Agenda item

To receive a report from the Director of Children and Families that presents an update on the refreshed 3A’s plan.

The report of the Director of Children and Families provided an update on the refreshed 3A’s Plan which runs from August 2021 – August 2023 with information on each priority and each action’s KPI using the latest data available. A full list of the five priorities and fourteen actions linked to the Plan was appended to the submitted report at Appendix 1.

In attendance for the meeting were:

·  Councillor Fiona Venner - Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships

·  Councillor Jonathan Pryor Executive Member for Economy, Culture and Education

·  Julie Longworth - Director of Children and Families

·  Shaheen Myers - Deputy Director Learning

·  Ruth Terry - Chief Officer Social Work

·  Farrah Khan - Chief Officer Family Help

·  Dave Clark - Chief Officer Learning Improvement

·  Val Waite - Chief Officer Learning Inclusion

·  Erica Hiorns - Leadership and Management Lead

The Executive Member for Economy, Culture and Education and the Deputy Director Learning gave a brief introduction to the report and highlighted the following:

Ø  The 5 priorities of the 3A’s Plan are reading, attendance, SEND, wellbeing and transition. It was noted that nearly all of the KPI’s are on track to achieve their targets, with some of the KPI’s in relation to reading having already exceeded their targets.

Ø  A further refresh of the Plan will be undertaken during the Summer in engagement with school leaders and other stakeholders.

Ø  The work of Headteachers and teaching staff was recognised for the incredible work they are doing as well as their ongoing commitment and desire for continual improvement.

Responding to questions from Members the Board were provided with the following information:

·  It was noted that the pressures on head teachers currently are considerable.  As a result, the Children and Families directorate has retained the Head Teacher Support Service, which is working pro-actively with other teams across the Council to support head teachers.  An event providing primary head teachers with the opportunity to network, hear uplifting speakers and to make contact with key local authority officers has been planned for October. Updates on this would be provided in future.

·  It was noted that as part of the inspection framework it was now the role of school governors to support school leaders and it was important to embed this aspect as part of the school governor meeting. It was noted that round table events would be offered to Chair of Governors to look at a package of support for school leaders. It was recognised that wellbeing and support was required for both school leaders and teaching staff during school inspections.

·  It was suggested that the Strategy includes more emphasis around Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in terms of young people acknowledging that school is the start of life-long learning opportunities.

·  It was noted that the funding associated with the national Catch-Up programme remains ongoing. This consists of subsidised tutoring via the National Tutoring Programme and the Recovery Premium, a sum of money allocated to support schools in education recovery and which is calculated according to the number of children in school who are looked after or have been in receipt of free school meals any time in the last six years.

·  It was recognised that in the last 3 years there had been a number of teachers and Headteachers leaving the profession due to low morale and pressure of work. The Board were advised that Children’s Services were raising issues in relation to recruitment and retention of teaching staff with the Department for Education and Ofsted. It was noted that the directorate was intending to hold a round table event with partners to understand the duty of care of the city and how to retain top quality staff in local schools.

·  It was noted the directorate held no data in relation to vacancy levels, as there was no specific HR resource to hold data from all the schools and academies. Members were advised that the directorate was supporting schools and academies in succession planning to develop headteachers for the future.

·  Cllr Stephenson declared an Other registrable interest as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee on an Academy and shared his experience of work being undertaken by academies around recruitment and retention and suggested that future round table engagement events linked to the refresh of the Plan includes trustees and directors as well as school governors.

·  It was acknowledged there was a need locally and nationally across all schools for recruitment and retention to be addressed. It was recognised that morale was low and teaching staff were leaving the profession due to cuts in budgets. It was noted that unless a pay rise was fully funded it would take money from school budgets.

In conclusion, the Chair highlighted that a further update report had been provisionally scheduled for the Scrutiny Board’s October 2023 meeting to provide an opportunity for the Board to consider the revised Plan prior to it being finalised. Linked to this, the Chair emphasised the value of engaging with Scrutiny at the earliest opportunity.

RESOLVED - To note the content of the report.