Agenda item

The Strategic Director Education and Children’s Services will provide an overview of the Council’s Education and Children services.

The Strategic Director Children’s Services gave an overview of the Council’s Education and Children’s services, drawing particular attention to the following points:-

·           This was a complex area, with a lot of its work written in statute.  This included the Strategic Director’s and Lead Member’s roles;

·           Performance was very important, with the services’ main focus being on their impact on children, young people and families.  Training on this could be provided if required;

·           Continuous improvement was a theme running through all services.  This was a wider focus than just the recent inspection report by the Office for Standards in Education(Ofsted), (see minute 11, “Lessons Learned from the Recent Ofsted Inspection of Services for Children in Need of Help and Protection, Children Looked After and Care Leavers and Review of the Effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board”, below);

·           Adult skills were part of the portfolio of the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for Jobs and Skills and were scrutinised by the Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Commission;

·           The city had high performing secondary schools, but less consistent primary schools.  The Council was working with the education community to improve standards;

·           Reforms to Special Educational Needs and Disability services had introduced multi-agency care plans, in line with national practice.  These were now being implemented;

·           School place planning was a very significant area of work;

·           Multi-agency working on services for young people and families was critical, especially in the improvement journey being made following the recent Ofsted inspection;

·           The vacant post of Director of Commissioning and Performance was being reviewed, to consider the best way of developing this area; and

·           Key issues for all of the services were the focus on improvement and maintaining a clear vision of what was required to have outstanding services, working with other partners and ensuring that everything that was done made a difference.

Councillor Russell, Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for Children, Young People and Schools addressed the Commission at the invitation of the Chair, explaining that some interim directors had been appointed, as the posts were considered to be too important to leave vacant while recruitment was undertaken.  The Council was aiming to appoint staff of calibre as high as that of the interim directors.  The vacant senior posts would be advertised in September 2015.  Other posts currently were going through the recruitment process.

In respect of the Director of Learning, Quality and Performance, the normal processes to appoint a director had been followed, but the candidates who had applied did not have the right qualities for the service and so were not interviewed.  Job descriptions and salary levels currently were being compared to neighbouring authorities, which was why recruitment had been delayed until September.

It was recognised that there currently were challenges with the services at the Council, but this appealed to some people and did not appear to have deterred candidates to date.  However, a lot of officers nationally were choosing to take jobs on an interim basis. 

A difficulty with employing a Director of Learning, Quality and Performance was that many authorities no longer had a Learning Division, so finding staff with appropriate experience was more difficult.  Comparisons were being made with appropriate authorities, to ensure that this Council’s offer was suitable.

It was noted that, if the directors appointed were not already those people working in the post on an interim basis, the new directors would work alongside the interim directors for a period of time, so that services were not interrupted.

The Strategic Director Children’s Services explained the range of services in her service area:-

§   Early Help Specialist services referred to those such as the Youth Offending Service, Connexions, (which covered education, employment, training and the careers service), and youth engagement activity;

§   Early Help Targeted services were those offering more intensive, specialist help.  This included things such as language services for very young children, specialist family support services, services relating to the government’s agenda for troubled families, children’s centres and the 0-5 offer.  These services covered children and young people aged 0 – 19;

§   The differentiation between the two parts of Early Help was quite complex and training could be provided for Members on this;

§   Children In Need covered a range of services.  They were provided for children identified by Social Services as needing additional support as they were at risk.  This was the stage before they became Looked After Children, so many of the services were focused on preventing children coming in to care.  However, they also included services such as those for children with disabilities or Special Educational Needs;

§   Secondary schools in the city performed well, as many children entering them had not achieved well at primary school.  The progress they made at secondary school therefore was significant in terms of value added to their education;

§   As primary schools in the city improved, secondary schools would have to ensure that the rate of progress was maintained, which would mean achieving more than they currently did, as the children would be starting from a higher level; and

§   The performance of primary and secondary schools was discussed through a strategic partnership, giving confidence that the performance of secondary schools would continue to be good.