Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

That subject to any amendments made through the Chair, the minutes of the meeting held on 25^th November 2024 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Chair informed members that there had been insightful evidence gathering sessions held recently as part of the committee’s review into persistent absence in secondary schools and that more were planned for the coming weeks.

The Committee heard Place2Be as part of the evidence gathering for the review into persistent absence in secondary schools. In the presentation and discussion, the following points were raised:

• It was stated that Place2Be was a children's mental health charity providing school- based support and in-depth training programmes to improve the emotional wellbeing of pupils, families, teachers and school staff. This Included targeted intervention programmes that addressed persistent absence concerns such as Journey of Hope a targeted group work intervention. Members were further told that Place2Be’s integrated approach & specialist Expertise included capturing child voice, supporting children and young people; equity, diversity and inclusion; supporting parents and carers; supporting leadership, governance and school staff.
• Members were told that missing school had many negative effects that could impact a child through adolescence and into adulthood. It was said that 1 in 5 children were persistently absent from school, missing at least 10% of sessions. Members were also told that before the pandemic, 12% of pupils in Islington were persistently absent, rising to 25% in 2022/23 and around 2% were severely absent.
• Members were told that children not attending school were likely to lose peer connections, community access to food, safety and trusted adults.
• The guest speaker from Place2Be stated that it was their view that current approaches to attendance fail to tackle the root cause and that some schools were more driven by Ofsted, Government and external factors, than pupil wellbeing and inclusion.
• Members were told that research from Place2Be and the University of Cambridge showed that for those children and young people accessing counselling that: school-based one-to-one counselling has the potential for a 18.5% reduced likelihood of a pupil having persistent absence; 78% of 4–11-year-olds and 91% of 11-18 years olds had improved mental health after they had support through 1:1 counselling. For those suspended, the length of suspension reduced from an average of 2 school weeks to half a school week for those who had received counselling; 74% had fewer suspensions and 56% did not have any subsequent suspensions in the academic year that counselling took place
• Place2Be’s service outcomes in Islington for 2023-24 included 549 children and young people supported in targeted intervention: a 74% improvement according to teachers or parents and 64% improvement in classroom learning
• Members were told that benefits of school-based counselling included such services bringing in £8,700 in benefits per child at primary school level, equivalent to £8 benefit for every £1 spent; supporting children with higher complexity of needs which can reduce demand on CAMHS and helping pupils with mental health difficulties keep pace academically with their peers. It was further stated that 63% of children who had one-to-one counselling showed an improvement in classroom learning and 66% caused fewer problems to their teacher or class according to longitudinal observational cohort studies in 2021 and 2023.
• In regards to persistent absence in secondary schools, Place2Be recommended a whole school approach to mental health: focusing on inclusion, enrichment, anti-bullying and mental health; local collaboration and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

The Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families presented their report to the committee. In the presentation and discussion, the following points were raised:

• Members were told that the Child Friendly Islington mission sought to ensure the child was at the centre of every decision and that there was a joint and unified approach between the local authority, schools and families to ensure that young people had a safe place to call home.
• Members were told that the both the Director of Children’s Service and Executive Member had a statutory duty and responsibility for every child within the borough, but that the Executive Member led the political aspect in terms of the vision and responsibility.
• Members were told that Children’s Services was a complex unit, comprising of three primary divisions: Safeguarding and Family Support; Learning and Achievement and Young Islington. All three areas were interlinked and worked collaboratively alongside each other which enabled effective early intervention and single points of contact.
• Members were told that the framework for Child Friendly Islington would be presented to the committee at its next meeting in February 2025. This would outline how all partners were working towards a shared, clear vision for the borough’s children, capturing the voice of everyone involved and identifying areas for improvement.
• Members were told that Child Friendly Islington included being a Baby Friendly Islington, advocating for children that could not speak for themselves and who could also face potential harm or suffering as much as older children.
• The Executive Member told the committee that they were proud that the majority of the borough’s schools were rated good and outstanding but that more still needed to be done to ensure there continued to be positive outcomes for Islington’s more vulnerable children and young people.
• The Executive Member told members that the scrutiny committee’s report into persistent absence in secondary schools, together with the call to arms on attendance and national best practice, would inform the strategy on tackling attendance going forward.
• The Executive Member also stated that the School Organisation was in its third phase and that it was an unfortunate but necessary measure to address rising school deficits and falling rolls.
• The Executive Member congratulated the Youth Justice Team on being rated outstanding by Ofsted inspector to support officers on their hard work, but acknowledged there was still more work to be done, particularly to support the new Youth Justice strategy and ensure it captures the voice of everyone.
• Members were told that it was another key priority to ensure that all young people progress to independent and fulfilled lives in adulthood, but that there were some challenges in securing housing for care leavers that sometimes delayed this cohort in their transition. The Executive Member told the committee that they were working alongside Housing colleagues to secure additional housing supply for care leavers.
• Members were told that were to be changes in the Children’s Social Care policy, and this will be reported a future meeting of the scrutiny  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

