Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mr Manion and Mrs Dean for whom Mr Streatfeild is present.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee held on 10 May 2022 were correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chair.

Katherine Atkinson, Assistant Director of Management Information and Intelligence; Stuart Collins, Director – Integrated Children’s Services- Early Help Lead; and Sarah Hammond, Corporate Director of CYPE were in attendance for this item

1) Ms Atkinson introduced the report.

2) Further to comments and questions from Members, it was noted:

·       There were no waiting lists for educational psychology assessments. However, there were still EHCPs that were taking longer than 20 weeks. Performance had dropped since the published information. This was due to pressures around finding suitable placements to name on final EHCPs. The SEN service was going through consultation for restructure, and this may have had an impact.

·       It was thought that the reoffending rate has been affected by the closure of the courts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

·       Social work caseload rates were high, but the caseloads were being managed well and there were strategies in place around recruitment to increase social worker numbers.

·       There was a rise in exclusions in secondary education. Close work was being undertaken with schools to understand the reasons and challenges that had come from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Department for Education (DfE) had issued new guidance around attendance and exclusions.

3) RESOLVED to note the report.

Katherine Atkinson, Assistant Director of Management Information and Intelligence was in attendance for this item

1) Ms Atkinson introduced the report.

2) RESOLVED to note the report.

Sarah Hammond, Corporate Director of CYPE was in attendance for this item

1) Ms Hammond outlined the report. Members were reminded that the inspection related to Children’s Services but did not relate to open access services, SEN, schools or the Youth Offending Service.

2) Further to comments and questions from Members, it was noted:

·       Mr Brady raised concerns that staff needed to be engaged with, be able to contribute to service improvement and feel reassured that their concerns were heard.

·       An anonymous staff survey of CYPE staff had been conducted at the end of 2021 and had over 1500 responses.  The responses from CYPE staff had improved on the responses from the previous year, particularly with regard to senior leadership engagement and feeling able to give their honest opinions about being CYPE staff. There had also been a separate survey for social work staff. The survey results showed communications with staff from senior management was well received.

·       There had been issue nationally with the retention of qualified social workers and many had left the profession. KCC was working hard on the retention of social workers but it was acknowledged that it had been difficult for social workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ofsted had looked at supervision files for social workers during their inspection and they had seen that social workers had been personally supported as well as there being communication from senior management.

·       Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSWs) had capped caseloads of no more than 10 cases and were to be given the less complex cases. Therefore, recruitment of NQSWs did not have the same impact as recruiting experienced Social Workers. Work was also being undertaken to recruit experienced Social Workers and this would be aided by the outcome of the inspection rating.

·       Since the Covid-19 pandemic, cases had become more complex and ‘throughput’ of cases was slower. Social workers conducting visits had not had the same ad hoc supervision due to the pandemic and other partner agencies involved with children had not been as available.

·       No union or staff representative had raised concerns with Ms Hammond or to her knowledge, any of the Directorate’s Management. Social work staff were treated with parity of esteem. It was recognised that KCC was able to recruit excellent but diversely qualified staff into Early Help work. Social workers had to be qualified and registered to deliver statutory social work.

3) Mrs Chandler said that the judgement of the inspection did not mean that KCC was not going to continue on the journey of improvement. Members had shown their appreciation to front line staff during the debate and this was echoed. Thanks and congratulations were given to staff for their work.

4) RESOLVED to note the report.

Mark Walker, Director of SEND and Sarah Hammond, Corporate Director of CYPE were in attendance for this item.

1) Further to comments and questions, it was noted:

·       Demand for EHCPs had remained high. Work was being undertaken to make sure all children with SEN were receiving support so that this would reduce the requirement for EHCPs. The redesign of the service would improve performance.

·       There were challenges in identifying placements for EHCPs.

·       There had been a staff consultation on the redesign. Staff were engaged in face-to-face and online sessions, an inbox was set up for questions, staff were able to submit comments anonymously and the consultation was extended to allow further feedback and engagement.

·       Parents and carers were being urged to make their applications for school transport linked to new EHCPs. 38% had not made their application for school transport, some of whom would not require this service but those who did were urged to make their application as soon as possible.

3) RESOLVED to note the update.

Nick Abrahams, Area Education Officer (West Kent) was present for this item.

1) Mr Abrahams outlined the report. The report was a review of the previous year’s Commissioning Plan for Education Provision (KCP), assessing forecasting accuracy and outlining any changes in short-term commissioning intentions to the KCP.

2) Further to questions and comments, it was noted:

·         778 SEND places were being commissioned and the report said 40 had been allocated for September. However, places had been brought forward and 106 specialist places were to be commissioned for September.

3) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Hayley Bodiam, Practice Development Lead; Stuart Collins, Integrated Children’s Services (Early Help Lead); Ben Watts, General Counsel and Sarah Hammond, Corporate Director for CYPE were in attendance for this item

1) Mr Collins introduced the report.

