Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr. Tony Eginton with Cllr. John Morse substituting.

No Declarations of Interest were made.

No matters had been notified in advance or as urgent.

It was confirmed that items marked Part 1 would be heard in public and that those marked Part 2 would be heard in private.

Resolved: That:

1.    The minutes of the meeting held on 18 February 2015 be agreed as a correct record.

Officers introduced a progress report on improvement activities that had occurred in the Children and Young People's Service as a result of the Ofsted inspection in December 2013.

In June 2014, Ofsted had endorsed Hillingdon's "Ofsted Action Plan". This had been developed to address 11 areas of improvement that had been identified following the previous "requires improvement" judgement given to the Service. The Action Plan contained 41 specific actions, 30 of which had been completed. It was noted that a number of residual actions had been moved into the Child Services Improvement Plan. There had been significant changes that had affected the service.

Progress had been made in relation to implementation of the Public Law Outline (PLO). The aim was to ensure that children achieved a final care order and permanency plan within 26 weeks. The current average for completed care cases was 34 weeks, down from 57 weeks in 2013/14.

Triage arrangements had been made more robust and services now had a more effective front door entry system. The number of Children in Need cases without a care plan for six weeks or longer had fallen to 250 and it was anticipated that this would soon fall to zero. From April 2015, the average care case in Hillingdon was projected to finish within 25 weeks, down from 34 weeks.

The Chairman advised that Her Honour, Judge Judith Rowe QC, the Designated Family Judge for West London had recognised the improvements made to date.

A Member of the Committee requested that it be noted that the Ofsted Action Plan had previously been presented to the Committee in October 2014, rather than in September 2014 as set out in officer's report. The Member also felt that the real test of the work undertaken would be the sign off of the Improvement Plan by Ofsted. It was questioned whether a number of the actions set out in Action Plan had been achieved. Officers confirmed that they had been.

Officers advised that meetings would be held with services to consider the Plan in detail and that the Plan aimed to take the Service forward, rather than dwelling on the situation as it had been in 2013. The Children and Young People’s Service could not yet be considered to be good, but it was on a continuous improvement journey. In response to a Member question, it was confirmed that the percentage of cases meeting ‘good’ standards currently stood at 35%.

The Committee asked what progress had been made in relation to recruitment of permanent staff and it was suggested that the number of agency staff currently employed was not sustainable. Officers acknowledged that the Service had faced a very challenging situation in summer 2014 and that it had been acknowledged that serious intervention would be required.

The Council was continuing to make use of an external company, Skylakes Social Work, to assist with social work delivery. The situation in relation to turnover of agency staff had improved, with staff now staying an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

Officers introduced a report on Standards and Quality in Education in Hillingdon. This annually produced report had been presented to Cabinet in January and was being presented to the Committee in order to provide an opportunity for Members to question officers and to seek clarification on the information contained therein.

The report showed that overall results and attainment had improved in Hillingdon and were continuing to rise across the five key stages. Results were particularly strong at key stages 1, 2 and 4. It was noted that there had been a number of changes in the national assessment frameworks. This had meant that reliable comparison with previous yearshad not always been possible. 2013/14 was the first time that results could be compared accurately with previous years. There had been a number of changes in the measures used at GCSE / Key Stage 4 level.

Within Hillingdon, 13 primary schools and five secondary schools had been identified by Ofsted as requiring improvement. One of the five had since improved and was therefore no longer included in the category. It was noted that Ofsted would challenge the leadership and governance of schools that were under performing. The Council issued warning notices and recommended intervention action for community schools where there was a need to improve standards, although warning notices were usually only issued as a last resort.

The majority of schools were supportive of Council efforts to improve standards. The Council also adopted a brokering role to enable schools that needed to improve to be supported by better performing schools. This support could be provided for a fixed period of time and could also cover a particular subject or range of subjects. A Member questioned how many of the schools that required improvement were under control of the Local Authority. Officers advised that at primary level, 10 out of the 13 that required improvement were maintained, while at secondary level, only one of the four were maintained by the Authority. 

Individual tuition support had been made available to Looked After Children in year 6 and year 11. It was noted separately that daily updates on school attendance were available to the Council and that for the 2014/15, there was a focus on improving literacy.

In response to a Member question, Officers advised that although the percentage of fixed term exclusions at Special Schools within Hillingdon (49.06%) was well above local and national averages, 95% of these exclusions had related to one school. Improvements had been made and the latest available figures showed a reduction in this type of exclusion.

There were two primary schools within the Borough that had five forms of entry. There was no evidence to show that the size of a school had a significant impact on pupil performance. Instead, leadership, governance and scrutiny of a school were the key factors that determined results.

Members questioned how school performance was moderated at primary level. Officers advised that there were three levels of moderation. This took place internally  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

The Chairman introduced the Draft Final Report for the single meeting review, 'Hillingdon's Implementation of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Reforms.' Committee Members acknowledged and endorsed the work already undertaken to implement the Reforms and agreed the report and recommendations as presented.

Resolved: That:

1.    That the Committee agreed the Draft Report as presented by the Chairman.

2.    That the Chairman would present the Draft Report to Cabinet on 23 April 2015.

Resolved: That:

1.    The Forward Plan be noted.

The following additions to the Committee's Work Programme were noted:

1.    A completed Children's Social Care Improvement Plan would be brought to the April 2015 meeting.

2.    An item in relation to auditing of the performance of secondary schools be added to the work programme for the April 2015 meeting.

Resolved: That: subject to the above amendments, the Work Programme be noted.