Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director of Children’s Services, which provides a summary of performance at area committee level with a broader summary of city level performance, and builds on previous reports with additional local context and tracking of local indicators.  The report also includes the majority of education results, including tables of headline results for all Leeds schools and links to additional information.

(Report attached)

The Director of Children’s Services submitted a report which provided a summary of performance at area committee level with a broader summary of city level performance, and builds on previous reports with additional local context and tracking of local indicators.

Sue Rumbold, and Jancis Andrews from Children’s Services presented the report to the area committee which focused on the development work that has been undertaken and is ongoing within the West Inner area to address issues of poor attendance levels at schools in the area and the, targeted services work in the area. The report also asked Members to consider providing financial support to young people wanting to access the National Citizen Service programme who were unable to self - fund.

Following the introduction to the report, a question and answer session ensued, with the key points being as follows:-

·  Members raised concerns regarding the low performance levels in respect of Swallow Hill Community College, and received clarification on the status of the College, specifically with regard to its forthcoming transfer to Academy status;

·  It was noted that 3 primary schools in the area have shown improved ratings through Ofsted inspections;

·  The Committee noted that a detailed piece of work had been prepared with Member involvement and would be ready by May 2013 which will offer guidance and assistance on the journey of a child from preparing to go to school through to moving on to high school;

·  It was noted that there has been a reduction of looked after children in the West Inner area but the number is still high in comparison with the rest of the city;

·  The Committee noted that the targeted services have been restructured and a targeted services leader (TSL) is now attached to the clusters. The top 100 methodology for identifying and working with children and families is now established and well embedded in most clusters;

·  With regard to Common Assessment Framework (CAF) systems and the proportion of requests which met the threshold for being treated as a referral to the Children’s Services Social Work service, Members received details of the range of actions being taken to ensure that the CAF process worked more effectively for those residing in the Inner West area. Officers also made an offer to pick up any further issues that Members had in respect of this matter outside of the meeting;

·  It was noted that the West Inner area has the lowest figures in the city for attendance at both primary and secondary schools and specifically in respect of primary provision, Members highlighted the negative impact that low attendance had on numeracy and literacy attainment levels. Responding to comments, officers provided an overview of the actions being taken to address such issues;

·  Specifically looking at improving attendance, Members highlighted that key factors in addressing this issue included unemployment levels, housing provision, teacher-pupil ratios and the leadership of schools’ Chair of Governors and Head Teacher;

·  Members discussed the role of clusters in the agenda to improve schools’ performance.

Discussion took place around the challenges that face the West Inner area and how the good practice of improved strong leadership and management within the schools that are showing improvement could be rolled out across those schools that are still under achieving.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That Cllr. Blake as Executive Member for Children’s Services be invited to attend a future meeting of the West Inner Area Committee in order to discuss the key points arising from the discussion at this meeting.

(b)   That the contents of the submitted report be noted;

(c)  That the request within the submitted report regarding the provision of financial support to young people wanting to access the National Citizen Service programme, be noted-

(Councillor Taggart joined the meeting at 5.25pm, during the consideration of this item)