To receive any apologies for absence.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Forum members then introduced themselves.

No apologies were received.

To receive any Declarations of Interest.

Councillor Wilson declared that he was co-chair of the Governors at the Windsor Boys’ School.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2023.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 6^th February 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

To receive an update on the Pupil Premium and Quality First Teaching Programme from Claire Murray.

(Councillor Knowles joined the meeting virtually at 5:08pm)

Claire Murray, School Improvement Manager (AfC), explained that the Pupil Premium and disadvantage gap was a major national issue and had been a major target for RBWM for a number of years. She stated that RBWM was a high achieving education authority, and this had meant that the gap in RBWM was quite large.

From the published national data from last summer 2022, Claire Murray conveyed that the GCSE disadvantage gap had been the widest in 10 years (since 2011-12), primarily caused by the Covid pandemic, but the Borough was making progress in closing the gap. With Key Stage 2 (KS2), the Primary KS2 national gap had been the widest in 10 years with just 43% of poorer pupils having reached ‘expected standard’ nationally. Writing had fallen alongside maths, with the proportion of disadvantaged pupils meeting the ‘expected standard’ having dropped from 67% to 56%, compared to 84% to 78% among non-disadvantaged pupils nationally.

Claire Murray informed that RBWM was following the same national trend with phonics, whereby performance standards of disadvantaged pupils in the Borough had fallen by 9% in contrast to non-disadvantaged pupils which had fallen by 4%. This trend applied to both KS1 and KS2 in RBWM while also being below the national average in some areas.

Claire Murray then explained how RBWM was seeking to rectify this. One method was the Pupil Premium networks where primary and secondary schools in the Borough meet at least three times a year to share strategies and ideas. She informed that RBWM had pockets of deprivation whereby some schools had high levels of deprivation than others, which could sometimes make looking at strategies very difficulties.

The national government, Claire Murray explained, had introduced Pupil Premium funding in 2022 for schools, in which schools were then required to formulate a three-year strategy to manage the funding and make improvements to disadvantaged pupils. As part of this, all schools had to record on their website and present to their governing bodies and local authority their approaches in implementing their strategy. These could include high-quality teaching, targeted academic support, and wider strategies. Claire Murray added that the Borough had taken forward the high-quality teaching strategy, elaborating that all research stated that quality teaching was the most effective method in narrowing the disadvantage gap.

Claire Murray then stated that the Borough was implementing a year-long project but had also signed up to the three-year Pupil Premium. The strategy involved training teachers to become instructional coaches on a vast array of teaching and learning strategies, which had proven to be very successful. 32 RBWM schools had become part of the project. The Borough was also working with Tom Sherrington, an educational guru from the Walkthrus Project, who had given educational advice to schools across the UK.

Claire Murray reiterated that instructional coaching was the most effective method to support and develop teaching staff. This would involve experts working with teachers in regular one-to-one sessions ensuring through a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 124.

To receive a report on school attendance overview and elective home education from Alasdair Whitelaw.

Alasdair Whitelaw, Pupil Inclusion and Support Manager (AfC), gave an overview of children's attendance in the Borough’s schools and the strategic opportunities taken to ensure all children were accessing education.

Alasdair Whitelaw informed that there was new government guidance set to be published, originally in September 2023 but was pushed back due to the parliamentary process being slower than expected. In spite of this, the Borough through AfC (Achieving for Children) were using the guidance. This had meant that the Borough had to change from a fully traded offer, where schools buy back the Borough’s services from Education Welfare Officers (EWO), to being centrally funded to continue using the education welfare officers to fulfil statutory duties. The central funding had been secured.

The core offer to all 88 schools (encompassing academies, maintained, special and independent schools) would include:

·       Point of contact where EWO would be assigned with each school.

·       Attendance Lead on Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

·       Attendance Support Meeting once every full school term by each EWO.

·       Signposting for children to other services.

·       Legal Process, such as fixed penalty notices, parental contracts, education supervision orders, parenting orders and attendance prosecutions.

·       Working with other services.

·       Tailoring to the needs of school and cohort as some schools would recruit their own family support workers while others would use pastoral leads.

Alasdair Whitelaw informed that the Borough was in the process of extending the service. This involved reaching out and seeking expressions of interest for a new buyback service. With some schools expressing interest, Alasdair Whitelaw stated that a new service level agreement would need to be formulated, and that he received notifications of interest in the service offer. From there, he would recruit an additional EWO to support schools with persistent absence and severe absence. He added that schools were facing difficulties with recruitment and retention of staff to conduct home visits on why some pupils were not attending schools.

Alasdair Whitelaw also informed that there was capacity to further support schools further by recruiting an additional EWO as well as extend the work hours of currently employed part-time EWOs. There would be a specialist EWO for children with a social worker that would be able to track data across the schools, provide additional support to the social worker, and challenge schools and parents not performing their duty.

Alasdair Whitelaw also stated that the Borough was working closely working with Virtual School which had extended duties in tracking any child who had a social worker.

On Elective Home Education, Alasdair Whitelaw explained that the Borough had a dedicated Elective Home Education Coordinator. He informed that parents were not required to be on an elective home education register when home educating their children, nor did they need to comply with a home visit or speak to an elective home education coordinator if they don't want to. The Elective Home Education Coordinator, Alasdair Whitelaw stated, had built good relationships with parents whereby they would inform parents of the process, provide support, and scrutinise the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125.

To receive a report on SEND and preparation for inspection from David Griffiths.

