Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to summarise and contextualise the education performance data for Brent Looked After Children with the Statistical First Release (SFR). The report outlines SFR data from the previous academic year, including KS1, KS2 & KS4 outcomes/progress from summer 2016. This comparative data was not available when the Annual Report was presented at the meeting on 8^th February 2017.

Janet Lewis (Head of Virtual School) presented an update report regarding Looked After Children (LAC) Attainment Data, which followed the report provided to the committee at its meeting in February 2017. The update provided national attainment data (Statistical First Release) for purposes of comparison, which had not been available previously. It was emphasised that due to the small numbers of LAC eligible to be included in the reported cohorts, Brent’s outcomes did not always feature in the 2016 Local Authority Tables.

Summarising the comparative performance, Janet Lewis advised that there was a mixed picture overall with positive outcomes at Key Stage 1 (KS1) and encouraging outcomes at KS2, whilst attainment at KS4 fell below the national average for the new attainment 8 and progress 8 measures brought in 2016. Janet Lewis outlined the challenges involved in supporting older LAC who entered the care of the authority at a later stage. In particular, the challenge was heightened for children no longer in mainstream education following a permanent exclusion or other difficulties. Furthermore, the numbers of children with Education Health and Care Plans were quite high and it had been evidenced that where a child’s EHC plan stated they should be educated in mainstream provision, they performed less well when this was not met. Janet Lewis expressed concern at the rise in the number of fixed term exclusions and the length of these, as well levels of absences. It was explained that the Virtual School worked closely with social care to monitor and investigate reasons for absences. In concluding her introduction, Janet Lewis drew the committee’s attention to the strategies in place to improve attainment detailed in the report.

During members discussion, the committee requested further information regarding the strategies in place to address attainment including an appraisal of the online literacy resource (Lexia), details of the carer training planned for April 2017 and an update on the PALAC pilot project. A member emphasised the importance of mathematics and financial literacy for LAC and expressed concern  at the disparity in attainment between English and Mathematics. Members further queried whether there was priority access for LAC to Educational Psychologists and sought additional details of the monitoring undertaken of LAC persistent absentees. 

Responding to the questions raised, Janet Lewis stated that that an update on the strategies could be provided at the next meeting, though advised that the pilot project was in its early stages. The importance of mathematics was acknowledged and it was noted that schools were now required to include more on financial literacy within their. An Educational Psychologist was attached to the Virtual School and schools were encouraged to provide this as this was their primary responsibility. It was considered that special educational needs of LAC were generally well met, though additional attention was required during their transition to leaving care. Attendance data for LAC was collected every day and a regular report focussing on persistent absentees would be shared with social care to support joint working between the teams to tackle this issue. Onder Beter (Head of LAC and Permanency) confirmed that budgeting was a key element of the support provided to care leavers and young people. 

RESOLVED: that the report be noted.