Issue - meetings

Report CSD18074

The Sub-Committee considered a report providing an overview of education outcomes for children attending Bromley schools for the 2016/17 academic year.

Children in Bromley consistently achieved well and made good progress at school.  It was important to ensure that schools and the Local Authority were ambitious for children and, therefore, the report  ranked performance in Bromley  against the top ten local authorities at a national level for education performance.  There remained a gap between the attainment and progress of children from disadvantaged groups and their peers and narrowing those gaps would remain a focus for schools and the Local Authority.

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Interim Director of Education confirmed that the small number of schools judged to require improvement were a focus for the Local Authority and the Department had so far this yearreviewed progress with one school and provided a package of support for another.  Levels of engagement were good and Head Teachers were keen to accept support and challenge.  The Local Authority was initially working with schools where the data suggested the biggest challenge existed.  Within Bromley the mechanism for monitoring improvement and providing evidence for school challenge was the analysis of data.  The Interim Director of Education stressed that every contact with schools had to count and that the Local Authority needed to be smarter about how information was shared across the Council.

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Interim Director of Education confirmed that the Local Authority did not yet have a framework for which set out expections for SEN support in mainstream schools and other educational settings.  Although schools were required to publish their local offer, these could often be generic and therefore parents did not know what to expect.  There was a need for Bromley to clearly set out expectations from mainstream schools in terms of SEN.

The Sub-Committee noted that the SEND Governance Board was responsible for overseeing and monitoring the priorities document arising from the SEN review.  As the report had been published it was agreed that it would be circulated to the Sub-Committee following the meeting.

RESOLVED that the report and recommendation be noted and endorsed.