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Agenda and draft minutes

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Items
No. Item

42.

Apologies for Absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

43.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of substitute members.

44.

Declarations of Interest

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

45.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 91 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members sought a correction to the minutes, for it to state that officers had confirmed that the PRU was to be incorporated into the committee’s work programme.

 

RESOLVED:

That subject to the amendment above, the minutes of the meeting held on 22nd October be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

46.

Chair's Report

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair outlined that a programme of evidence gathering sessions as part of the committee’s review into persistent absence in secondary school would continue into the new year.

47.

Public Questions

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Public Questions were received and answered during the discussion of the relevant agenda item(s).

48.

Joint Protocol on Section 17 Families pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Housing Operations was in attendance to present the protocol and take questions, in addition to the Executive Member for Children, Young People & Families and officers from the Children & Young People service. In the discussion, the following points were raised: 

 

  • The Joint Protocol on Section 17 Families had been developed between the Homes & Neighbourhoods and Children & Young People directorates. The protocol was put to the Homes and Communities Scrutiny Committee for comment and was endorsed at their meeting of 14th October 2024 and had now come to this committee for comment and endorsement.
  • There were currently 1568 homeless households in temporary accommodation, the highest ever amount. 889 of them had children, equivalent to 57% of all homeless families in temporary accommodation have children.
  • In addition, 1404 children were living in temporary accommodation that Islington provides and 640 children were within the borough. Islington was probably the highest in London in terms of the percentage that were still living in the borough and the third lowest in London in terms of the number of children living in temporary accommodation. It was sometimes necessary to place children and their families outside of the borough due to factors such as escaping domestic abuse, but moving families to remote locations was not routine. It was currently policy to move families to within a ninety-minute commute of the borough and most families living outside the borough were within neighbouring London boroughs such as Waltham Forest, Haringey and Enfield.
  • The protocol had been drafted in partnership with Children’s Services. There had been wide consultation including with partner agencies and a cross-party parliamentary group on temporary accommodation.
  • The Chartered Institute on Housing had recommended Islington’s approach as best practice to other local authorities
  • The protocol sought to place homeless families with children as the focus and ensure an empathetic, holistic approach to meeting their needs.
  • A commitment had been made to not use bed and breakfasts to house homeless households unless it was a critical emergency.
  • Islington was the first local authority to mandate providers to have cots available for children.
  • Officers stated that there was free WiFi was available in all Islington council properties and officers were seeking to extend this to other properties, including in the private rented sector outside of the borough.
  • Officers stated that there were more homeless families with children than there were available council or housing association properties and no affordable options for them within the private rented sector. This, compounded with rents increasing on average by 15%, indicated the severity of the housing crisis.
  • In response to members questions regarding information sharing when families moved to neighbouring borough, specifically for those on Child In Need plans, officers advised that a Section 17 CIN assessment was often done in collaboration with all parties, such as education, housing, and health and social care etc, and the Council wad under legal obligation to notify the incoming local authority of the family and ensure the family’s information travelled with them. Officers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

49.

Special Guardianship Update pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair clarified that this item was bought to committee at their request, following feedback members had received from special guardians about levels of support available to them. The Chair stated that the consideration of this item this evening was to determine whether it required further oversight as part of the committee’s work programme, but that due to time constraints, intended to adjourn this item to a future meeting of the committee.

 

RESOLVED

That this item is adjourned to a future meeting of the committee.

 

50.

Attendance Codes - Verbal Update (No Papers)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair opened the item by stating that it had been bought to committee in light of the work being conducted by officers regarding the new codes and was an update of the work undertaken to date to inform schools.

 

  • Officers stated that statutory guidance had been received in September 2024 which included a revised set of attendance codes. Of the 34 codes, 12 were new.
  • Officers stated that the updated codes provided greater flexibility in recording attendance and allowed schools to differentiate authorised and unauthorised absences more effectively.
  • Officers stated that many codes now had sub types allowing for more accurate coding.
  • In the category for when students were attending a place other than school, but statistically present the only new code was the K code and all others remained unchanged.
  • The B code had been retitled to specifically include reference to attending other approved supervised activity. Officers stated this was because of historical misuse nationally, wherein some schools were assigning students work to complete at home without supervision.
  • Officers stated there were three new codes in the leave of absence category, including C1 which was for pupils participating in regulated performance or regulated employment abroad. Previously this would have just been coded C. J1 was a sub code for the purposes for attending interview for employment or another education institution. The C2 code was for a part time or reduced timetable of some description.
  • The T code had been generalised to now refer to parents travelling for occupational purposes.
  • Officers stated there were also new codes for pupils unable to attend for unavoidable causes, with seven underneath the Q code, replacing the single Y code. 
  • Officers stated that nationally there had been research on listening and learning from parents in the attendance crisis, from which a key finding was that there had been a relationship breakdown between schools and families, primarily attributed to the accuracy of school attendance data at end of the school year. Officers stated that while Islington should endeavour to ensure there was greater accuracy in the recording of attendance, it was not the fault of schools, who were following the DfE guidance.
  • Officers stated as an example, that schools would previously have to code a student absent for the entire morning, when a student may have only missed an hour of school, but that it was now at schools’ discretion for pupils to be marked present from when they arrive at school and override the codes. This primarily affected those with early morning appointments who would have previously been marked absent for the morning for missing registration, as opposed to those that had mid-morning or mid-afternoon appointments and would be counted as present. Officers further stated that being marked as present affected a pupil’s attendance rate, regardless of whether the absence was authorised, but it could be that children with regular CAMHS appointments were accessing appointments that may facilitate their education to begin with, adding to the strain in relations between families and schools.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

51.

