Issue - meetings

Report by the Director of Children’s Services

58.1     The People Scrutiny Committee appointed a scrutiny review board to explore some of the key challenges facing schools and academies in East Sussex.  In particular, the review aimed to identify what could be done to help schools cope with the high level of change within the education sector. The final report of the Review Board (Schools Coping with Change – the Way Forward) was presented to Cabinet in January 2019 and approved by the County Council on 5 February 2019.

58.2     In response to the Review, the Children’s Services department produced an action plan which commented on how it would seek to implement the recommendations.  The report before the committee therefore provided Members with a six-month update on progress with the department’s action plan.   Fiona Wright, Assistant Director (Education and ISEND) also provided Members with further detail regarding progress and confirmed that work is on track to be completed within the timescales provided.

58.3     Members then focused on activity relating to Recommendation 1 of the final report.   This recommendation asked the Chair of the People Scrutiny Committee to write to the Secretary of State for Education and ask for clarification regarding his vision for schools and academies.  In response to the letter which was despatched in March 2019, Lord Theodore Agnew (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State) referred, amongst other comments, to a roundtable meeting he had convened.  At that meeting representatives of a different local authority, the chief executives of a number of Multi Academy Trusts in that area, a teaching school alliance and maintained schools had met and discussed issues relating to partnership working and sharing good practice.   The letter concluded that should the council want to explore the matter further, the relevant Regional Schools Commissioner would be prepared to discuss the possibility of arranging a similar event in East Sussex.   With this offer in mind, Members asked the department for its views on the merits of a such a meeting being convened.

58.4     In response, Fiona Wright, Assistant Director, advised the committee that roundtable discussions of the kind discussed by Lord Agnew were often used in local authority areas where there have been challenges either generally in schools or in relation to academy conversion, and that there is usually a specific theme for the meeting.    However, and to help gain a better understanding of these events, the department undertook to liaise with the Regional Schools Commissioner about whether there would be a value in holding such a meeting and if so, how this would be taken forward. 

58.5     RESOLVED to:          

1)    Note the progress made on the departmental action plan; and

2)    Request that the department liaise with the Regional Schools Commissioner regarding a round table meeting with the Secretary of State for Education

The meeting ended at 12.23 pm.

Report by Assistant Chief Executive

48.1     The Cabinet considered a report by the People Scrutiny Committee and a report by the Director of Children’s Services with observations on the Scrutiny Committee’s report.

48.2     It was RESOLVED to:

 1) note the report of the Scrutiny Committee: and

 2) recommend the County Council to welcome the report of the Scrutiny Committee and to agree the response of the Director of Children’s Services to the recommendations and their implementation as set out in the action plan attached as Appendix 1 to the Director’s report.

Reason

48.3     The Scrutiny Review has provided a useful insight into some of the current challenges for schools and potential for further change in relation to their organisation, funding and governance