Agenda item

Councillor Paul Rochford (Cabinet Member for Children & Learning) introduced the report

Proposals for the future delivery of education services from April 2013 were submitted, reflecting the Council’s strategic aim to become a smaller, more streamlined organisation, which, as a consequence, would change the principles upon which services were delivered. It set out the national and local contextual factors which had been used to determine the future shape of the service.

It also acknowledged the importance of retaining services within the Council, which ensure that there is:

·        A sufficiency of high quality early years and school places, and provision for vulnerable children and adults (up to the age of 25)

·        Appropriate assessment and support for the Borough’s most vulnerable children and young people

·        A team to prevent school failure, by prompt and appropriate intervention

·        Improving pupil outcomes by schools, so the council can strengthen the reputation it has within the business community as an attractive area to locate

The impact of a rapidly changing landscape of relationships between schools and the Local Authority was highlighted. It was noted that:

·        Schools had the option to exercise greater freedoms and flexibilities through increased autonomy by conversion to Academy status

·        There would subsequently be a reduction in the levels of funding received historically by the Council - in addition to the national ‘deficit reduction’ programme

·        The role of the Council, through Children’s Services, would be defined fundamentally by the delivery of its statutory functions

·        Nationally, a network of Teaching Schools, National Leaders in Education and National Support Schools was in place. Schools were being encouraged to develop further the use of this school-to-school support function, particularly to take forward aspects of continuing professional development for staff, including support that was available locally through art, music and sports partnerships.

The report considered how statutory and essential in-house services could be reconfigured to reflect the new role of Local Authorities but at a reduced cost and with increased efficiency. It went on to suggest a number of options for some parts of the service that would no longer be delivered directly by the Council.

It was noted that the non-statutory education services (the Europa Centre, Catering Service, Adult College and the Music School), which provided support to children, families and schools, were not discussed and that a further report would be presented in due course, once final options and recommendations had been identified for those services.

Reasons for the decision:

To ensure that the Council would be able to meet its statutory obligations to support children, families and schools, within a  reduced funding envelope, thereby ensuring the provision of high quality schooling to local residents and protecting the most vulnerable children and families.

Other options considered:

No longer to provide statutory services to schools but to operate a “free market”, with the associated risks for the future lives of children and families in Havering and the long term reputation of Havering as a place to which businesses wish to locate and in which families wish to live.

Cabinet agreed:

1          To retain in-house a smaller number of teams with responsibility for delivering the Council’s statutory duties to vulnerable children and families, and those relating to preventing school failure (to be implemented in April 2013)

2          (a)       To explore two options for the non statutory functions of a non statutory Havering School Improvement Service (Hsis) Trust during July:

·        the establishment of  Hsis Trust with local schools

·        a “soft market testing” exercise to establish the level of external interest in running  the service

            (b)       That a final decision about the “destination” of this service be made following this work (to be implemented in April 2013)

3          To note that work continued to ensure that the non-statutory traded services of the Europa Centre, Catering Service, Adult College and the Music School meet their MTFS savings targets, while options continue to be explored for the future delivery of those services.