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.

Agenda item 7: Academies

            Councillor Saltmarsh declared a personal interest in that her husband was a Director at the Thomas Deacon Academy.

The minutes of the meetings held on 12 September 2011 were approved as an accurate record.

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 that had been made on the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services portfolio.  Key areas highlighted in the report were:

• Early Intervention and Prevention
• Social Care Activity
• Adoption
• Transition
• Multi Systemic Therapy
• The 8 – 19 Service
• Youth Offending Service

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services was in attendance to take questions.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         With reference to the 8 – 19 Service.  There is mention in the report of a Friday Night Football programme which has been developed to engage young people and men up to the age of 19.  Can you advise what activities are being provided for girls and young women?   The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services advised that the provision for girls and young women would be looked into and that an updated would be included in the next progress report to the Committee.

·         Members commented that the report had not given enough detail on all the activities that were being provided across the City for young people and that future reports should provide a more detailed breakdown.  The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services noted the comment and advised that more detail would be provided in the next report regarding city wide activities with particular reference being made to the outreach bus.

·         Members requested further detail on the Early Intervention and Prevention work and in particular work being undertaken to ensure the coherence of the services to families and partner agencies.  Members were informed that Janet Dullaghan, Assistant Director had been assigned a piece of work to bring together all the services that were focused around early intervention and prevention and then to look at how the services related to each other and the needs of the community.  The piece of work would ensure that there were clear pathways for families to access the right services as quickly as possible to meet their needs. 

·         Was there a defined timeline for this piece of work?  Members were advised that developed proposals would be published in early January 2012.

·         Members noted the excellent performance of the adoption service but wanted to know if any progress had been made concerning the issue of foster parents wanting to adopt their foster children but not being able to due to financial disadvantages.  Councillor Scott advised that this issue might have been overlooked due to the recent events of the Ofsted visit but would ensure that this would be looked into and would report back to the Committee as part of the next progress report.  The  Assistant Director Safeguarding, Families and Communities advised that adoption allowances were paid but tended to focus on children with special needs. 

·         The report stated that due to external and internal policy and practice changes the numbers of young people coming into the justice system had fallen for the first time.  Could you explain what the policy changes were and how this has had a positive impact?   Members were advised that the Police had changed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The report informed the Committee about an Improvement Plan that had been developed in response to the findings and recommendations of the Ofsted safeguarding inspection carried out in August 2011 and the subsequent diagnostic work undertaken.  The Executive Director of Children’s Services presented the report and informed the Committee that support had been brought in from other local authorities and sector led specialists to undertake the diagnostic work which had been an in depth piece of work.  The improvement plan presented would be reworked on a thematic basis but the basis of the improvement plan was the need to ensure that social work practice was consistent and effective.  The general approach to improvement being adopted was to take good practice strategies, policies and material from other local authorities and implement them locally rather than designing new arrangements for Peterborough.  The current social care information system, RAISE had not been fit for purpose and as a consequence case recording had been far too variable.  The system would therefore be replaced with a product called LiquidLogic in April 2012.  An external Improvement Board had been set up that would be independently chaired and would meet monthly to monitor the progress of the Improvement Plan.  There would be some performance indicators to measure performance of the Improvement Plan but there was also a need for a better and more qualitative based approach to monitoring performance.  An example of this would be to increase capacity to audit individual case files. 

            The Executive Director of Children’s Services proposed that the Committee form a Scrutiny Task and Finish Group to monitor the Improvement Plan.  Proposed terms of reference and objectives of the Task and Finish Group were included in the report.

            Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         How much of a risk assessment has been conducted to evaluate the impact of the extent of change that was going to happen in the short term through the actions from the development plan.  Members were informed that there was a high level of awareness that the service was currently in a period of high risk due to the changes taking place.  Progress and capacity was constantly being monitored at weekly meetings. Measures were being taken to address this; one example of this was that all partner agencies had been written to reminding them of the escalation process should they have concerns about individual cases. Quality assurance of cases had also been a key focus.  Project management methodology was being used to manage some parts of the development plan an example of this was putting new technology in place.  The development plan covered a period of eighteen months and there would be times when the timeline would be challenging and would need to be revaluated.

·         Members sought assurance that the day to day running of the service would continue while the changes were being made.  Members were informed that the biggest area of concern had been the volume of work that had been coming into the contact,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report had been written in response to a request from the Committee for a briefing on academies to raise their awareness of how they operated and what were the key differences from maintained schools.  Key points highlighted were:

What was an academy?

•          An academy was an independent school.

•          An academy received funding directly from the Secretary of State.

•          As part of the funding arrangements, it cannot charge fees.

