Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr G Lewis, Cllr G Thomas, L McClean, H O’Neill and P Phillips. 

Members are reminded of their personal responsibility to declare any personal and prejudicial interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government and Finance Act 1992 relating to Council Tax, the Local Government Act 2000, the Council’s Constitution and the Members Code of Conduct

Note:

(a)  Members are reminded that they must identify the item number and subject matter that their interest relates to and signify the nature of the personal interest and

(b)  Where Members withdraw from a Meeting as a consequence of the disclosure of a prejudicial interest they must notify the Chair when they leave

J Beard and N Jones declared a personal interest in Item 3 but have full dispensation. 

To consider the attached report

Sue Walker noted an error with the third bullet point of 5.4 and that it should read:  

·         There is a shared understanding regarding the Additional Learning Provision (ALP) available within the college. 

Sue Walker then led the Committee through the report and together with the Officers responded in detail to the following question raised:  

·         Can co-opted members be notified of future updates? 

·         Has any consideration been made in regard to establishing provision for the new Blessed Carlo Acutis school? 

·         Has the work done over the past year addressed managing the anxiety of parents and carers?  

·         Are the conversations between the Local Authority and parents, informal support? 

·         Do you have the figures for how many formal reviews are requested? 

·         In relation to 5.8, did the Steering Group assess the recommendations? 

·         Does the Steering Group have the feedback from the Task and Finish Group? 

·         How effective has the training been for the school staff? Do we have an indicator of the impact it has had? 

·         Are there any perceived obstacles in achieving the goals? 

·         Lived experience representation – are there any other partnerships or agencies that are involved? 

·         Information regarding teacher and LSA training. 

·         In relation to 5.11, will there be any possibilities of speaking to those students who identify with ALN? 

·         In relation to 5.17, are you able to provide statistics?  

·         In relation to 6.3, do our current systemsnot meet the act? 

A comment was made concerning 9.1 and the five ways of working. 

Resolved that: 

1.       The report is discussed and noted.   

2.       Members consider if there are other aspects, they wish to scrutinise.

To cosndier the attached report

Sue Walker led the Committee through the report and together with the Officers responded in detail to the following question raised:  

·         Has the definition of persistent absenteeism altered? 

·         How many schools do not have an SLA with the EWS? How does this effect the recording of Fixed Penalty Notices? 

·         Withdrawn Penalty Notices – what are the reasons and are any of them legalistic? 

·         Are parents jointly liable? 

·         Children in residential – how do you work around the Fixed Penalty Notices? 

·         In relation to 3.2, did it bring forward anything new or did it just bring together previous knowledge? 

·         In relation to 5.4, can you explain the statistics? 

·         In relation to 5.16, are the staffing changes coming out of the education budget? 

·         How long is the grant available for? 

·         Is the staffing level dependent on the grant going forward? 

·         In relation to 6.3, questions were asked about targets. 

·         Is there a report available to show the level of absenteeism and the number of FPN generated for each school? 

·         To what extent do you feel that approaches to absenteeism are consistent across the borough? Can anything be done to improve the consistency? 

·         Parental expectations and engagement – do parents have suitable knowledge on the impact of low attendance? Can anything be done to improve that? Has anything been done in the past? 

·         How can the Local Authority support the changing of a cultural mindset? 

·         Are the financial implications of going to school causing problems with attendance? Are those issues being discussed? 

Cllr J Scriven left the meeting.  

Resolved that: 

1.       The content of this report is discussed and noted.  

2.       Members consider if there are other aspects of attendance they wish to scrutinise. 

To consider the attached report

The Chair informed the committee that they will be discussing transition arrangements for all key stages in the next meeting on the 22^nd of April. The Chair also discussed arranging a visit to the College prior to the next meeting. 

The following questions were raised: 

·         Can we include Education Psychology and Safeguarding in the Forward Work Plan? 

·         Will we be doing a Workshop on the whole school approach? 

·         Can we hold a space for something unknown that might come up? 

To consider referrals made to Scrutiny for inclusion in the Forward Work Programme.

The Chair and the Committee agreed that the items on the agenda had been addressed and discussed. 

Did we address the recommendations in each report and how have we added value?

The Chair and the Committee referred to the items that had been considered at the Meeting.

Any outstanding actions?  Feedback from workshops / task and finish groups / enquiry days, etc.

The Chair referred to the College visit and the self-evaluation workshop that is on the 14th of May.

The following question was raised:

·         Will there be any information coming back from the Estyn inspection? 

No other business was deemed urgent by the Chair.