Agenda item

The Panel will receive a verbal update on this item from the People and Communities Strategic Director.

The Director for Children & Young People, Strategy and Commissioning delivered the briefing in the absence of the People and Communities Strategic Director.

Learning Setting and School Performance

The Head of Education Improvement will present a report to a future meeting once the outcomes have been validated across each Key Stage/Phase.  However, across the system there are early indications of a good level of improvement in performance in the Early Years and Foundation Stage, Key Stage One, GCSE and at ‘A’ Level. Key Stage 2 performance shows a slight decline and we will be analysing the detail of this with schools to look at how we secure improvement for the 2015-16 academic year.

In terms of Pupil Premium/Non Pupil Premium performance there is clear evidence of a narrowing of the gap.  Again once detailed data is validated we will bring a detailed report and presentation to the PDS Panel.

The Chair asked if schools published their use and outcomes of Pupil Premium.

The Head of Education Improvement replied that she believed that they did and that officers do periodically check their websites.

Future Educational Landscape

The authority has an Academies and Free Schools Policy which is due for review and we will need to engage with schools to carry out this review and discuss with them future models of organisation.

We have done a substantial amount of work to broker and develop school to school collaboration to support school improvement and to utilise skills and experience across our schools.  Many schools are now in partnership to share resources and expertise and it seems an appropriate time to open up a discussion about how we take such partnership further.  PDS Panel may wish to have a discussion about this work as we engage with schools and partners.

Children’s and Adult Social Care – IT Systems

The Council procured a new case management system for both Children and Adult Social Care services.  Extensive work has been done to ensure a smooth implementation of the new system which is called Liquidlogic.  The new Children’s system will ‘go live’ on 25 November and Adults system will follow April/May 2016.

The new system will be a more intuitive system and support Social Work more effectively. Extensive service-wide training in the new system begins this week and will roll through to 25 November.

The Adult system will take into account all of the changes resulting from the Care Act and will help us to manage the increase in workload associated with these reforms.

Youth Connect

The new service is now fully in place which brings together the Youth Service and Connections following the decision to bring the small Connexions Service back within the Council.  Tracey Pike will lead this new service under the line management of Sally Churchyard.

The Chair thanked him for the briefing and commented that she would like to see more financial information within the reports that the Panel receives. She asked if there was a list of services that the Council now trades with academies.

The Director for Children & Young People, Strategy and Commissioning replied that a brochure was available and could also be seen online via The Hub.