Areas of freedom that an academy had were:

•          Staff pay and conditions: Academies were not required to follow national Teachers’ Pay and Conditions.

•          The Curriculum: Must be broad and balanced, include English, maths and science, and the National Curriculum assessment arrangements.

•          School Organisation:  Academies can change the length of terms and school days.

•          Financial and accounting arrangements:  Academies do not have to comply with local authority finance arrangements but follow company accounts.

The contract for an academy was a legally binding agreement between the Secretary of State and the academy. The termination would require a seven year notice period.

There were seven academies in Peterborough with another one due to convert in April 2012.

There were three types of academies.

Phase 1 Academies were Academies formed from a school or a cluster of schools achieving less than 25% A-C GCSE grades over three consecutive years or significant re-organisation. These academies were established from sponsors from business, faith or voluntary groups in collaboration with partners from the local community. Thomas Deacon Academy had been sponsored by Perkins Engines. 

Phase 2 - Sponsored Academies where existing schools had been identified as underachieving and a strong sponsor agreed to run / operate the school.  Sponsors come from a wide range of backgrounds including education trusts, charities, and commerce but typically were successful schools elsewhere. 

Phase 3 – Converter Academies.  In 2010, schools rated ‘outstanding’ or ‘good with outstanding features’ by OfSTED could apply for academy status.  Other schools could apply as part of a partnership with a ‘outstanding or good school’ or existing academy trust with a proven track record of school improvement.  ‘Outstanding’ special schools could apply from January 2011.

Academies received the same level of per-pupil funding as they would receive from the Local Authority as a maintained school plus additions to cover the LA services that are no longer provided for them.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         With a number of schools moving to the academy format and choosing potentially to provide their own administrative services how will this impact on the Local Authority Services for the remaining schools who do not move to academy status.  The priority for the Council was still very much about improving educational outcomes.  The LA would continue to support schools in the way they had done in the past and the services provided would be refined and tailored to the needs of the schools.

·         How will academies impact on the admissions criteria?  The LA would still be responsible for co-ordinated admissions arrangements and supply of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The purpose of the report was to inform the Committee of the demographic situation in relation to minority groups and new arrivals, their historical and current educational attainment and the strategies employed in schools to support those groups of learners. The Assistant Director of Education and Resources presented the report which included statistical data provided from two measures that the DfE used to capture information on diverse populations.  The first was English as an additional language (EAL), which referred to pupils who were being taught in English to who English was an additional language i.e. not their language of first use.  The second being the recording of ethnic minority which was a compulsory requirement of all pupils aged 5 and over.   There had been a rapid increase in both these measures over the last five years.  Peterborough had been the second largest growing cohort of EAL in the country.  There had been a wide gap in the levels of attainment between EAL and non EAL pupils and this was being dealt with as a key priority for schools.   Minority Ethnic New Arrivals (MENA) which were children who had been in the country less than two years accounted for 6.3% of the population in the schools.  Peterborough had a wide range of cultural diversity across the city and within the schools which had brought a number of positive aspects and richness to the city.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         How long does a family have to be in the country before their offspring cease to be classed as an EAL?  Members were informed that it was up to the parents to record whether their children were EAL or not when they entered a school.  This was a difficult measure to manage and advice and guidance had been given to schools to assist parents.

·         Members commented that there was a myth that non English speaking children in the class room had an effect on the attainment of the English speaking children.  The report however indicated that there had been a year on year improvement in attainment at key stage 2 for non EAL pupils therefore dispelling that myth.

·         Councillor Shearman commented that he was aware that the Polish and Lithuanian communities ran Saturday schools for their children where English was taught.  Had formal contact been made with those groups and were other community groups being encouraged to follow their example.  This was encouraged and all the schools that had significant co-horts of community groups had close links with those groups.

·         The report states that if further funding were available, one of the areas considered to have the most impact upon outcomes for minority groups would be “Being able to employ extra teachers rather than teaching assistants to run directed specific intervention programmes to support EAL learners”.   Why has this statement been made and what was the evidence that teachers were better at supporting EAL learners than well trained teaching assistants.  Members were informed that the statement had come directly  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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 the following key decisions:

·         Hampton Community School – KEY/07OCT/11

·         Peterborough’s Transport Partnership Policy for pupils aged 4-16 years – KEY/01NOV/11

·         Review of Play Centres in Peterborough – KEY/09OCT/11

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.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Joint meeting of Scrutiny Committees and Commissions to scrutinise the Budget 2011/12 and Medium Financial Strategy to 2015/16.

Monday 16 January 2012

Creating Opportunities & Tackling Inequalities Scrutiny Committee.

16 January 2012