Agenda item

To receive a report from the Director of Children and Families that presents an update on the refreshed 3A’s plan following previous consideration by the Board in November 2023.

The Board received a report from the Director of Children and Families that presented an update on the refreshed 3A’s plan 2024-2026 following previous consideration by the Board in November 2023.

In attendance for this item were:

·  Councillor Helen Hayden, Executive Member for Children and Families

·  Julie Longworth, Director of Children & Families

·  Dan Barton , Deputy Director – Learning

·  Rebecca McCormack, Head of Service Vulnerable Learners

The Executive Member for Children and Families introduced the report which focused on Attendance, Attainment and Achievement and was launched in the Summer Term. The plan has five priorities: communication, language and literacy, attendance, SEND and wellbeing and transition to positive post-16 destinations. It was also noted that further information can be found on the Leeds for Learning website.

The Deputy Director for Learning emphasised that this is a system piece of work with key contributions from the Council but with contributions and delivery responsibility with the Leeds system overall.

In response to comments and questions from the Board, the following areas were discussed:

·  Members asked about post 16 provision at level 2 in outer areas of the city and also transport challenges. In response the meeting heard that the January meeting of the Board will consider further education in more detail through a dedicated report. In terms of sufficiency challenges and balance of placements across the city, the authority has been successful in securing 900 additional places, funded through the DfE, for the 2025/26 academic year.

·  In respect of transport challenges, it was acknowledged that a lot of the Level 1 and 2 provision is located in the city centre which creates challenges for those in outer aeras accessing the places. Work is developing on provision in outer areas in collaboration with partners in the FE sector.

·  In response to a question on universal free literacy training in early years settings and how this might be extended outside of statutory settings such as into faith and belief settings, the Board heard that language and literacy was selected as a priority because of the impact of covid on children and young people coming through settings and who had been impacted by the pandemic in terms of language and literacy. Opportunities to spread awareness through faith settings was considered to be a potentially positive idea and could be developed to increase the reach of the free offer, which is available to all registered early years provision. This will be taken away to potentially develop.

·  The Board discussed 100% attendance rewards and certificates and whether the Council should encourage this given the possible impact on students who suffer from illness and those who have a disability that impacts their attendance rates. The Board heard that the commitment is to make every school day count and that school is hugely important and a protective factor for children and young people. Attendance is encouraged but there is an awareness that for some it is not possible due to health conditions or disability, and it can be difficult to balance messaging on attendance. It was noted that there is a difference between classes receiving awards as a whole and how that can be divisive, and individuals receiving a reward. Members highlighted the positives of rewarding individual attendance for those who attend school every day and the legal requirements on the local authority to drive up attendance levels. It was noted that for those who do not achieve academically it can be a real achievement to attend school every day and that it should be celebrated whilst acknowledging those who cannot always be there for health issues or disability.

·  The Board asked about Priority 3, Actions 4 and 5 on EHCP needs assessments and progress made on EHCP backlogs linked to the concurrent changes to Funding For Inclusion (FFI) and possible impacts on capacity in the system to conduct needs assessments. In response the Board heard about the additional resource to deal with backlogs which includes both educational psychologists and plan writing resource. 240 backlog cases have gone out to the additional resource to be assessed with more than 40 now returned which have gone through the multi-agency decision making panel and now back to the plan writers to be finalised. In terms of seeing the impact of this work this will start to come through in around 5 weeks’ time with some of the children being allocated with completed plans.

·  It was noted that communication to parents, carers, SENCOs and schools can be more proactive, particularly to settings around expected timescales and this will be done to ensure that all stakeholders are fully informed.

·  In terms of FFI this work has commenced with a commitment to ensure that if an assessment has not been done, and the resource is not ready, then the FFI model will continue with the existing resource still in place.

·  Members asked about the multi-agency partnership meetings and decision making panel and whether this will be a possible bottleneck in the process. Members were assured that the panel is working effectively and whilst members of the panel are working extremely hard, they are making decisions speedily albeit with a commitment to extensive reading and work outside of the meetings themselves.

Resolved – The Chair noted that this item does not have an action in the recommendations other than to discuss the issues presented. However, it was noted that this item will be brought back to the Board in the future including with information on how much of the backlog has now been addressed.