POLICY COMMISSION MEETING

Meeting	Children and School Results Commission
Ref	CPC 07/06/06
Date	Wednesday, 7 June 2006 18.00 to 19.25
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. Apologies – Cllr Lady Pigot Cabinet member – Cllr Dawn Cousins Leader – Cllr Andy Sutton Cabinet Secretary – Cllrs David Pugh Officers – Mr Ian Sandbrook, Mr Keith Simmonds, Mrs Pru Grimshaw, Mrs Rose Ward; Mr Simon Dear, Mr Joe Duckworth, Miss April West, Mr Paul Thistlewood
Agenda Items
1. Notes of previous meeting	The notes of the meeting held on 3 May 2006 were agreed.
2. Declarations of interest	Cllr D Gardiner declared a personal interest due to her husband’s paid employment.
3. Children’s Trust – C5/05	Papers considered :- Report of Mr I Sandbrook, Strategic Director for Children’s Services. General points arising :- i. Further changes had been made to the proposed Governance Arrangements since the Commission last considered the item at its 5 April 2006 meeting. ii. Delivery of joint services with pooled, or aligned, budgets was the long term aim. iii. Balance required to ensure all appropriate bodies and agencies involved at the right level within Governance arrangements. iv. Working Groups under the partnership would have an age related theme. v. Information sharing was a key element of more effective working between partners. vi. Need to have a mechanism in place to ensure that effective representation was forthcoming from all sectors and that appropriate support provided. vii. The Partnership would be able to challenge the performance of any of its partners. viii. The Transitional Steering Group would be discussing the proposed governance arrangements at its meeting on 12 June 2006. ix. It was proposed that a draft blue paper would be submitted to the Commission at its meeting on 5 July 2006.
4. Schools Improvement Programme – C1/05	Paper considered – report of Mr I Sandbrook, Strategic Director for Children’s Services. General points arising :- i. Range of initiatives introduced to assist in improving school performance following consultations with stakeholder groups. ii. Initial indications from Joint Area Review was that performance under the Enjoy and Achieve Outcome, of Every Child Matters, should be urgently addressed but still with the need to ensure delivery of the 4 other outcomes. iii. A School Improvement Strategy together with draft protocols and procedures for monitoring, supporting, challenging and intervention had been drafted. iv. The 4 criteria for school performance – outstanding, good, satisfactory and causing concern – were based upon the DfES model. v. Each school would shortly be advised what criteria they fell in and this would also be made publicly available on the Council’s website. vi. There was on-going work to identify a lead officer for each area of the School Improvement Strategy. vii. Parents could ascertain their child’s performance at any time from the school. viii. The resources within the School Improvement Team, although lean, was sufficient to meet current needs. ix. Although there was an optional SATS test at year 4 and 8 the Council had indicated that it would like all schools to adopt these as standard. x. Performance data was now included on the EduWight site for each school. xi. A programme of training courses was being arranged for School Governors to assist them in undertaking their role and responsibilities. xii. A conference for Governors was to be arranged for the Autumn. xiii. A draft blue paper would be submitted to the Commission at its July 2006 meeting.
5. Children’s Services Structure (previously LEA Management) – C2/05	Papers considered – report of Mr I Sandbrook, Strategic Director for Children’s Services and an oral update by Mr J Duckworth, Chief Executive. General points arising :- i. A number of national and local initiatives had affected the original scope of the enquiry. ii. Statutory requirement for a Director of Children’s Services. iii. There were only 2 Heads of Service at present, down from 4. iv. Cabinet was to consider a report on a revised management structure at its meeting on 13 June 2006. v. It was the intention to seek the appointment, via a recruitment agency, for a Director of Children’s Services by the end of July 2006. vi. This would be followed by the early advertisement of a Head of School Improvement.