Agenda and draft minutes

1.         Mr K Smith declared an interest as a Member of the Board of the Dover Extended Services (DES) project. 

2.         Mr M J Vye declared an interest as a Member of the Extended Services Committee of the Canterbury Academy, which is tasked with attracting funding for the Academy’s extended services programme.

The Chairman welcomed all those present and explained that Miss Hanna Dowling and Miss Hannah Perry were attending the meeting as observers. Both were visiting the County Council to gain work experience.

1.         Members considered an update report of progress on each of the 18 recommendations in the Select Committee’s final report, published in December 2010. Mr Carter introduced the update for each, and responded, along with Mr Whiting and Mr Sandhu, to Members’ comments and questions.  The points arising under each recommendation are listed below.

2.         Mr Carter acknowledged the vast changes which had emerged in the relationship between schools and the KCC, and the policy changes made by the Coalition Government in the funding of extended services, since the Select Committee had identified its Terms of Reference and started its work. These changes had meant that action on some of the Committee’s recommendations had necessarily been limited or delayed.  However, there are still some good examples of extended services, now called Learning Plus, going on in Kent.

Recommendation 1

Mr Carter explained that, due to changes in government policy, he had informed both the Education, Learning and Skills Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee (ELSPOSC) and Customer and Communities Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee (CCPOSC) in July 2011 that it was not appropriate or timely to take action on this recommendation.  Many schools, however, have taken the initiative to move towards local collaboration over extended services.  Members commented that:-

• It is important that various groups of schools across the county have the opportunity to share and benefit from best practice, and Mr Carter advised that work is ongoing on the best way to achieve this.
• Although progress has been hampered, Kent should still advertise and promote to the Government the initiatives that it has established.

Mr Carter announced a draft report, ‘The Impact of Extended Services in Kent’, the final version of which Kent would promote to the Department for Education.  Mr Whiting added that a communication plan would be developed to accompany the final report and that he and/or the Leader of the KCC would write to the Secretary of State to promote both documents. Members welcomed this as a way forward and asked that a copy of both be sent to them when available, and that the outcome of this promotion be reported to the Committee which replaces the relevant POSC in the KCC’s new Governance arrangements.

The update on progress was NOTED, and the work going on around the impact report and communication plan, and the contribution they would make, was welcomed.

Recommendation 2

Members commented that:-

• The concept of the promotion is more important than the form it takes, but promotion should be ‘top-down’, starting from the Government.
• As performance is patchy, Kent should identify a good example of extended service provision and promote it.
• It had taken a disappointingly long time – over 12 months - for the Director and Cabinet Member to write to all Head Teachers and Chairmen of Governors emphasising the importance and benefit of extended services, and Members were concerned that this showed a lack of priority given to this subject.

The update on progress was NOTED.

Recommendation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

1.         The Chairman asked Miss Dowling and Miss Perry to tell the Select Committee about their experiences of extended services in their own schools.

2.         Miss Dowling explained that students studying for the International Baccalaureate at her Grammar School have to complete 50 hours of volunteer work as part of their course, and could not gain a pass without completing this. The school has two after-school clubs, for sports and arts/crafts, which cater for a range of ages and have a minibus service to pick up participants and volunteer helpers.

3.         Miss Perry commented that her Grammar School concentrated more on academic achievement and had not embraced extended services as much as it could have done.  She said she was not aware of extended services or much volunteer activity at the school.

4.         Members asked Miss Dowling and Miss Perry how extended services provision could be improved, and Miss Perry said that provision would be more effective if ideas and drive for it were to come from students. 

5.         It was commented that, during evidence gathering, the Select Committee had been told that Grammar Schools tended not to embrace extended services as much as other schools, preferring to concentrate on academic achievement, and their reluctance to embrace this could lead to them not developing ‘the whole child’ and possibly turning out more NEETs (young people not in education, employment or training). Mr Whiting said many Grammar Schools support their students in pursuing the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and other volunteering opportunities. Members gave examples of volunteering schemes and projects at their local schools.

1.         The Chairman acknowledged Members’ passion and enthusiasm for the subject, which is still very apparent more than a year after the Select Committee had completed its review.  Because of the number of work streams which were still evolving, Members felt it would be most helpful for them to have a further update on progress in approximately six months’ time.

2.         RESOLVED that the Select Committee reconvene in the autumn of 2012, with the Cabinet Members, to receive a further update report on activity which is currently ongoing but has not been able yet to proceed as far as the Committee and the Cabinet Members would have liked. 

3.         Members also agreed that, when the new document, ‘The Impact of Extended Services in Kent’, to which Mr Carter referred earlier in the meeting, becomes final in 2-3 months’ time, an informal briefing be arranged, to which all KCC Members should be invited.

Conclusion

1.         Mr Whiting thanked the Members of the Select Committee and the officers who had supported them for all the work they had put into the review, and for allowing him to be engaged in it.  Mr Sandhu echoed these comments and said the key issue he had taken away from this and other topic reviews is the paramount importance of good communication.  Members should also be prepared to shout about what is good about Kent’s services.

2.         Miss Dowling and Miss Perry thanked Members for allowing them to attend the meeting as observers and said it had been very interesting to follow the discussion.