Minutes:
1) Mrs Chandler said that she was pleased to be giving her update on International Women’s Day and the hashtag being used on social media was: #embraceequity. She had been to Discovery Park to the Skills Hub – it had been very successful in encouraging young people and in particular, girls to participate in science. Early participation was being encouraged.
The Social Connections Service took a group of over 30 UASC young people on a special trip to the Oval Cricket Ground in half term. They all had a lovely, recorded welcome from International Cricketer and Afghan, T201 Captain, Rashid Khan. An interpreter was provided who supported them on a tour of the grounds and the museum.
They played cricket with coaches from the Oval, who identified three of them as having extraordinary skill. Some of the young people had the opportunity to work on an iMac editing tool. Since then, the Oval had been in touch with the offer of the group going back for a T20 game in the summer.
There had been record for the month of February in terms of the number of UASC arrivals, totalling 113. The previous record was 92 which was in 2022.
As of 3 March, the total number of UASC arrivals for 2023 was 189, so roughly on par with the same time in 2022. Of the 99 UASC referrals made in the previous 4 weeks, 42 of these had been identified as coming from Afghanistan, the youngest of which was aged just 11 years old.
Mrs Chandler said Medway Council had made a legal challenge to the Home Office in respect of accepting UASCs when the mandation was introduced. Medway Council’s challenge had not been successful and the outcome strengthened the National Transfer Scheme.
On Wednesday 22 February, Mrs Chandler visited the Front Door Team at Kroner House in Ashford. She was encouraged by the positive attitudes and level of knowledge shown by all the staff she met, and she could see how dedicated and determined they were to ensure the safety of Kent’s children and young people. The strong working relationships that were in place with colleagues from Kent Police were also noted. Thanks were given to every member of the Front Door team for their continued hard work.
Members were reminded everyone has a role to play in ensuring the safeguarding of children in Kent, so should anyone have any concerns about the welfare of a child, they were asked to please call 03000 41 11 11 or email social.services@kent.gov.uk and the Front Door team were on hand to investigate. Members were reminded that where a child is in immediate danger, to please call 999 in the first instance.
2) Mr Love said that secondary school offer day for children across Kent was on 1 March. There had been a record number of applications, totalling 22,620, an increase of over 700.
The number of Kent pupils offered a place at their first-preference school went up by 291 to 14,865 although the percentage had fell slightly from 79.59% to 78.21%.
However, the number and percentages of those being offered their second, third or fourth choices went up, so the percentage of those allocated a place at a school for which they did not make a preference at all fell to under 5% - the lowest since 2018.
Thanks and congratulations were given to the KCC staff in the admissions team who, every year, worked tirelessly to try to meet the secondary school choices of so many pupils and parents.
KCC supported all those who did not receive one of their 4 choices and had allocated an alternative school accordingly. For those who were unhappy with their allocation, applicants were advised to request to join the waiting list of any school they wanted to be considered for by Wednesday 15 March.
Any appeals for named schools had to be lodged with KCC by Tuesday 28 March to be heard on time. KCC was to hold a second round of offers on Tuesday, 25 April, for any spaces that had become available. KCC staff were ready to answer any questions that parents and carers had throughout the remainder of the application process, and were available to offer information, advice and support.
Details of what parents and carers needed to do regarding all of these processes were outlined in the emails and letters they received on offer day.
The first two meetings of the Kent SEND Strategic Improvement and Assurance Board had taken place, chaired by Deborah Glassbrook, an independent SEND adviser from the Local Government Association.
Mr Love said that this was a valuable tool in helping KCC to deliver the improvements that were underway in the nine areas of weakness identified in the 2019 Local Area SEND Inspection and the Inspection Revisit (2022). The Board would hold all partners to account, to make sure improvements were achieved. Thanks were given to all participants of the Board for their input so far.
KCC was to provide support during the Easter holidays via the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) which would be available to children who received benefits-related free school meals, and to other vulnerable children. This was to be in the form of free holiday club places and food support. More details were to be made available nearer the time.
Kent was set to receive £5.56m from the government in the current financial year so work was to be undertaken to ensure every penny was put to the best possible use to help those who needed support the most during these challenging times.
The Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho, had also announced the first annual HAF Awards. The HAF 2023 Awards would recognise outstanding HAF providers and showcase some of the innovative and effective practice. Kent as a local authority was to have the opportunity to nominate any providers who delivered excellent service to children and young people over the holiday periods. Members and staff were encouraged to make nominations to showcase some of the fantastic work taking place across Kent.
On Tuesday, 21st February, Mr Love visited Hadlow College, part of the North Kent Further Education offer, alongside the Director of Education, Christine McInnes.
With the upcoming reclassification of colleges in England to public sector bodies, Mr Love was keen to ensure KCC built stronger partnerships Further Education providers across the country. He was looking forward to taking the opportunity to visit other college campuses over the coming year.