School Organisation Verbal Update (No Papers)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Officers delivered a verbal update on the School Organisation plan. In the update and discussion, the following points were raised:

  • Officers stated that the Council was in the consultation period on proposals regarding the future of two of the borough’s primary schools as part of Phase Three of the School Organisation plan. These were Highbury Quadrant Primary School and St Jude’s & St Paul’s Primary School. As of this meeting there had been approximately 150 representations for Highbury Quadrant and approximately 100 for St Jude’s & St Paul’s. Following the consultation there would be a report capturing the data, which would then help to shape the recommendations that the Executive will decide upon in February 2025.
  • Officers stated that Phase Three had a focus on reducing surplus places across the school estate and that London faced serious challenges in education space as a result of lower birth rates, falling rolls and the housing crisis. Officers stated that data from the Greater London Authority (GLA) indicated that inner London would continue to face significant challenges on school place surpluses, a reverse on previous generations where there had not been enough school places.
  • Officers stated that there was an average of 20% surplus places in primary estate and the pressures were moving into the secondary estate, and that on average each surplus place equated to approximately £6,000 of funding being lost, as DfE funding was on a per-child basis. Officers stated that they would have to consider whether schools could then afford the resources to ensure that students’ school experiences were as positive as possible.
  • Members noted that they appreciated the clarity in which the consultations explained how the schools were chosen for this phase.
  • In response to members questions regarding whether there was more proposals for Phase Three, officers confirmed that only this proposal was the only initiative earmarked for decision.
  • In response to questions about lessons learned from Phases One and Two, specifically on communication, the Executive Member stated that many lessons had been taken onboard, and that given no school had been closed in the borough for over twenty years, was a learning curve for all involved, and feedback had informed an even more collaborative and inclusive approach to this phase.
  • Officers stated that while there had been changes in the Department for Education (DfE) and regarding SEND, no additional funding had been granted for schools overall. Officers reiterated that in the outcome that schools are closed, the funding follows the child to their new education provision, including specialist provisions.
  • Members stated that previous phases had been a traumatic process which notably affected headteachers, governors and staff as well as families and asked as to what was being done to further support them and include them within the process. In response, the Executive Member stated that proposals within each phase of the School Organisation plan were a last resort following months of informal engagement to find a solution to avoid this process, and that it was not the Council’s goal to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

52.

Quarter 1 Performance Report pdf icon PDF 259 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Officers presented the Quarter One performance report to members. In the discussion, the following points were raised:

  • Members noted that Islington had significant numbers of students in elective home education in addition to having a high rate of persistent absence and sought a breakdown of the reasons behind why families were choosing to electively home educate and the EOTAS (Education other than at School) figure for Islington as had been requested previously. Members further stated that while the COVID-19 Pandemic had been attributable to the rise in EHE numbers previously, that there were other factors to consider such as children being undiagnosed or families not having found a suitable school for the child’s needs.
  • Officers confirmed that while the local authority had to respect parent choice on elective home education but that were safeguarding issues were present, would intervene and that a child on a protection plan would need local authority consent to be electively home educated. Officers further stated that they had to work within the policy framework set out by the government but that there had been policy shifts including discussions of an electively home educated register, and that if members would like further information that it should be added to the forward plan.
  • In response to members questions regarding whether the phonics initiative was tallied with the SATs results, officers advised that when the full School Results were published, they would break down the data as many ways as possible as per members’ request.
  • Members noted an oversight in which the youth provision only referred to that at Rose Bowl Youth Hub, which officers acknowledged.
  • In response to members questions about how Islington would replace single-word judgements and communicate how well the borough’s schools were performing, officers stated that there was a regular programme of engagement with school leaders to identify a consistent and common approach, and would be working with them to find a local solution.
  • In response to public questions concerning how the committee would engage with groups that had disproportionately high absence rates, the Chair advised that evidence gathering sessions were scheduled as part of the committee’s review into persistent absence in secondary schools.
  • Officers thanked the public for their engagement with the work of SEND Parliament and Parent Carer Forum.

 

ACTION

Officers to provide a breakdown on Electively Home Educated students, and the overall EOTAs figures for Islington.

 

ACTION:

Officers to provide data on school visits to/from Libraries for the next quarterly report.

 

RESOLVED

That the report is noted.

 

 

53.

Work Programme 2024-25 pdf icon PDF 84 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair informed members and officers that an item on Alternative Provision was to be bought to the committee’s meeting of 24th February. This was originally scheduled to be a standalone meeting, but had been postponed for members to agree on the data that they would like to see in advance.

 

RESOLVED:

That the 2024-25 Work Programme be noted.