Agenda and minutes

Apologies received from Councillor Joshua Chapman and Mary Pattinson.

Apologies were received from:

 Councillors Carol Smith (Vice Chair), John Wood and  Joshua Chapman

Ian Rusha (NUT), Phillip Grundy (Church of England), Julie Lamb (Special Schools) and Healthwatch Havering

Members are invited to disclose any interests in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.  Members may still declare an interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of pecuniary interests.

The Chairman announced details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.  The Chairman also reminded all attendees to put their mobile phones and all portable devices to ‘silent’.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 29 April 2015 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting of the Sub-Committee held on 29 April 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman asked members if they had any topics they wished to put forward for discussion as agenda items for future meetings.  The following items were suggested:  Teach First and SEN Training.  The panel were asked to email any further topics to the Chairman and Committee Administration (Agatha Williams) for consideration.

Review any changes to the Corporate Parenting Panel post-election.

This item had been deferred from the previous meeting as the new municipal year had now commenced.  The only change in membership was Councillor Carol Smith was now the Vice Chair.  There were no other changes to the membership of the panel. 

An officer will provide a report at the meeting.

This item has been deferred due to the large amount of recruitment currently taking place.  An office will provide an update to the next meeting.

The panel was asked to receive a presentation on LBH’s vision on leadership and management in schools.  The presentation also included findings from the December 2014 OFSTED report which showed that almost 25% of schools received a “Grade 3” (required improvement), this figure was much higher than the London or national schools.  The number of schools awarded a “Grade 1” (outstanding), did not compare favourably with the London or national schools.  The panel was informed that changes can take place over a short space of time i.e. one or two terms could have an impact on grades. 

The panel was asked to note the 5 key areas for development:

·       Resource management

·       Senior leadership

·       Middle leadership

·       Support leadership

·       Governor leadership 

A discussion regarding how working with other partnerships and promoting innovative and flexible leadership could make a positive impact on failing  schools and in some cases avert the need for special measures.

The panel asked a number of questions regarding the feasibility of achieving 100% success, buying into the strategy, the sustainability of sharing senior leadership, the timing of OFSTED inspections and the impact of the future requirement for secondary schools to reach 60% 5 A*-C grades.  The officer informed the Committee that a review of OFSTED reports was underway which would review these figures and percentages, making them more attainable, also some inspection results appear inconsistent so will need to be investigated.  The sustainability issues will be included in the final strategy document. 

The possibility of working with other universities (apart from                             UEL) was discussed; the officer will investigate and provide an update to the committee.

The Chairman thanked the officer for his presentation.

The Director of Asset Management Services will present to the meeting.

The panel received a presentation on SEN Transport.  The officer informed the panel that Mary Pattinson commissions the service and Asset Management Services have had to make savings in the region of £600,000.  This had impacted on travelling time i.e. longest journey had increased to 1.5 hours each way.

The panel discussed various saving proposals i.e. grants for converting family vehicle, school subsidising travel cost and the possibility of “cluster” pick up/drop off.  The officer informed the panel that the number of cluster pick up had declined as more often than not, once an external assessment had been carried out the recommendation was for a door to door service to be provided.

LBH SEN Transport also provides services to Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham LA.  Any additional costs recovered are put back into the service, thereby reducing the unit cost for LBH pupils.  The fleet is also available for hire during the day and evening to maximise usage and increase revenues.

A number of questions and issues were raised i.e. concerns regarding journeys taking place during the extreme heat currently being experienced; faulty air conditioning on a particular vehicle; available data on missed registration and training of SEN Escorts. The officer informed members that Escorts were on hand and had been trained to cope with any issues that arose during the journey, however the officer would investigate and report back on: faulty air condition and data on the number of missed registrations due to unforeseen delays during the journey.  The officer informed the committee of the following: the fleet had a replacement bus that could be used should any vehicle become un-roadworthy or require repairs; SEN Escorts were fully trained, but the department had to rely on temporary staff to cover absences. 

The Chairman thanked the officer for his presentation.

·       Meetings with schools

The Chair, Cabinet Lead and Head of Service, have met with 4 schools in a new process to meet with all Head Teachers and Chairs of Governing bodies.  To date: 1 secondary, 2 primary and 1 special school have been invited to the Town Hall.  The process is on-going.

Feedback from the school visited:

o   Headteacher and a teacher have both been OFSTED trained – which assisted with the OFSTED inspection

o   persistence absences – working with other schools on the best way forward

o   have recently implemented changes to the curriculum

o   ratio (55% boys, 45% girls) has distorted overall outcomes as nationally boys achieve lower results than girls

o   developing networking regarding the EHCP with SENCO

o   even with additional funding the delivery of EHCP is still proving a challenge

o   staff briefings take place every morning

o   no longer have learning objectives – now judged on how the school is managed overall rather than focusing on individual teaching lessons

o   Governing Body needs to be challenging and supportive.

Further feedback/scrutiny will be provided once all assessments have taken place.  

·       Time of meetings – all future meetings will commence at 7pm.

Future meetings will take place on:

            9 September 2015

            14 January 2016

            15 March 2016

            27 April 2016

09 September 2015

08 October 2015

14 January 2016

15 March 2016

27 April 2016