Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Judith Cooper.

Councillor David Benson declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor of Uxbridge High School and lectured at further and higher education colleges. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Lindsay Bliss declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor of Brookside Primary School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor John Riley declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor of Field End Infant School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Catherine Dann declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor of Newham Junior School and Bishop Ramsay C of E School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Susan O’Brien declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School and was working at Ruislip High School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Tony Little declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor at Pinkwell Primary School and Hartlington Community School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

It was noted that all items would be considered in Part 1.

There were no matters notified in advance or urgent.

The minutes of 20 February 2013 were agreed as a correct record.

Witnesses

To assist the Committee with the review Mr Martin Rainsford, Head Teacher of The Douay Martyrs School and Chair of the In-Year Fair Access Panel and Ms Liz Horrigan, Head Teacher of Harlington Community School and Chair of the Managed Moves and Inclusion Panel were present to provide Members with information.

A summary of the evidence provided by the witnesses is set out below.

Fair Access and Managed Moves Panels

The In-Year Fair Access Panel and the Managed Moves and Inclusion Panel met jointly every 3 weeks with the purposes of:

§         Ensuring that challenging pupils and those without a school place were allocated a place within the appropriate timeframe of 20 school days.

§         Allocating school places to pupils who had been excluded, those who had compassionate reasons for moving schools and those who had decided to undertake a managed move.

§         Ensuring that schools with vacancies were not overburdened with challenging pupils.

The witnesses noted that the Hillingdon Tuition Centre was a high-quality resource which was used, in part, to educate pupils with challenging behaviour. Certain pupils were placed at the Tuition Centre on a longer term basis because their behaviour was so problematic that a place in a Secondary School was unlikely to be successful. Other pupils were at the Tuition Centre on a shorter term basis pending assessment of their additional needs. Some students referred to the Managed Move and Inclusion Panel were not placed because incomplete paper work had not been submitted or there was a suspicion that children had been removed from a school by parents seeking to get past waiting lists. Pupils with no known behaviour issues were not placed at the Tuition Centre, but educated in the interim at Brookfields.

It was also noted that the Panels did not place Year 11 pupils seeking a place as it was too difficult to find an appropriate educational fit for these students given differing school curricula. This was also true for Year 10 pupils who also often struggled to integrate into a new school but the Panels did seek to place this group in-year. It was also noted that the panels gave top priority to cases where looked-after children were involved.

Both witnesses highlighted that these Panels were successful because they had buy-in from both the Primary and Secondary schools in the Borough. This was partly due to the fact that three Head Teachers sat on each of the Panels and also had a rolling Head Teacher position. Other strengths of the Panels were noted to be that they were seen to come to good, fair and compassionate decisions and that they had a workable turnaround period of 3 weeks.

It was noted that all school were necessarily part of the In-Year Fair Access process and the placement of previously permanently excluded pupils but that, as the Managed Moves and Inclusion process was not mandatory, only 16 of Hillingdon’s 18 Secondary Schools took part.

The Bulge and Off Rolling

Witnesses  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

Resolved: That the Committee noted the progress provided in the report.

Resolved: That the Committee noted the Forward Plan and decided not to comment.

The Committee asked that an update on Special Educational Needs to include information on funding, the Green Paper and the Task Group be provided at a future meeting and that this be reflected in the Work Programme.

Resolved: That the Committee confirmed the dates of the meetings.