Agenda item

This report provides the committee with a copy of the Directorates Corporate Performance for Quarter 2 and the Performance Baseline performance position against desired outcomes and key goals of the Strategy.

(a)   Councillor Sarah Merry (Cabinet Member, Education) has been invited to make a statement;

(b)   Nick Batchelar (Director of Education and Lifelong Learning) will introduce the report and be available to answer questions;

Questions from Members.

The Chairperson welcomed Councillor Sarah Merry (Cabinet Member, Education) and Nick Batchelar (Director of Education and Lifelong Learning) to the meeting.

Members were advised that the first part of this report provided the Committee with the Education and Lifelong Directorate’s Corporate Performance report for Quarter 2 2016/17, following its consideration by the Cabinet on 21 November 2016. 

The report provided the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee with a baseline performance position against the desired outcomes and key goals of the recently published Cardiff 2020 strategy, as at the beginning of the academic year 2016/17.  This baseline was provided to support Members in their role in scrutinising the performance of Education services and outcomes for children and young people.  The report also outlined how performance against the strategy will be governed and monitored.

The Chairperson invited Councillor Merry to make a statement in which she said that many indicators had improved to above the Wales average, improvement was at a faster rate than the rest of Wales, both of which were very positive.  She also added that measuring emotional wellbeing was an interesting topic and it would be difficult to measure outcomes on this.

The Director stated that the PISA report had some caveats including caution in taking wide ranging comments as it was a snap shot in time.  He added that the results for Wales would lead to real concern, and there would need to be a focus on training/leadership/governance; it was important to do really well on these rather than react to the report results. 

It was noted that the Cardiff 2020 strategy was a high level strategy with various operational plans sitting below it.

The Chairperson invited questions and comments from Members on Corporate Performance:

• With reference to reshaping, Members asked if there had been any difficulties or examples of improvements.  Members were advised that there had been lots of change and progress, one key area was the admissions service, there had been a consultation on coordinated admissions; change in admissions information and parents having rights to exercise preferences. 

• Members referred to Inspire to Work funding and asked for clarification on this.  Officers advised that if this funding was taking then they would be unable to draw down other elements of funding, so a decision was taken to not go ahead with the Inspire to work funding.

• Members sought clarification on why Free School Meals pupils was 50%, and why it wasn’t the same as all other pupils.  Officers explained that the position wanted was no gap but targets needed to be set that were aspirational yet achievable; in some schools the gap is very narrow.  There was a lot of work being done with pupils in financial hardship including interventions, support, tracking, providing experiences outside of school that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise; all these help narrow the gap and increase aspirations.

• Members noted that SEN pupil data would fall within the Free School Meal pupil data and that this should be disseminated from the data for those in financial hardship; officers advised that they work with the Vale on SEN provision, they were not making the savings they wanted to make and saving had been downscaled; one key factor in the medium term is the remodelling provision in Cardiff to use resources better to meet the need. 

• Members asked for more information on the top quartile to see what we are aspiring to; officers advised that this would be provided through the scrutiny officer.

• Members asked if the improvements are sustainable and sought assurances that changes are happening.  Officers advised that the Annual Performance Report would be brought in January, this would look at schools in different categories and provide more information; it was noted that the improvements are better in Primary currently.

• Members asked how the sickness absence levels are affecting the running of the department; officers agreed it was an important measure but the information was not to hand it would however be provided to Members;  officers were looking at how absences are managed and the return to work process as well as the wellbeing of staff.  Members were grateful for the information to follow especially in relation to spikes in particular teams.  It was noted that wellbeing was not easily measured and that the aspirations need to be right for wellbeing to improve.

The Chairperson invited questions on the Cardiff 2020 Strategy:

• Members asked how the Council would manage the deliverability of the 2020 vision.  Officers stated this would be through the Educational Development Board which was a longstanding remit; there was no single management board for this strategy; the operational element sits in various areas such as the consortium/education/economic development; SEN provision in the Vale and with Health etc.  the Directors direct responsibility was to ensure that the directorate delivers then also how to influence others through higher education/Cardiff and Vale College; therefore it was a considered approach.

• Members asked if there were any improvements in the Free School Meals/LAC/NEET groups; officers advised that NEET would be lower than last year, there were improvements needed in LAC and work was being done with Children’s Services on this; the work on Free School Meals had been discussed.

• Members asked for more information on Improving the Learning Environment and whether in reality this support could be delivered.  Officers stated that they were coming to the end of Band A in the school building improvement programme; there was informal discussion around a funding model for Band B; officers had conducted a refresh survey on schools estates and a schools stakeholders group would be established in January for the analysis to be done.

• Members asked for clarification on the baseline information and were advised that some of this data is from 2014/15 as the Welsh Government do not publish some information until 18 months later.

• Members discussed the removal of school places, it was noted that when parents remove pupils from schools for long periods of time, the issue of places being kept/removed needs to be looked at.

AGREED – That the Chairperson on behalf of the Committee writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.