Issue - meetings

The Panel considered the report of the Service Director, Legal and Governance presenting the 2016/17 Key stage exam results in Southampton and the educational attainment of Looked After Children (LAC).

Councillor Paffey, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills; Alyce McCourt, Principle Education Psychologist, and Jane White, Service Lead Children’s Social Care were present and with the consent of the chair addressed the Panel.

The Panel noted the following:

·  That the Virtual School had 5 staff and approximately 370 children were on role for the Virtual School. 

·  That the Virtual School action plan had a focus on improving performance from the Early Years upwards.

·  Working effectively with school had helped to reduce the number of school days lost due to exclusion to 14 days for LAC attending Southampton schools compared to 41 days lost due to exclusion for LAC attending schools outside the city.

·  The Virtual School were requesting frequent updates on each child from schools to assist early identification of potential issues.  There were challenges capturing relevant data from all schools as a significant proportion of LAC in the Virtual school were educated out of the city (54%).

·  That a new computerised system was in place, E-PEP to track the Education Plans of LAC. 

·  That Key Stage 4 educational attainment was a concern. The case studies highlighted that good outcomes had been achieved and there was an expectation that Key Stage 4 outcomes would improve as timely and targeted support is provided.  

·  That Key Stage 5 results for LAC were not available.

·  Restorative Justice was used effectively in some Southampton Schools

RESOLVED

(i)  That the resources dedicated to the Virtual School be reviewed to ensure that it was capable of providing the required level of support to all of Southampton’s looked after children in education.

(ii)  That, where available, the following data be circulated to the Panel:

a.  KS5 LAC attainment data for Southampton.

b.  The number of Year 12 LAC that would be retaking GSCE English and Maths.

(iii)  That information outlining how the Families Matter initiative had supported school attendance in Southampton was circulated to the Panel.

(iv)That a list of schools in Southampton that had used restorative justice was provided to the Panel.

(v)  That the Panel were provided with a summary outlining the expectations relating to the educational attainment at KS4 of the current Year 11 LAC cohort.