Report No. 57/2018 from the Cabinet was received, the purpose of which was to consider the recommendations of Cabinet referred to Council for determination and report the Key Decisions made by Cabinet since the publication of the agenda for the previous meeting of the Council on 26 February 2018.

1)    Council NOTED the Key Decisions made since the publication of the agenda for the previous meeting of the Council on 26 February 2018, as detailed in Appendix A to Report No. 57/2018.

2)    20 February 2018

Decision No. 622

Report No. 38/2018

EDUCATION FRAMEWORK 2017-2020

Mr Wilby introduced and moved the recommendations in the report.  Mr Foster seconded the recommendations.

During his introduction Mr Wilby confirmed that this was an overarching strategy which covered early years through to post-16 education.  The Education Provider Prioritisation and Entitlement 2017-18 was in essence the implementation manual.  A press release had been issued that day confirming that all 364 applicants for secondary school places had been given one of their choices with 96% being given their first choice.  The paper covered the monitoring of standards in an environment where 85% of Rutland children were in academies and this was likely to increase.  The Education Performance Board, Chaired by Mr Wilby, monitored the performance of all schools and the Head Teachers Group to instigate collaboration and training to ensure best practice across the County in partnership with other organisations such as the National Leaders of Education, The Rutland Teaching Alliance and East Midlands Teaching School Alliance and where appropriate the Diocese Education Leadership, along with Rutland County Council Officers.  Currently all schools were judged good or outstanding and our results compare favourably with national standards.  Harrington School was developing well with cohort increasing to 110 pupils starting in September.  There was more work to do for post-16 students and there was more work underway to provide vocational and apprenticeship opportunities.  Children Looked After, overseen by the Virtual Head and Corporate Parenting Board, which all members were welcome to attend.  Also improvements were being explored to improve the support to children with special educational needs and disabilities.  A recent safeguarding audit had highlighted the need to re-focus on recruitment practices and this was in hand.  School Governors also play an important part.  Being a small County Rutland must continue to use resources wisely and collaborate well to sustain and improve our educational offer to Rutland children.

During debate of the recommendations, points raised included:

i.      Mr Oxley was concerned regarding the shrinking number of maintained schools and how those remaining could be supported if they wished to remain outside of the academy structure.  Mr Wilby confirmed that all schools are encouraged to work together through the Head Teachers Group and the Rutland Teaching Alliance in collaboration with the Local Authority; 

ii.     Mr Baines required clarification as to the support for academies highlighted in the report and whether the costs for such RCC Officer support would be recharged back to academies, given the financial challenges being experienced by the Council at present.  Mr Wilby confirmed that collaboration would continue to be important to ensure that teaching practices remained high.  Any resultant costs should be given consideration, but it would depend on where the support came from for school improvement; for instance it may come from the Local Authority; but may also come from other sources.  The Chairman suggested that further detail could be provided outside of the meeting and appended to the minutes;

iii.    Mr Conde asked how special mental health provision in schools may impact on education and the further detriment that would be imposed by difficulties in accessing general practice surgeries in relation to the proposed closure of the surgery at Ketton.  Mr Wilby noted the ongoing consultation and that it would not be appropriate to comment on this specifically, but assured Mr Conde that support for all children with disabilities remained a high priority;

iv.   Mr Foster confirmed that there was a close collaboration with Rutland Schools with resilience training and development of a whole school approach to focus on young people and mental health;

v.     Miss Waller confirmed that Schools outside of the Rutland academy trusts still work in partnership with those schools.  It would be helpful to develop a more coherent vision for education of Rutland children, in spite of recent GCSE results which had shown good value added, there was still some room for improvement.  Miss Waller had some concerns regarding post-16, in particular regarding cost and investing in a non-academic post-16 offer when there were facilities in neighbouring Counties, in view of current financial position. In addition Rutland did not have many young people leaving school at post-16 and may not necessarily be able to cater for their individual needs/preferences.  In future Education Frameworks it would be good to see the apprenticeship route being aimed at academic young people and also some detail about careers advice to young people in schools.  Mr Wilby confirmed that it was often more feasible for young people to go outside the County to Post-16 Colleges that had the appropriate facilities.  Facilities that could be offered within the County would still be looked at, but not on a large scale.  Members should put any ideas through to the Education Team;

vi.   Mr Clifton highlighted the need to focus on the transition post-16 for young people receiving special education need and disability support.  Mr Clifton asked whether exclusions were a problem in Rutland Schools given recent media attention on this subject. 
Mr Wilby confirmed there had been improvements made in this area and the focus remained on inclusion and supporting children to remain within educational settings; and

vii.  Mrs Stephenson noted the importance of academies engagement with the Local Education Authority and cited the results of a recent survey on Safeguarding where the response rate from academies had been poor.

viii.The Chairman noted that the increase in pupils at Casterton was a good news story, but there was always the problem with funding for places not coming until the next fiscal year.

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Mr A Stewart left the meeting and did not return.

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RESOLVED

1)    To APPROVE the Education Framework 2017-20 as the key driver for sustained education improvement across Rutland education settings.