Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services that provided Members with information on Education White Papers and its impact upon the system and strategic planning around education within the council (for copy or report, see file of minutes).

The Head of Education and Skills was in attendance to present the report and explained the implications of each chapter of the White Paper in particular Chapter 4.

The Head of Education and Skills advised members of the content of the white paper highlighting concerns regarding attainment at key stage 2 and key stage 4, especially in relation to English and Maths. White Paper also identified issues with teaching pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and highlighted the Green Paper in relation to SEND had recently been published.

The Head of Service advised that there were gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their less disadvantaged peers and COVID had increased these gaps further.

Examinations were going ahead for the first time in two years, and it was a worry because within the county some pupils had greater access to schools than in others. County Durham had a mixed system with maintained schools, academy trusts with one school or more and single academies. There were 168 maintained schools that required support and were committed to being part of the local authority, but this would reduce as the service was aware of the Church of England school’s options to move to academies in the coming three to four years.

The Head of Service referred to chapter one of the White Paper which considered recruitment of teachers, incentives to fill positions and improvements to the system and to improve the quality, experience and network of special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs). Members were advised that there was intense pressure to recruit leaders as many were leaving the profession after three to four years.

Chapter two of the White Paper focused on curriculum, behaviour and attendance. Members were advised that Ofsted had changed focus to measuring quality provided and how to network and share information. In relation to County Durham networking was good, attendance was tough and difficult to assess as there was a time lag but probably matched national levels. Schools share attendance data, this was developed through the pandemic this data indicates that secondary school attendance in the county was 70%, but it should be at 97%. This was very important as it impacted on a young person’s life chances. The White paper did not identify how this would be improved although it did refer to elective home education. However, County Durham does have provision in place for elective home education and getting young people back into school.

Chapter three of the white paper focuses on SEND and targeted support for all children who need it and suggests a national tutor programme if a child was not attending school.

Chapter four looked to introduce a fairer stronger system and that by 2030 all children would be taught in a strong Multi Academy Trust (MAT) or in a school planning to become part of a MAT, this would be a 10-year scheme to give consistency in the system. Members were advised that a strong MAT would consist of 7000 students or 10 schools or more. However, the service had requested more information on this as the narrative for County Durham was different for them to get to a MAT of this size. Local authorities would be involved in the setting up of trusts but not in running them and this was happening now. There were concerns of national trusts taking over schools in the county.

The Head of Service advised that if this white paper was mentioned in the Queen’s speech, then there was a possibility that it would receive Royal Assent more quickly. There was a need to understand the timeline, which was not given, and more information was required in relation to how the Department for Education view the region.

Councillor Townsend referred to the provision of tutoring courses by 2024 and commented that available tutors were London based as tutors were not available during the pandemic and suggested that the government should flesh out the paper more. She was concerned about the academisation of the whole education system and that a number of primary schools were still Local Authority maintained and commented that those secondary schools that were still under the Local Authority was due to multi academy trusts not finding them attractive. She asked if the authority set up multi academy trusts what would happen if those multi academy trusts came into trouble.

The Head of Education and Skills advised that Ofsted were strengthening requirements for MATs in relation to finance and were monitored by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). He continued that there were currently an outstanding secondary and a strong good secondary school that were local authority maintained and that it maybe the case that they were waiting for the best option.

Councillor Townsend referred to the SEND green paper ‘Right Support, Right Place, Right Time and would welcome a discussion of the paper.

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that the green paper was published the day after the report was pulled together so they would get some more consistency. The green paper was a two-to-three-year plan around SEND and did not have much detail yet.

Councillor Martin referred to the report and strengthening community engagement and one of his concerns as the report indicated was that multi academy trusts be bigger in size. He asked if there was a fear that there would be less community engagement and less feeling that the community would have a stake in their local schools.

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that he would have that fear if the Department for Education (DfE) view was that there was enough trusts already in the system, but Durham have some good and really strong Durham based trusts and regional trusts that were involved with Durham schools and were committed to Durham’s ethos. He was less confident about larger national trusts and whether they would understand some of the community issues. One of the key priorities would be how they best serve the needs of those communities.

Ms Evans referred to the establishment of a register for children not in school that was positive. She then referred to the parent pledge for any child falling behind and indicated that any parent with a child with SEND would look at this pledge and say that it was unlikely to happen. She then referred to the community and indicated that she always knew the name of the Headteacher at her local school, but this was no longer the case as it was now a trust and not embedded into the community.

The Head of Education and Skills referred to the register of children not in school and the authority had a strong ambition for this for a longer time. They were trying to get an attendance system in place a year in advance of the DfE expectations and were asking schools to sign up to the attendance data that was shared on a weekly basis. He commented that they were ahead on some of these ambitions and was confident around the infrastructure and praised the schools and trusts who were happy to buy into this. He advised members that there were 27 academies within trusts in the secondary sector out of 31 secondary schools, and that something was needed around the system to join them up in a much better way.

Councillor Hunt commented that there was not enough SEND provision for children transitioning from primary to secondary education and asked what the strategy was going forward given there were not enough places for these children.

The Head of Education and Skills responded that the green paper was very much about SEND education support in primary schools then the drop off of the support in secondary schools and have huge numbers that went to specialist schools. The system was saying that the drop off was too significant and there were real challenges around secondary provision. There was a different strategy around enhanced mainstream provision that ran in secondary schools and advised members they had some schools who were targeted as having skills to support children so they could do more mainstream integration. Nationally, more spaces were needed in special schools to address the lack of mainstream integration at secondary level. Work was going on with special schools in relation to post 16 provision to allow more key stage 3 into special schools.

Councillor Gunn commented that there was little information in the terms of the amount of funding and a lot of the information required more clarification. More information was required of what it meant to be a multi academy trust due to the white paper. In relation to MATs she stressed anxiety for school staff, governors and parents and suggested that governing bodies needed more information before decisions could be taken. Councillor Gunn asked how much information was allowed to be given to provide support to governing bodies into moving to MATs. She asked if there was any support the local authority could provide to governing bodies?

The Head of Education and Skills advised that understanding the due diligence activities by governing bodies was needed before considering trusts as this was much more than just the financial provision. The expectation of the DfE was that the trusts were large and that tied in a lot of capital. They would need to provide help with how the scheme of delegations works within trusts, how the board works and the CEO and how independent the schools could be in terms of uniform and behaviour policies etc. and what was dictated at a central level or local government body level. The authority had a strong education governance support system which they funded as it was crucial for governors and their understanding. If the white paper came into legislation in the next five to ten years governors would have a crucial job. He advised that school improvement was a huge part of what the local authority does, and Leadership Advisers were available to support governance and would provide support should this process move forward.

Resolved: That the report be noted.