David Griffiths, Special Educational Needs Service (SEND) Manager (AfC), started off explaining that Education Heath and Care Plans (EHCP) were care plans for children and young people with significant and complex special educational needs. There were 1,179 EHCPs for children and young people aged 0-25 in 2023 so far in the Borough, a 10% increase compared to 2022. This followed a national trend of a 10% increase every year which would concerningly place additional pressure on the system.

The primary needs were the following:

·       41% for autism,

·       18% for social, emotional and mental health (SEMH),

·       16% for communication and language,

·       13% learning,

·       8% for physical and medical.

In terms of school attendance:

·       49% of children and young people with EHCPs were attending mainstream schools (i.e., maintained or academy),

·       32% attended a special school,

·       10% in further education (e.g., Sixth Form, colleges or specialist colleges),

·       9% attended other forms of education (e.g., elective home education, home learning package etc.).

·       16% of the Borough’s children and young people with EHCPs were placed outside of the Borough.

The first stage of a EHCP a 20-week-long assessment process; in which around 90% of EHC assessments were completed on time, compared to the national average of 50-60%. This was positive as it meant young people were properly receiving support as well as the Borough meeting its statutory duty.

David Griffiths then explained how the Borough prepared for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) inspections, particularly as the timings were unknown and thus the Borough had to be always ready.

·       A SEN (special education needs) data dashboard was established to share data and figures internally and external partners, which also included regular review meetings.

·       A Self-Evaluation Framework (SEF) was being completed to test officers on questions from inspectors as well as compile supporting evidence.

·       A draft Quality Assurance Framework being reviewed to ensure the work was at high quality.

·       ‘50 Documents’ being drawn together in preparation for the inspectors’ arrival.

David Griffiths informed that the Borough had a SEND inspection six years ago (around 2017) which did not go well, resulting in the Borough being placed on an action plan. From there, the DfE (Department for Education) had been reviewing the progress of the action plan every six months or year. By March 2023, the DfE gave a positive response that the Borough had “demonstrated clear and sustained progress. This [meant] that [DfE] no longer [needed] to continue with formal monitoring.” However, this also meant that the Borough had to move into the SEND inspection framework.

The Chair asked what role parents had in the SEND inspections. David Griffiths answered that parents had a crucial role as they would provide input on the child’s live experience. The Borough had sought to engage with parents through parent engagement events and communication sub-groups. In addition, a partnership group called SEND Voices was established to further acquire parental input.

Alasdair Whitelaw added that it was important to get the voice of the child through the parents. One method  ...  view the full minutes text for item 126.

To receive an update on delivering better values from Kelly Nash.

Kelly Nash introduced the item by informing that RBWM had a deficit (alongside 55 other local authorities). As such, it was part of Delivering Better Values (DBV), a programme to improve understanding on improving support for children and young people in the Borough, notably around decision making and finances. She added that the other 55 local authorities (LA) which were part of the programme feeding back to the DfE on what could be potential common challenges across all LAs. Kelly Nash hoped this could lead to changes to policy from central government rather than LAs making their own independent decisions.

There were three parts to the project:

·       Module 1: Baselines and Forecasts

·       Module 2: Root Cause Diagnostics

·       Module 3: Implementation Planning

Based on a survey to parents and carers, the underlying themes from the results were clarification of goals and understanding of needs in EHCPs and the utilisation of existing services. She also showed a pie chart showing the results of a survey to parents on whether their children’s needs were leading to the ideal outcome as well some individual parent comments.

Kelly Nash then discussed the Opportunity Matrix which highlighted key areas which would mitigate the deficit in the services. These included:

·       Supporting the goals and aspirations of the child can be achieved without the need of an EHCP,

·       Supporting the goals and aspirations of the child through RP/SEN Unit rather than INMSS (independent mainstream specialist schools),

·       Supporting the goals and aspirations of the child through a mainstream setting rather than INMSS,

·       Supporting the goals and aspirations of the child through a mainstream setting rather than post-16,

·       Supporting the goals and aspirations of the child through a mainstream setting rather MSS,

·       Supporting the goals and aspirations of the child can be achieving by ceasing EHCP earlier (post 16).

Based the Opportunity Matrix, Kelly Nash explained that AfC had narrowed down three themes: inclusive mainstream, post-16, and the right place and the right time. From this, AfC had produced a draft Inclusion Improvement Programme with its key elements:

·       Allocate money to an inclusion strategy and resources to support this,

·       Expand the dashboard to prioritise focus and give visibility of progress,

·       Appoint an Associate Director to oversee change in programme and inclusion work,

·       A project manager to head up inclusion audits,

·       Involvement from seconded heads and SENCOs (Special Educational Needs Coordinator),

·       Implementation of a team of a range of specialities.

Kelly Nash mentioned that DBV had given positive feedback of this and was hopeful that the Borough would receive a bid of £1 million.

Councillor Wilson asked what was meant by numbers under ‘Steady state’ in the context of the Opportunity Mix. Kelly Nash replied that they were total reductions as a result of certain changes which could lead to savings. David Griffiths suggested that the accountants could give a more in-depth explanation of the Steady state’. Councillor Wilson suggested that this could be offline.

ACTION: David Griffiths and Kelly Nash to arrange an in-depth explanation of ‘Steady state’.

Councillor Wilson  ...  view the full minutes text for item 127.

At 5pm and all via Zoom:

·       Thursday 19^th October 2023

·       Tuesday 6^th February 2024

The Forum noted that the next meeting was 19^th October 2023 at 5:00pm and would be held virtually via Zoom.