Officers presented an update on attendance to the committee. In the presentation and discussion, the following points were raised:

• Members were told that there were five concurrent strands of work addressing persistent absence in secondary schools: the attendance mentors; the call to action; the scrutiny review into persistent absence at secondary schools; the school attendance support team and targeted support and quality assurance.
• It was stated to members that officers recognised that across Islington there remained significant challenges regarding persistent absenteeism. Officers had visited over fifty schools over a short period, to attain a deeper understanding of the challenges and brief staff on the new attendance codes and available support. The visits had helped officers to identify common challenges, barriers to attendance and areas of support needed, which had overall helped officers to inform their approach to the attendance strands and strategies going forward. A workshop, held in October 2024, had also helped with this learning.
• Officers stated that they were supporting schools by commissioning attendance data profiles to assist chairs of governors.
• It was stated to members that progress continued to be made with the attendance mentor programme. The specification had been developed and services within the Council invited to deliver the programme, with Bright Futures chosen in December 2024.  Officers further stated that an additional bid of £25,000 of funding was made to the Mayor of London for additional funding to train attendance mentors, and that
• Officers further stated that their visits to schools had helped them to identify families that would benefit from the programme of targeted intervention from attendance mentors.
• Members were told that it was a requirement of statutory guidance on improving attendance, that Local Authority school attendance teams provided targeted supported meetings to its schools. Officers further stated that locally in Islington, they ensured such meetings were consistent, useful and data driven, by ensuring that the school attendance team was regularly trained, that best practice on in-school interventions for improving attendance were collated and shared at these meetings, and that termly visits to each school, continued.
• Officers stated that national research had identified patterns in attendance at primary school that had shown that parents had indicated a need for more support from schools to overcome barriers to school attendance and that sometimes, parental attitudes itself, to education, was a barrier and that since COVID-19, there had been an overall decline in the perceived importance and value of attending school every day.  Officers further stated that these patterns had been corroborated in their visits but that there had also been findings that pointed to a rise in anxiety among parents as well as young people and families travelling longer distances due to the housing crisis. Members were told that research had underlined that a welcoming environment which provided engaging learning opportunities and a strong sense of belonging in schools was crucial to overcoming the barriers and improving school attendance. It was stated to members that schools with better attendance also had strong community links and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

Officers presented the Introduction to Emotional Based School Non-Attendance (EBSA) to the committee. In the presentation and discussion, the following points were raised:

• Members were told that an Islington working group had developed an EBSA protocol to support schools in understanding and meeting the needs of non-attenders. This was about to pass through the SEND partnership board, and a further version of this would be shared with the schools, who had already received an earlier draft form. It was further stated that the reason it had taken a long time was because there had been several factors in the previous few years, such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, increased mental health needs, rising cost of living, rising anxiety children parents, and higher diagnoses of autism, which had affected wellbeing and attendance.
• Members were told that was a shift from terminology that implied a problem with the child to language focusing on the factors and emotional barriers for children to attend school instead. This was one of the factors behind the adoption of the term EBSNA (Emotional Based School Non-Attendance) over EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoidance).
• Members were told that EBSNA was not a diagnosis and as such there was no diagnostic criteria for EBSA; it was a description of children who were not attending school due to anxiety or emotional factors (which may have multiple causes) and it was important to understand what was going on in the child’s life.
• Members were told that there was research that had identified the four main areas of non-attendance: to avoid uncomfortable feelings brought on by attending school, such as feelings of anxiety, low mood, or low self-esteem; to avoid situations that might be stressful, such as academic demands, social pressures and/or aspects of the school environment; to reduce separation anxiety or to gain attention from significant others, such as parents or other family members; or to pursue tangible reinforcers, meet up with peers, and/or gaming during the night which can cause sleep deprivation.
• Members were told that it was important to put interventions in place to support children into going to school to meet their emotional needs. Examples included cognitive behavioural approaches, systematic re-exposure and less anxiety inducing activities. Officers stated that the protocol identified which staff and services may be involved, which could be the school wellbeing service providing individual or small group interventions for mild to moderate anxiety needs; NRC Outreach and/or CAMHS depending on need. It was further stated that where children were not attending due to the school environment, sensory need, or undiagnosed needs, officers would consider adaptations and interventions to the child’s school environment to meet their needs and enable them to access learning flexibly. It was stressed to members that there was no blanket intervention that suited all but there was a need to engage children into seeing the emotional benefit of attending school.
• In response to members questions about schools where best practice was not being followed and where schools were punitively withdrawing education against  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

RESOLVED:

That the 2024-25 Work Programme is noted.