2) Further to questions and comments, it was noted:

·         The Contextual Safeguarding work was Kent Police led and evidence-based approach and practice framework. It helped build understanding of the extra-familial risks to adolescents. It was overseen by the University of Bedfordshire. A report on Serious Youth Violence Programme was commissioned due the need which was identified within data. The Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) was police-led but some KCC staff had been seconded into the VRU to work alongside police. These pieces of work were linked but also separate. The Contextual Safeguarding work was with young people looking at places and spaces and making those safer, which had positive impacts on the community.

·         One of the reasons for the increase in the re-offending rate was thought to be the delays that had happened with the criminal courts as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was noted that indicators for Gravesend, Sevenoaks and Swale were RAG-rated red. It was noted that there were different challenges in different areas.

·         There was no key decision linked to this work. Further work would be undertaken outside of the meeting to ensure due diligence in regard to governance.

·         A pilot had taken place in Maidstone and consultations had taken place with partners.

3) RESOLVED to note the report.

Dr Sullivan asked for it to be noted that she did not support the motion.

Stuart Collins, Integrated Children’s Services (Early Help Lead) and Helen Cook, Senior Commissioner were present for this item

1) Mr Collins introduced the report.

2) Further to questions from Members, it was noted:

·         The greatest numbers of young people dropped out of education at October half-term. In order to address this issue, work was being done to increase the number of Further Education entry point times.

·         The Education People were tracking the young people and the impact of Covid-19. KCC was performing contract monitoring. The biggest challenge was with NEETs who were not engaging with support services.

·         The prevention of NEETs started in reception, building children and young people’s aspirations and was about celebrating school.

3) RESOLVED to note the report.

Angela Ford, Programme Manager; and Stuart Collins, Integrated Children’s Services (Early Help Lead) were in attendance for this item

1) Mr Collins introduced the report.

2) Further to questions from Members, it was noted:

·       All staff had appropriate future plans or roles to slot into and the learning from HeadStart would assist with taking forward the Thrive programme.

·       Data showed that the aims and goals from Headstart had been met. What success would look like had been agreed with young people and schools had been supportive of the work that had been done. The KPIs had been developed at the beginning of the programme and many of them exceeded. It was a ‘test and learn’ programme.

·       Social media advertising had been used to promote the two websites linked to HeadStart, Kent Resilience Hub and Moodspark

·       21 Emotional Wellbeing Teams, funded by NHS England were going to be working in Kent. KCC was project-managing the implementation of the teams on behalf of NHS Kent and Medway. Kent’s plan was to roll out Emotional Wellbeing Teams in 50% of schools, whereas nationally only 35% of an area would be rolled out.

·       The sustainability details for HeadStart were contained within the report.

·       Mrs Chandler said the schools’ and  community awards were particularly valuable and young people who were parents themselves had said that Headstart had helped them with their own children.

3) RESOLVED to note the report.

Katy Reynolds, Democratic Services Officer was present for this item

1) Ms Reynolds introduced the report.

2) RESOLVED to agree to note the report.

Terry Burgess, Head of CLS; Jude Farrell, Operations Manager – Skills for Life and Christy Holden, Head of Strategic Commissioning (Children and Young People’s Services) were present for this item

1) Mr Burgess introduced the report.

2) Further to questions from Members, it was noted:

·       The work on numeracy would be with Further Education Colleges and there was engagement with possible partners. There would be 10 types of intervention (as outlined in the report).

·       It was hoped that the reach would be increased through the engagement and procurement process. The aim was that more adults achieve Level 2 qualifications, functional skills qualifications in maths and as a result, employers would report less gaps in numeracy skills. It was hoped that adults would gain confidence through numeracy skills to access work or move up within the workplace. Outcomes from the project would be tracked.

·       This was new funding and participants will be working in a ‘greenfield area’ for this work.

·       Children’s Commissioning were to assist the lead officers on the project to ensure there was no duplication of work.

3) Mrs Prendergast said thanks to officers for their work on the project. It was acknowledged that a lack of basic numeracy skills was an obstacle in all sorts of ways including at work and in domestic life, running a household.

4) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations outlined in the report.

Craig Chapman, Head of Fair Access was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Chapman introduced the report.

2) Further to questions from Members, it was noted:

·         The Kent Wheels 2 Work scheme was not implemented within Fair Access. It was lack of interest which had resulted in the closure of the scheme.

·         A funding source would need to be identified if a new scheme for psot-16 transport was to be put into place.

3) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations outlined in the report.

Christine McInnes, Director of Education was in attendance for this item

1) Ms McInnes introduced the report.

2) Further to questions and comments from Members, it was noted:

·       A Member said that it was a well thought out review and all reviews should follow the same methodology. The collaborative approach taken, engaging with stakeholders was praised.

·       There were 30 focus groups of young people identified through providers and also, NEET young people were involved. There were around 5 young people in each focus group.

