Agenda item

(Report by Mr M Whiting, Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills (ELS) and Mr P Leeson, Corporate Director for Education, Learning and Skills)

1.          The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills, Mr Whiting and the Corporate Director, Mr Leeson, to give their verbal updates.  Mr Whiting began by advising Members of the following:-

·       Commissioning Plan - Letters had been sent to each of the Districts making a request for their Locality Board or Local Member Panel to take an active interest in the Commissioning Plan that pertained to their individual district.  The request was to the local District and County Council Members supported by the County Planning and District officers to familiarise themselves with the information of their local pressures including; new housing, developments, changes to migrations populations and feedback into this Cabinet Committee and to Mr Whiting to inform the interim review of the Commissioning Plan in April and the revised Commissioning Plan published annually in October.  To date, Mr Whiting had met with seven of the Locality Boards and Local Member Panels all had agreed to participate. Further meetings were in the diary

·       Grammar School Provision in Sevenoaks – The preferred site had been identified and named as the old Wilderness School site in Seal High Road, Sevenoaks owned by the County Council and currently leased by the Knole Academy.  A detailed proposal would be submitted to the government in the near future in line with the County Councils mandate agreed at the County Council meeting in March 2012.

·       Kent Test - A review of the Kent Selective process was undertaken by Headteachers at the request of Mr Whiting.  The request was drive by The Cabinet Member wish to combat the increased level of coaching and to maintain the viable universal test across the County and where possible to align it better with neighbouring authorities.  The Headteachers’ Review Group wished to be included in any new test arrangements and Headteachers’ were sent a survey for their views the deadline had closed and the feedback was being analysed.  The proposal was for KCC in 2013 to tender for suppliers for tests for 2014 and onwards, the analysis would inform the tendering process.

·       Secretary of State, Mr Gove, would be visiting two schools in East Kent and Local Members had been advised. Mr Gove would be visiting; the Castle Community College (Academy) to witness year 8 lessons and then Cliftonville Primary School.

2.               Mr Leeson make the following comments:-

·       Development of Schools Partnerships and Collaboration - A school to school collaborative support system was being developed.  £5.2 million had been allocated to support the schools’ improvements by the Schools Funding Forum.  There were now 50 collaborative groups of schools in Kent covering more that 360 schools.  As work was ongoing it was expected that those numbers would increase through the Spring.  The aim was for every school that required improvement to be in a strong school partnership [the partnerships would be formal longer term partnerships] with good and outstanding schools in order to bring about rapid improvement in the quality of teaching and learning and ultimately pupils learning and achievement.  The partnership working included; maintained and academy schools, primary and secondary and mainstream and SEND schools working together.

·       A report had been submitted to the School Funding Forum before Christmas 2012 and the decision of the Funding Forum was to allocate £2.5 million in the next financial year to support further collaborative work between schools to further embed and strengthen that work. 

·       District Base Working – Underpinning the partnership and collaborative work was the district base working.  The majority of this work was taking place within districts.  Work had been undertaken to strengthen district base working.  The Education, Learning and Skills Directorate and the Families Social Care Directorate and Customer and Communities Directorate (where relevant) had intentionally set out to ensure that there were clearly identified staff appointed to each district for the particular jobs that they did. So that the schools were clear who the key managers were in each district.  Those cross directorate teams in each district would work together in a coordinated way especially when dealing with vulnerable children and young people.  The Area Education Officers were the overseers of coordinating that work under the direction of the Director of Planning and Access with the Managers within Social Care, the District Early Intervention and Prevention Team Manager and the Senior School Improvement Advisor for both secondary and primary schools within each District.

District based working was also being strengthened by service transformation. The special teaching services which supported children in need were devolved to a lead special school in each district from September 2012.  This was moving forward well.  There was a clearer relationship between the lead special school and other special schools in the district and other maintained schools to support pupils with special educational needs and a local executive group of headteachers oversaw that work.

·       Review of Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) - A report would be submitted to the March meeting of this Cabinet Committee.  The report would set out how the management of the PRUs would be better managed locally overseen by headteachers working together to manage the provision of children at risk of exclusion.

A pilot had been carried out on integrated adolescent support services in four districts; Thanet Ashford, Dartford and Tunbridge Wells which would now be rolled out to work in other districts in Kent.

3.               Members were given the opportunity to made comments and ask questions which included the following:-

a)    A comment was made on the review of the PRUs that narrowing the gap must be the main objective of the County Council.  It was encouraging to note that there would be closer working between the Directorates of Education, Learning and Skills and Families Social Care at a local. It was suggested that there also needed to be monitored at a local level and that the Locality Boards although in their early stages of development could do this work.  The Chairman advised that the locality Boards may not be the right vehicle as they set their own priorities and it was for this Cabinet Committee to ensure that there was a strategic overview and monitoring role that was consistent.

Mr Whiting added that there was a Joint Working Group, which he and the Cabinet Member, Mrs Whittle, sat on, which oversaw the work educationally and within Social Services for young people.  There were also discussions being held following the consultation regarding the restructuring of the Local Children’s Trust Boards and realigning their responsibilities and the monitoring could be held there, feeding back to this Cabinet Committee.

b)    A further comment was made that there was a role for the Locality Boards.  There was a distinctive role for the County Council to set the strategic agenda.  Dover Locality Board was already looking at progression within the area and would be reporting its findings and progress in February/March.   The Chairman advised that not all of the Locality Boards were as involved as Dover’s was. The Locality Boards would be involved with the Commissioning Plan but any support would be welcomed from the Locality Boards.  The monitoring role would be with the Cabinet Committee.

c)     A comment was made on the Budget of the School Improvement Service and how improvements would be made if that budget was reduced. Mr Leeson advised that the County Council was challenged with making further savings following the reductions in the Central Government funding.  The County Council had been able to significantly increase the amount of buyback from schools to sustain our services, which was welcomed.  Mr Leeson was confident, looking to the future, that the Education Learning and Skills Directorate would be able to maintain a significant enough resource to support school improvement.

d)    A comment was made that there was no indication within the Capital Investment Scheme for the provision of the Sevenoaks Grammar School within the meeting papers although there had been £1.5 million set aside in the recently published Budget Book and challenged whether this was a priority.   Mr Leeson advised that there was an amount of money in the Capital Budget to support the development of accommodation on a site in Sevenoaks for new satellite provision for selective school education in Sevenoaks.  This fund was not enough money required to build new accommodation or refurbish an existing building to accommodate 4 form or 6 form entry provision.  The funding for this would be available through capital receipts and disposal and new money when it became available from the Capital Budget.

e)    In reply to a question, Mr Whiting advised that the Free School that had been interested in the Wilderness School site was progressing with another site through the EFA.

4.               RESOLVED that the responses to comments and questions by Members and the verbal updates be noted with thanks.