PAPER A

POLICY COMMISSION MEETING

Meeting	Children and School Results Commission
Ref	CPC 01/03/06
Date	Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18.00 to 19.15
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight
Purpose of meeting	Formal public meeting
Attendance	Commission members – Cllrs Melanie Swan (Commissioner), Wendy Arnold, George Cameron, Deborah Gardiner, Gill Kennett, Lady Pigot Co-opted (voting) – Mrs Urszula Topp (RC Diocese) Apologies – canon David Isaacs (C of E Diocese) Cabinet Secretary – Cllr David Pugh Officers – Mr Simon Dear, Mr Ian Sandbrook, Mr Keith Simmonds, Mr Paul Thistlewood, Miss April West
Agenda Items
1. Notes of previous meeting	The notes of evidence of the meeting held on 1 February 2006 were agreed subject to the addition of the following in item 4 – Special educational Needs (SEN) Strategy (C6/05) ix – The feasibility of an exit questionnaire for pupils moving between schools, or educated otherwise than at school and who where not at transition stage.
2. Declarations of interest	Cllr D Gardiner declared a personal interest in the item relating to the Children’s Trust as her husband was an employee of Connexions.
3. The Isle of Wight Children’s Trust C5/05 – Position Statement February 2006	Papers considered : Report of Mr I Sandbrook, Strategic Director of Children’s Services. Evidence : i. Statutory requirement for integration of services for children and young people by 1 April 2008 with Children’s trust being the preferred model. ii. Originally proposed to have a Trust in place from 1 April 2006. iii. There was a need to resolve the governance arrangements for the Children’s Trust so that there was some consistency with similar arrangements for the Local Strategic Partnership, Public Service Board and Health and Adult Care Trust. iv. This would require deferment of the Trust to October 2006/April 2007. v. The Children’s Trust was more of a formal partnership with pooled budgets and commissioning of services. vi. The deferment would assist in officers capacity to deal with the work required in connection with the forthcoming Joint Area Review. vii. The revised timetable included a development phase between August 2005 to March 2006, Implementation phase from April 2006 to March 2007 and Operational phase from October 2006 to April 2007. Action required :- a) That the reasons for deferring the establishment of the Isle of Wight Children’s Trust be noted. b) That the options for the governance arrangements be reported to the next meeting.
4. The Draft Isle of Wight Children and Young People’s Plan 2006-2009	Oral report by Mr S Dear, IW Children’s Trust Development Advisor. Evidence : i. Consultation process launched after the Commission meeting on 1 February 2006. ii. Within 2 days all pupils at Downside Middle School along with parents, teachers and staff had given a response. iii. The use of the talk back panels had attracted interest from other authorities. iv. It was hoped that if there was sufficient time after the panels had been located in libraries, schools, college, youth clubs and children’s centres they could be used at specifically targeted stores. v. All relevant voluntary organisations were involved in the consultation exercise. vi. An extensive consultation process was being undertaken in the Ryde St John’s area as this neighbourhood would provide valuable information for the Joint Area Review. vii. The panels would also be made available for use by all faiths and churches together with those educated other than at school. viii. A specific draft of the Plan had been written for young people.
5. Joint Area Review – Progress Report	Oral report with powerpoint presentation by Mr I Sandbrook, Strategic Director of Children’s Services supported by Mr K Simmonds, Head of Learning Effectiveness. Evidence : i. The Council was one of two authorities that had a 1 star rating for its education service, 4 star being the highest. ii. Priority will be to demonstrate the Council’s capacity for improvement and its ability to tackle education underachievement iii. The Youth Offending Team was no longer part of the inspection but the fostering and adoption teams had now been included. iv. A robust system of challenge to schools on performance through the School Improvement Team was being established. v. A key focus would be GCSE performance in High Schools. vi. Work was required on cultural issues around aspirations. vii. Poor attainment should not be looked at in terms of structure or accountability for key stages or phases. viii. All relevant documentation relating to the Council’s delivery of the 5 outcomes from Every Child Matters together with the Council’s own self assessment, would be sent to the Inspectors by the deadline of 13 March 2006. ix. The inspection team would be looking at all documentation during the week of 27 March 2006. Arising from this they would identify areas that they would be investigating during the two weeks beginning on 2 May 2006. x. An initial oral report on the inspection would be given at the end of the visit. A draft report arising from the inspection would be provided to the Council for comment in Mid June 2006 and subject to formal feedback the final report published in August 2006. xi. The importance of communication at all levels was stressed and there was a need to ensure all voluntary agencies were fully engaged. xii. The lack of a higher education facility on the Island led to the loss of a vibrant source of student cohort. xiii. Difficulties with the seasonal nature of employment on the Island contributed to low aspirations. xiv. Reasons for increase in number of children coming into care being looked at. xv. Council should have a zero tolerance of mediocrity. xvi. There was some confusion over schools which had extended status and those just undertaking extended activities. xvii. 21 schools had met the requirements for extended status and by 2008 it was anticipated that all schools would meet the requirements for delivery of activities leading to such status being awarded. xviii. Quarterly reports required from schools on extended status activities and these were monitored by the Extended Schools Co-ordinator. xix. The Commissioner had agreed on a link member from the Commission with each of the 5 clusters, together with aspects of Children’s Services and the 5 outcomes. xx. Progress still required on collaboration for post 16 education with students being seen as part of a shared infrastructure. Action required : a) A copy of relevant documentation supplied in respect of the Joint Area Review be sent to members of the Policy Commission. b) An informal briefing on the Education White Paper be arranged for the Policy Commission. c) The Overview and Scrutiny Team together with the Head of Learning Effectiveness arrange for appropriate details to be supplied to members on performance in their respective clusters.