Agenda and minutes
Venue: Boardrooms 7&8 - Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley HA9 0FJ. View directions
Contact: Bryony Gibbs, Governance Officer 020 8937 1355 Email: bryony.gibbs@brent.gov.uk
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Apologies for absence and clarification of alternate members Minutes: Councillor Moher advised that she was attending as a substitute member for Councillor Nerva who had submitted apologies for the meeting. Apologies were also received from Councillor Hector. |
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Declarations of interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests in the items on this agenda. Minutes: The following personal interests were declared with respect to agenda items 6 and 7, ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) - Update on Specialist provision and the implementation of the SEND Reforms’ and ‘Annual School Standards and Achievement report 2015-2016’:
i) Councillor Sheth as a governor at St Joseph’s Infant School and St Joseph’s Junior School and as a member of the Board of Harrow College.
ii) Councillor Conneely as an employee of a local charity which undertook outreach work in some Brent schools;
iii) Councillor Jones as a governor of St Joseph’s Primary School;
iv) Mr Frederick as Chair of the All Saints Trust;
v) Mrs Yaqub as founder of a charity which undertook work on engaging with parents and carers of children with special educational needs. |
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Deputations (if any) Minutes: None received. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting PDF 125 KB Minutes: RESOLVED:-
that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 1 February 2017 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising (if any) Minutes: There were no matters arising. |
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Order of business Minutes: RESOLVED: that the order of business be amended as follows: |
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Annual School Standards and Achievement report 2015-2016 PDF 3 MB This report is being referred to theCommunity and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee as, at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 27 February 2016, it had been resolved that resolved that school standards and achievement would be scrutinised again after one year.
This report meets Brent Council’s strategic priorities and policies, and affects the wellbeing of the Borough’s communities and residents becauseschool standards are a corporate priority for Brent Council as set out in the Brent Borough Plan 2015-19. Minutes: A report reviewing school standards and achievement for 2015-2016 was presented to the committee by John Galligan (Head of Setting and School Effectiveness). Members heard that in 2014, 78 per cent of Brent’s Schools were rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding. At this time, the Education Commission had set Brent a target -that all of the borough’s schools be good or outstanding. Meeting this target had been the aim of the Strategic Framework for School Effectiveness in Brent 2014-17. Currently, 96 per cent of Brent schools are judged good or outstanding by Ofsted, well above the national average. The arrangements which had supported this improvement were outlined to the committee. Collaborative, school led partnerships were now a key feature of Brent’s education provision. In particular, the school to support provided by partners including the Brent Schools Partnership and the borough’s two Teaching School Alliances contributed greatly to the improvement of schools. Head Teachers Karen Giles, Jane Jardine, Theresa Landreth and Laura Wynne were introduced to the committee and their key roles in providing school to school support and raising school effectiveness across Brent explained.
John Galligan further advised that Brent had performed well against the national averages in 2016 for the primary and secondary headline attainment measures but was below London at the end of Key Stage 2 and just below London at the end of Key Stage 4. The borough performed very well in measures of pupil progress. It was significantly above the national averages at both key stages, and above the London average at Key Stage 4 and in mathematics at Key Stage 2. The committee was advised that, as a consequence of performance measures for schools and colleges being changed in 2016, it was not possible to make comparisons with previous years.
In the subsequent discussion, the committee queried whether the commitment for all Brent schools to be judged good or outstanding by 2017 would be met. Further information was sought regarding Brent’s performance relative to other London boroughs and members queried how the council would avoid complacency to support continued improvement in Brent’s schools. Further details were sought regarding the role of the Strategic School Effectiveness Partnership Board and the committee questioned the work being undertaken on the new Strategic Framework for School Effectiveness due later in the year. Members highlighted the importance of good school governance, sought further information about school to school support and queried the council’s role in ensuring the contribution of school leaders with proven expertise and experience. It was subsequently queried how the council identified schools requiring intervention, the timing and nature of that intervention and why Interim Executive Boards had been put in place in two Brent schools. Questions were raised regarding the recruitment, training and retention of governors and teaching staff. The committee raised several queries regarding improving attainment for underperforming groups, including the specific projects undertaken and organisations engaged, and an explanation was requested of the variation of attainment across the borough.
In response, Gail Tolley (Strategic ... view the full minutes text for item 7. |
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The report provides an update on Brent’s progress in delivering the national programme of reforms as well as information about current specialist provision in the Borough.
Minutes: The committee received a report detailing the progress made in delivering reforms to services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These reforms were required following the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014 and a new SEND Code of Practice in 2015. Drawing members’ attention to the main changes in this new Code of Practice, Sandra Bingham (Head of Inclusion), highlighted that these were quite far reaching and included replacing Statements of SEN with Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans. Further changes included involving children and young people and their parents in decision making, a stronger focus on promoting high aspirations for children and young people with SEND, and a greater emphasis on supporting successful transitions to adulthood. The requirements to pursue joint commissioning with health and to publish a ‘local offer’ (a single point of information regarding support, services and opportunities in the borough for SEND children and young people) had also been introduced.
Members heard that Brent was progressing well with regard to these changes. Sandra Bingham explained that the council was on track to meet the 2018 deadline for converting Statements of SEN to EHC plans. New innovative ways of working to involve parents and young people in decision making were being explored and implemented, including the offer of a co-production meeting with parents and young people in the development of EHC plans. The Westminster Society had been engaged to facilitate the Parent Carer Forum, which had been struggling under the burden of administrative tasks. The administration would now be managed by the Westminster Society thereby allowing more time for participation of the forum’s membership in the development of SEND services with the local authority. The committee was further informed that work had been undertaken with partner agencies and schools to develop a transition protocol to support a seamless transition into adulthood and ensure that young people could exert choice over their lives. Similarly, joint commissioning of services was underway and the council was working closely with health colleagues around paediatric therapy, speech and language and occupational therapy services. The Brent Local Offer had been published in 2014 and feedback on this was welcomed. Sandra Bingham concluded her introduction of the report, noting that demand was growing for specialist provision in Brent and the council was exploring how this could be developed locally.
During the following discussion, members queried how well Brent performed in identifying children with SEND and in providing effective support to improve outcomes and life chances. Members also sought further details on the improvement made to outcomes as a result of the introduction of EHCs over Statements of SEN. An assessment of the success of partnership working with health services was requested. The committee questioned the level of engagement with parents in co-production meetings regarding EHCs and sought further details of the track record of the Westminster Society. Noting the small number of placements provided in the successful internship scheme, a member queried how work on post-16 ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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Update on scrutiny work programme 2016-17 PDF 101 KB This report updates Members on the Committee’s Work Programme for 2016/17 and captures scrutiny activity, which has taken place outside of its meetings.
Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED: that the report be noted. |
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Any other urgent business Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Head of Executive and Member Services or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64. Minutes: Dr Levison (Co-opted Member) informed the Committee that after more than 25 years of fulfilling the role, he would be resigning as co-opted Member and that the current meeting had been his last. The Chair expressed his thanks to Dr Levison for the commitment he had shown and contribution he had made during his time as co-opted Member and on behalf of the Committee wished him well in his future endeavours. |
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Date of next meeting The next scheduled meeting of the Committee is on 9 May 2017. Minutes: The committee noted that the next meeting was scheduled for 9 May 2017. |