Agenda item

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

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care gave a briefing to the Panel on behalf of the Strategic Director for People & Communities. A copy of the briefing can be found on their Minute Book and as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary of the briefing is set out below.

Exam results

With the main A-level and GCSE results being released to schools and pupils in August, we have begun to collate and analyse the overall local picture of performance. This is made more complex by the changes to the grading system with GCSE grades A-E being progressively replaced with numbers 1-9. Once a more comprehensive analysis has been carried out of all schools data, we will be able to report in detail, including key measures such as narrowing the gap for pupils eligible for Free School Meals across all the reporting key stages.

Bath Community Academy (BCA)

Every pupil who was in Year 9 last year, moving into year 10, has been offered a place at another local school. Plans are being finalised for the process for identifying and allocating places for the current Year 8 and 9 pupils to transition to new schools for Year 9 and 10 in September 2018.

Work has also commenced to prepare for conversations about the future use of the BCA site, once the Academy vacates in August 2018. This includes a review of the current usage and condition of the buildings on site; conversations with existing tenants of parts of the site, including GLL and Bath Spa University; work to develop a specification for a new Special School, which is a priority need for Bath and North East Somerset and could potentially be located at the BCA site; and a bid to secure additional resources to support the development of a vision for the future of the site, through the One Public Estate initiative (Cabinet Office/LGA). We hope to hear the outcome of that bid this month and will be developing a timeline and process for engagement and development of a vision for the future of the site, which will be shared with the Panel in due course.

Youth Connect

A successful bid to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has secured funding of £20,000 to enable the Youth Connect service to assess the potential to create a staff mutual to take on the delivery of Youth Connect. This will run alongside wider engagement to look at options for the future delivery model in collaboration with local community organisations.

An event was held in the Community Space, Keynsham with local groups who might like to work with the Council regarding Youth Services. A further event is planned for late November with those that have submitted an expression of interest.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she supported the Staff Mutual proposal.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care said that this would not deliver an answer by itself which is why other groups have been approached. He added that an independent consultation was being carried out with young people.

The Cabinet Member for Children & Young People, Councillor Paul May said that the budget in respect of this work had been halved last year and said that risk remains to the future budget allocation. He added that many Local Authorities have has it withdrawn entirely.

The Chair thanked the Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care for the update on behalf of the Panel.