Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Willmott.  

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have had in the business to be discussed.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People, and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 24 January 2023 are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

AGREED:

1.    That the minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 24 January 2023 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Chair noted that this was the final Commission meeting of the municipal year. The Chair thanked Commission Members and Youth Representatives for their contributions and thanked Officers for supporting the Commission.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any petitions.

The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.

The Monitoring Officer to report on any questions, representations, or statements of case received.

The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submits a report outlining the education outcomes and attainment in Leicester for 2022.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report outlining the education outcomes and attainment in Leicester for 2022.

The Principal Education Officer presented the report, it was noted that:

·         The report aimed to show the change in performance from pre- to post-pandemic at different Key Stages, including comparisons to other Local Authorities and nationally. The report also aimed to share data which would show the difference in performance by different demographics.

·         Drops in performance in Leicester were smaller in KS2 and KS4 than nationally but larger in KS1 and Foundation than nationally. Although Leicester was low nationally in terms of KS2 and KS4 performance, the improvement children showed between KS1 and KS4 was better than average showing that the schools were adding value.

·         FSM children were doing better in Leicester than national peers. Boys continued to do worse than girls, and an improvement in SEND performance was also seen.

·         National figures showed that there was room for improvement with the performance of Asian children in Leicester.

·         White heritage children continued to do less well compared to other ethnic groups.

In response to questions from Members and Union Representatives it was noted that:

·         It was thought that readiness for school being impacted by the pandemic was a big reason for lessened performance at lower years, however the importance of readiness for school was apparent even before the pandemic.

·         There was a readiness for school steering group with various partners, the aim was to connect work to have a stronger impacty.

·         Family Hubs would be a key part of bringing early years work out into the community.

·         The Child Wellbeing Survey showed that there was a significant group who struggled to make it to school, this was the same group who struggled with food access.

·         There was sufficiency of funded early education places across the city, however some of these places had become more inconvenient for families in terms of logistics. There were also issues with providers not having the finances to stay open and having staffing issues.

·         There was currently a consultation on Public Health Nurses, which would result in proposals on the position of these Nurses going forward. There had always been a recruitment problem in this area.

·         Performance data was not released by school this year due to the impacts of the pandemic, provisional results by school were available on the DfE website for KS4. However, Ofsted now judged by provision instead of by the data.

·         There had been an increase in performance in reading, writing, and maths by those with EHCPs, however attainment levels were still very low.

·         There were challenges in ensuring parents who were eligible signing up for FSM for their children. It was hoped that community support would be able to encourage those eligible to sign up. There was a form for those with no recourse to public funds to sign up for FSM.

AGREED:

1.    That the Commission requests that the data from next year be brought to the Commission  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education will present a verbal update on engagement work schools have been carrying out with families following the issues in the east of Leicester in September 2022.

The Director of Children’s Social Care and Community Safety, and the Principal Education Officer, provided a verbal update on engagement work with schools following the disorder in the eats of the city in September 2022. It was noted that:

·         There were a number of initiatives following the unrest including engagement with community leaders. This community outreach struggled to reach younger people through existing relationships in the Youth Service.

·         A strand of work was developed specifically around youth engagement following the unrest, with particular focus on young adults, this was led by Community Safety Officers.

·         The Council worked closely with schools on this. Schools did not report any major issues or tensions following the unrest. The lines of communication were there for any incidents to be reported quickly and handled.

·         Close work with partners continued, regular meetings with community leaders were ongoing. The Safer Leicester Partnership had oversight of community cohesion.

·         Ideas of new ways of engaging with schools and the Youth Council were being considered.

There was a discussion on the nature of community engagement with young people, it was noted that many younger people did not engage with the same community leaders that the Council was linked with and that those who most needed that engagement were often the hardest to reach. Officers made clear that their intention was to link up with the younger community and that this ambition was shared by the Police.

It was noted that Police were building intelligence on the incidents, so they had links with the individuals involved.

It was noted that there had been good involvement in the engagement process from Ward Councillors.

It was noted that no extra resources were being provided by Government fort this work so the Commission suggested that a case to the Home Office could be made regarding resources. It was noted that the upcoming VCSE Strategy aimed to increase links with relevant organisations such as Youth Clubs to help with this work as Council resources alone were not sufficient.

AGREED:

That the Commission notes the update and asks Officers to consider comments made.  

The Commission’s Work Programme is attached for information and comment.

It was noted that as this was the final Commission meeting before the election, a new Work Programme would be set following the election.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 6.45pm.