Minutes:
1) Mr Love said that the full validated results had not yet been published but around 17,000 children sat the Kent Test in 2022, compared with around 16,000 in 2021. Of that, 5,517 were children living in other local authority areas. There were 5,566 grammar school places available across the county and in most cases, priority over places was to be given to those who were Kent residents.
Mr Love congratulated children who had passed, whilst assuring those who were unsuccessful that Kent had a wide range of excellent non-selective schools to choose from.
The deadline for secondary school admission applications closed on Monday 31 October. Parents and guardians could expect to find out what school their child had been offered on Wednesday, 1 March.
For primary school places, applications opened on Friday, 4 November and were to remain open until Monday, 16 January. This was to apply to any child due to start primary or infant school (reception year) in September 2023, or a child moving from year 2 of an infant school to year 3 of a junior school in September 2023. Primary offers were to be confirmed on Monday, 17 April.
There had been coverage of the shortage of school places in some year groups within the districts of Ashford and Canterbury due to the housing of asylum seekers and other migrants in hotels within the area, which included school aged children which KCC as the local authority needed to accommodate.
The extent of this pressure was not something which had been foreseen in previous commissioning plans, but it was something being factored in with forward planning for school places across both districts as part of the Commissioning Plan for Education 2023-27.
The current Ofsted inspection framework (following its review) had resulted in a number of formerly Outstanding schools being judged as Good following a significant number of years since their previous inspection.
Since September 2021, 21 secondary schools had graded Ofsted inspections and 71% (15 schools) had retained their good judgement or improved their judgement to Good. Six schools had a decline in their outcome - three formerly Outstanding academy schools were judged Good (Dane Court, Cranbrook, The Skinners) and one was judged as Requiring Improvement (High Weald). Two academy schools were judged Inadequate (the Oasis Academy and The Abbey).
Whilst this was a concern, it was noted that in some cases a lower grade had been given due to a school failing in just 1 of 5 assessed categories. Schools took all feedback received from Ofsted very seriously and KCC remained on hand to support them.
CYPE continued to chair a cross-directorate Home to School Transport Board to ensure clear, formal communications and planning capacity was in place to meet the growing challenges facing the Council. Members had been advised of the crisis facing the UK transport sector and these pressures were set to increase as a result of growing financial challenges on both providers and KCC.
KCC was shortly to exceed 6,000 eligible SEN pupils requiring KCC provided vehicles, with roughly an additional 1000 eligible pupils being supported by alternative schemes. With around 100 new SEN pupils becoming entitled to free school transport each month, Members were advised of the growing potential for unavoidable delays in the provision of new transport, which would fall outside KCC’s power to avoid.
The Home to School Transport Board continued to work to reduce the chances of these delays and Mr Love was to continue to monitor the sector.
The results from the inclusivity survey sent out to parents back in June 2022 had been published and 419 responses were received, of which 208 of these were from parents whose child/ren had Additional or Special Educational Needs.
Across the board there was a majority of positive responses received to almost all questions posed, highlighting the excellent work that many Kent schools were doing. 71% responded positively when asked if they believed their child’s school was helping them to make good progress, with a 72.6% positive response rate when asked if they believed the child’s school has helped them to take an active part in school learning.
However, some clear areas for improvement had also been highlighted, with only 50% of those surveyed responding positively when asked if their child’s school was good taking the child’s views into account during any discussions about their educational needs. All the feedback received was to be used to shape future KCC decisions and influence change, in conjunction with parent groups.
A new inclusive education survey was live on kent.gov.uk and schools and academies were encouraged to make parents aware of it so a greater response rate could be achieved. Results were to be gathered at the end of January 2023 and distributed to all schools.
Mr Love and Mrs Chandler made a visit to Woodpecker Court outside Dover, where students start the day before lessons under a parachute and gather again under the parachute at the end of the day to review their work and progress.
Mr Love was pleased to be invited and attended the Kent Association of Head Teachers’ Conference. Mr Love found the guest speakers at the conference inspiring, particularly Ann Daniels, a polar explorer.
2) Mrs Chandler said that as of 25 November, there had been 75 UASC referrals since the start of the month, with the total for 2022 being 1305.
KCC still retained responsibility for 464 UASC, plus a further 34 who were unaccompanied non-citizen children but were not currently claiming asylum. More hotels were currently opening around the country and it was hoped this would gradually reduce the pressure on Kent.
The 0-5 Strategy Task and Finish Group was to get underway shortly, focusing on important topics such as the best start to life agenda, the rise in EHCP applications and the promotion of free childcare. This was to be a cross-party group and 10 Members were to participate. Invitations were to be sent out to participating Members and the aim was to conclude during the first quarter of 2023.
On Thursday, 27 October, Mrs Chandler attended the Aspirations, Pledges & Opportunities event for care leavers. She attended the first pledge event and was inspired then, and continued to be inspired by Kent’s care leavers aspirations and achievements, and by the commitment of all of them. It was a very powerful and inspiring afternoon.
Mrs Chandler was pleased to hear how KCC departments were exploring their role as corporate parents and she was looking forward to seeing this develop even further. She said it was also great to see the collective approach between KCC and its partner organisations.
A range of pledges were made with the aim of further enhancing the experience for care leavers. There will be a further event in October 2023, again in National Care Leavers Week.
The Foster Carers Awards took place on Friday, 4 November, and Mrs Chandler congratulated all those who received awards and acknowledged the amazing work of foster carers across Kent.
Kent Fostering was always looking for new foster carers and anyone interested was encouraged to attend one of the online information events. The next event was due to take place on Tuesday, 13 December at 7pm. More details were available on the Kent Fostering website.
Members’ attention was drawn to the KCC Christmas Appeal which, in conjunction with the Young Lives Foundation, was aiming to raise £20,000 to provide a £10 gift voucher to every care leaver in Kent.
Mrs Chandler shared a quote from a care leave:
Being a care leaver is not easy. It’s daunting and scary to say the least, let alone the fact you’re totally on your own. It’s nice to know people out there really care.
Thanks were given to the members of the KCC staff lottery which had donated almost £4,000, and to everyone else who has donated so far. The appeal had raised around 40% of the £20,000 target, so it was urged that those who had not done so yet and could afford to, consider donating towards this very worthy cause. Details are on KNet, or ylf.org.uk/christmas.
2) Further to Mr Love’s update, the following questions and points were raised:
· It was requested that journey times for children receiving home-to-school transport be looked at and the impact of longer journey times on children.
· Kent PACT representatives, Alison White and Vicky Evans asked questions regarding the 0-5 Task and Finish Group and Strategy and commented regarding the Care Leavers’ event.