing to the workplace and be receptive to the concept of helping them to make the transition from education to employment.

In return for signing up to the Vision they would receive support with local and national skills, signposting in the right direction for available funding, expert advice, information on skills development opportunities and support from training providers.

280 Peterborough businesses had signed up to the Peterborough Skills Vision.  The Members Directory could be found on the Opportunity Peterborough website.

Businesses who had signed up to the Vision were required to complete an annual Peterborough Skills Survey.  By completing the survey businesses had an opportunity to influence what skills were needed to be delivered in the City and what would be funded in the City.  An important part of the Vision was about young people and a new project called Peterborough Skills Service would be launched in October at the Annual Skills Summit.  The service would broker work related learning.   Schools and businesses were being asked to look at work placements in a different way.  Instead of the traditional two week block of work experience a business might come into a school to give a work related lesson.  The project worked closely with Opportunity Peterborough as this brand was recognised by businesses.  Seventeen of the largest businesses in Peterborough were working with four secondary schools to pilot the project.  The Peterborough Skills Vision had also been incorporated into the Council procurement service.  A Young Peoples Conference was being organised for January to give careers advice and guidance to young people.

A member of the Youth Council commented that young people tended to be guided towards going to university at school and not enough careers guidance was being given about training and apprenticeships.

The Cabinet Member for Education,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The report provided the Committee with information about the work of the Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board (PSCB) and an opportunity to comment on the annual report and business plan.  The Annual report focused on the statutory responsibilities which were about having procedures and policies across agencies, the performance management role and raising awareness of safeguarding.

Members were advised that during an Ofsted inspection in March 2010 the Safeguarding Children Board had been criticised for not sufficiently challenging in terms of performance management and that some action plans from serious case reviews had not been implemented speedily enough.  Those areas highlighted by the inspection had formed the focus of the PSCB during last year.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members referred to the recent Ofsted Inspection and the outcome of inadequate for Safeguarding. Members wanted to know if the Safeguarding Children Board had felt that they had been misled in information given to them.  Members were advised that the PSCB had reported to the inspectors that they had not received any reports from agencies expressing concerns about the performance of social care.  The information received in reports had not indicated any concerns and targets set had been met up to the point of producing the annual report in March 2011.

·         Members wanted to know how the PSCB were able to validate the information received from other agencies and partners and were concerned that the information was based on trust rather than fact and evidence.  The Chair of the PSCB informed Members that she had been able to validate the information and it had been the same information that had been provided to the DfE and at previous Scrutiny meetings.  The recent Ofsted inspection had highlighted that the information received had not shown the whole picture.  The Director of Children’s Services also confirmed that the information in the Annual Report had been accurate. The information that had been received for the report had depended entirely on quantitative measures.  The question now had been more about was it the right information as the Ofsted Inspection had highlighted issues around the quality of work rather than the quantitative aspect.

·         A member of the Youth Council wanted to know if Quality Impact Assessments had been completed on the PSCB policies.  He also advised that it was best practice that when the Quality Impact Assessment was conducted that it should be completed by an independent person not involved with writing the policy.  The policies were old policies and were due to be reviewed and Quality Impact Assessments would be completed on all of the policies reviewed.  The Chair of PSCB noted the comment with regard to an independent person conducting the Quality Impact Assessment.

·         The new Director of Children’s Services updated the Committee on the actions being taken with regard to the outcome of the recent Ofsted Report.  Safeguarding arrangements had been assessed as inadequate.  Members were advised that a Sector Led Improvement Model had been brought in to support improvement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Forward Plan, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Forward Plan and requested further information on Peterborough’s Transport Partnership Policy for pupils aged 4-16 years.

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2010/11 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2010/11 and the Scrutiny Officer to include any additional items as requested during the meeting.

Monday 14 November 2011

14 November 2011