Agenda item

For the Sub-Committee to receive the summarised performance of children and young people in Croydon schools for the academic year 21/22.

The Sub-Committee considered a paper set out on pages 135 to 166 of the agenda, which provided a report due for consideration at Cabinet on 25 January 2023 on Education Standards 2022 for Pre-Decision Scrutiny. The Head of Education Services introduced and summarised the report. Members heard that there were limitations to what the Council could do to produce improvements, and the national context was that this responsibility was now largely focussed on the schools enacting improvements themselves and via school to school support. The Sub-Committee heard that an Education Partnership Board had first been proposed to schools in 2020 to a positive reception. The Board would be made up of schools and key partners who would work to agree what local priorities were and enable greater school-to-school support and collaborative working. A draft terms of reference had been drawn up with a working group made up from representatives from a number of different schools and school types. Soft engagement with key partners had begun with those schools which were thought would be most difficult to reach and engage with the work of the Board, and the response had been encouraging. The Board would be launched in spring 2023, ready for being operational from the commencement of the new academic year.

Members commended plans for the Council to encourage schools to work together through the Education Partnership Board, and asked how schools had been engaged, noting the heavy workloads of Head Teachers. The Head of Education Services explained that Head Teachers had been engaged, but this had been alongside Business Managers, HR leads and governors. The Sub-Committee heard that engagement with schools had improved over the pandemic as the Council had been offering additional support. The Director of Education explained that a weekly newsletter to schools had been started during the pandemic, and the appetite had been for this to continue; this included information on lots of areas and helped to maintain an open conversation with Head Teachers.

Members asked how many schools would be needed to buy into the work of the Education Partnership Board for it to be effective, and the Director of Education explained that it was important that all schools felt represented on the Board. The Education Partnership Board set up costs would be initially Council funded, and possibly, the Council could continue to contribute  funding for the first year or two years; this was contrary to other areas where schools were required to pay into the model from its inception.

The Sub-Committee asked about young people who were not making expected progress from some specific groups. Members heard that some of these cohorts were very small, while others were very school and setting specific. The Head of Education Services explained that work was done with schools to identify cohorts of children who were underperforming to develop improvement action plans, to pair schools for peer support and to encourage collaborative solutions.

Members asked about ‘Virtual Schools’ support available for looked after children up to 18 and care leavers after 18. The Director of Education explained that this data could be provided through the Annual Report of the Virtual School 2021-2022, which would be shared with members.

The Sub-Committee asked about high numbers of persistent absences from education, and asked who was responsible for reducing this, any available targets that could be shared, and how it was known that these children were safe. Members heard that this was a historic national issue, and that Croydon performed better than the national average. Central Government had identified this as an issue and a cross party national committee would be looking at this, but ultimately it was the schools responsibility to monitor this through welfare officers or commissioned services. The Director of Education explained that every school had a designated safeguarding lead and that the Education department worked closely with social services on children missing from education. The Director of Education explained that attendance proposals in the withdrawn White Paper were likely to return in new legislation at some point in the future. A monthly virtual attendance surgery would be rolled out in the coming year to assist schools with improving attendance.

Members asked whether there were lists of those who were persistently absent, and the Director of Education explained that the individual schools would have these lists, and the Education department maintained a list of those deemed a ‘missing from education’. If children were missing school, the school would investigate this by performing a visit, and this could be escalated to the Council through referrals to the Front Door, which would be assessed through MASH.

The Sub-Committee asked how exclusions and suspensions numbers had been reduced. The Director of Education explained that conversations were happening with schools at a much earlier stage to see what additional support could be provided before a permanent exclusion took place. Members raised anecdotal reports of ‘in house suspensions’ and asked whether these had affected the numbers of exclusions and suspensions, and whether there were guidelines for schools on how this should be conducted. The Director of Education responded that there were positives around how schools provided additional support to children at risk of exclusion, and it was highlighted that the current focus was around inclusion of the most vulnerable students.

Conclusions

The Sub-Committee welcomed the plans to introduce an Education Partnership Board.

The Sub-Committee were reassured by explanations provided on persistent absences from education.

The Sub-Committee were encouraged by the collaborative work-taking place between the Education and Children’s departments and schools.

The Sub-Committee welcomed the results in the paper and the hard work of officers and schools in achieving these.