·       Concerns were raised about the availability of apprenticeships in Kent. Issues around apprenticeships and quality were being addressed.

·       The cost of travel was important but it was identified that young people needed good careers information and guidance. Parents were key influencers in the choices their children were making in the post-16 sector but choices were made based on what parents and children were familiar with, as the information parents had was quite confused.

·       There were 2 pilot schemes (in the Gravesham and Dover areas) of joint planning between post-16 providers to try to get more of a spread within local areas.

3) RESOLVED to note the report.

1) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Marisa White (Area Education Officer – East Kent) was in attendance for this item.

1) Ms White outlined the report. Following a redesign of the project after Planning Pre-Consultation and increase in prices due to inflation, the cost of the project had increased.

2) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Marisa White (Area Education Officer – East Kent) was in attendance for this item.

1) Further to questions from Members, it was noted:

·       When the school was built, a residential block was built next to it. However, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, there had been a consultation and numbers requiring the residential places had been low so it had not been feasible to continue to offer this.

·       It had been identified that a small number of pupils required targeted support or an extra year to get them ready for college and to prevent drop out. A consultation had been undertaken and the changes were supported

2) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Ian Watts (Area Education Officer – North Kent) was in attendance for this item.

1) Mr Watts introduced the report.

2) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendation in the report.

Ian Watts (Area Education Officer – North Kent) was in attendance for this item.

1) Mr Watts introduced the report.

2) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendation in the report.

Joanne Taylor, Head of Capital Delivery was in attendance for this item

1) Ms Taylor introduced the report.

2) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Lee Round, Area Education Officer was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Round introduced the report.

2) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Ian Watts (Area Education Officer – North Kent) was in attendance for this item.

1) Mr Watts introduced the report.

2) Further to questions from Members, it was noted:

·       Travel to school areas were much wider for secondary age children. There were ‘dot maps’ showing where pupils were travelling from.

·       Bus facilities had been enhanced on site. Over the first 5 years after the project was completed, the bus infrastructure would be reviewed and work undertaken collaboratively with colleagues in Highways.

3) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendation in the report.

Sarah Hammond, Corporate Director of CYPE and Craig Chapman, Head of Fair Access were in attendance for this item

1) Further to questions from Members, the following points were noted:

·       A significant number of parents had not yet applied for SEN transport for September. Those that had applied were in the assessment and allocation system and would have transport allocated to them.

·       Concerns were raised regarding transport for children in transition between schools.

·       Cabinet members and officers were working over the summer period on the transport issues.

2) RESOLVED to note the report.

1) Mrs Prendergast said the first key stage 2 attainment statistics since 2019 had recently been published, covering the attainment of year 6 pupils.  Sadly but not unexpectedly, 59% of pupils were assessed to be meeting the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths, down from 65% in 2019.

The Schools Bill had proved to be controversial, with a significant number of amendments made as it has progressed through the House of Lords.  KCC was submitting an expression of interest in participating in the “test and learn” phase of the government plans to promote Local Authority established Multi Academy Trusts.  Whether KCC was successful or not, during the autumn term officers were work with the Kent Association of Headteachers to engage the range of providers in the education sector to consider options related to the Schools Bill.

There was an update on the locally commissioned review of 16-19 provision - Pathways for All. Members were encouraged to read the summary if not the document in full.

Mrs Prendergast met with Simon Cook, Chief Executive of Mid -Kent college and visited their campus in Maidstone where she learnt about the breadth of their offer, future plans and was able to talk with some students.

The three Kent FE colleges educate 25,470 students and like other education settings, had to support them both during and post pandemic. A letter from Lucy McLeod, Chief Education Officer at the EKC Group,  was received about the very positive impact of the Covid Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) funding which was distributed across Kent last year.  They expanded 1:1 and group counselling, established a wide range of additional clubs, alongside trips and visits for students to engage in and trained Mental Health First Aiders. Thanks were given to Lucy for taking the time to feedback the impact of the funding on supporting students.

KCC’s Reconnect programme was still working with schools, and the second in a series of hackathons last month saw nine school teams focusing on ways to improve health, wellbeing and the ability to engage with learning within their school communities. Mrs Prendergast spent some time talking to pupils as they formulated their ideas and the presentation.  The three overall winners were The School of Science and Technology (Maidstone), St Peter’s CEP School (Folkestone), and Lady Joanna Thornhill PS (Ashford). Congratulations were given to them and to all those who took part.

Behind the scenes, officers were continuing to drive improvement in a variety of ways and thanks were given for this good work.

The Transport Eligibility team in Fair Access had streamlined the way parents secure free school transport for their children. Secondary transfer mainstream families were contacted to advise them of their child’s eligibility status, reducing the administrative burden of processing two and a half thousand applications. This allowed the team to focus on the assessment of SEN pupils applications, which could be fully automated to allow consideration of each child’s individual circumstances.  This placed KCC in the best possible position  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

1) Members noted the work programme.