Agenda item

1.   Mr Love provided his Cabinet Member verbal update as follows:

1.1 Primary School Offer Day

• On 16 April, primary school placements were offered for September 2024.  Out of 16,653 Kent applicants, nearly 99% were offered one of their three preferred schools and over 91% were offered their first preference.
• Parents and carers were given until 30 April to accept the offer or they could refuse and ask to join a waiting list for an alternative school.
• The deadline for appeals closed on 14 May.  The Admissions Team was reallocating places from schools’ waiting lists and would send out a second round of offers on 23 May.  Mr Love thanked the officers within the Admissions Team for ensuring that over 16,000 pupils received a school place offer by the deadline.

1.2 School Attendance Update

• The Department for Education recently published its latest statistics on school attendance. While the levels of attendance were still below pre-Covid levels, there had been improvements.
• The combined overall absence for primary and secondary schools within Kent had decreased year on year by 1.1% in Autumn 2023, and persistent absence had fallen by 5.1%.  For special schools, overall absence fell by 0.4%, and persistent absence fell by 3.8%.  Mr Love paid tribute to the ongoing work by KCC’s Attendance Team in tackling the issue.
• Mr Love noted that school attendance was not primarily the responsibility of the Council.  Academy Trustees, Governing Bodies, Schools, and Academies all had a role to play, and parents were legally responsible for ensuring their child received a suitable full-time education.

1.3 SEND Information Roadshows

• Four SEND Information Roadshows have taken place to date.  All the Roadshows had been fully booked and 180 families attended.
• The SEND service was exploring the possibility of digitising the content of the Roadshows to enable access to a wider audience, and more Roadshows planned in the future.

1.4 SEND Enquiry Hub Update

• At the beginning of April 2023, the SEND Enquiry Hub was launched to help improve communication with SEND services.  By the end of March 2024, the SEND Enquiry Hub had supported 11,554 families with their queries and 99.8% of these queries had been resolved within five working days.
• Work was now underway to enhance the database’s accuracy which would add additional capability to the Hub.

1.5 Isle of Sheppey Schools

• There have been significant developments in respect to the secondary school proposals on the Isle of Sheppey.
• The DfE issued the formal closure letter to Oasis Community Learning, this allowed Leigh Academies Trust and EKC Schools Trust to proceed with the next stages of establishing two new academies on the Isle for September 2024.
• Families affected by the change had been contacted on 25 March to begin the process of identifying a place at one of the new academies.
• Mr Love welcomed the news as a positive next step for education on the Isle of Sheppey.

2.  Mr Love offered to obtain and share with Mr Sandhu details about the number of children missing school in the Dartford area.

3.     Mrs Chandler provided her Cabinet Member verbal update as follows:

3.1 Family Hubs Update

• The majority of staff appointments had been made and the remaining vacancies were advertised on the KCC website.
• Some sites have been renamed to ensure accessibility to all.
• There were interim service timetables in place at the existing Family Hubs and Children’s Centres, however, they were to be revised and full service timetables would be available from June onwards.
• A variety of outreach sessions were being introduced across the County, particularly in locations where centres had closed.  For example, outreach sessions were to be piloted at Faversham Library, which was a 5-minute walk away from St Mary’s Children’s Centre. 

3.2 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Update

• There had been 77 UASC arrivals so far this month, and the total for the year was currently 748. There were 85 children awaiting dispersal via the National Transfer Scheme.  The largest proportion of arrivals were from Afghanistan, followed by Iran and Sudan.  The majority of arrivals were aged 16 and 17, however, there were some younger arrivals.
• The Council would look to find an alternative site for the UASC Reception Centre planned at Ocean Hights on the Isle of Sheppey.  Elsewhere, work at the identified sites continued with full communication with residents.
• A detailed FAQ section was available on the Council’s website that was regularly updated. 

4.     Further to questions and comments from Members, it was noted that:

• The Family Hubs would be operating with a fuller timetable in June.
• A dedicated Family Hubs webpage was under development that was intended to include all the information service users needed. This was expected to be operational within the next few weeks.
• Some Family Hub services were universal, and some used a referral system to allow planning for the number of people attending. There was also the option to self-refer in some cases.
• The advert was currently live for family coach volunteers.  It was planned to eventually have 12 coaches in each district if the small scale trial was successful.
• A list of outreach services for the Canterbury area could be provided to Mr Brady.

5.   The verbal updates were noted.