Minutes:
The Portfolio Holder gave an update to Members on work being undertaken across the Education Portfolio. A number of visits to primary schools in the Borough had been undertaken since the last meeting. From these visits it was clear that a number of the schools offered high quality provision and achieved excellent results. The Portfolio Holder highlighted concerns around the widening gaps in achievement and reported that this would be a key focus for the Portfolio.
Since the last meeting the Portfolio Holder had attended the Bromley Trust Academy (BTA) Awards Ceremony. The Portfolio Holder highlighted how pleasing it was to see the young people being rewarded and recognised in this way for their achievements.
Arrangements were in place for the next meeting of the School Place Planning Working Group. The first meeting would take place on 7th February 2017 and an email had been sent out to members of the Committee in relation to membership of the working group. The Portfolio Holder stressed the importance of this work and the need to identify more school places across the Borough. Members attention was drawn to the consultation that was currently being undertaken in relation to a Health and Wellbeing School in the Borough which was an exciting and innovative initiative. The Portfolio Holder also reported that, with the support of colleagues in Education, an appeal had now been lodged in relation to the refusal of the planning application relating to Farnborough Primary School. Two school planning applications were due to be considered by the Development Control Committee at its next meeting. One was recommended for approval and one for refusal but efforts would be made to support the schools to get their applications approved by the Committee. The Portfolio Holder stated that he believed that the need for the additional capacity that these applications would deliver had been firmly established. In response to a question concerning community use of school sites, the Portfolio Holder reported that a number of schools were opening their facilities for wider community use in an effort to engage with and inspire parents and pupils.
The Portfolio Holder reported that 8 out of the 10 remaining primary schools in the Borough were in the process of converting to academy status. Consideration now had to be given to how the support for the remaining schools was configured as the Local Authority was now reaching the tipping point where in was no longer viable to maintain the current level of support for so few schools.
Since the last meeting the Community Learning Advisory Consortium (CLAC) had been established. The Consortium, chaired by the Portfolio Holder, was tasked with supporting the adult education service to target and gain access to the most vulnerable adults in the Borough so that the funding received could be prioritised for those most in need of learning interventions. The consortium met for the first time in October 2016 and the next meeting was planned for 21 February 2017.
Inspectors would be back to re-inspect the Youth Offending Service on 23 January 2017. The Portfolio Holder stressed that whilst improvements had been made in relation to strengthening governance arrangements there was still a lot more to do. It was expected that the YOS would be judged to have made some improvement. The Chairman noted that the Committee had previously raised concern about YOS case files and the quality of the work that was undertaken, concerns that were now acknowledged by the new Head of Service. In response to a question, the Director of Education reported that in addition to the Youth Offending Service the Head of Service had responsibility for the Education Business Partnership, Targeted Youth Services and, Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Work was being undertaken to identify how services could be reconfigured to strengthen the relationship between the YOS and schools as it was important to develop an holistic plan for the vulnerable young people who were accessing these services.
Finally, the Portfolio Holder reported that that, following a review of portfolio responsibilities, children’s social care had been moved across to sit within the Education Portfolio. At the moment this would not impact on the terms of reference of the Education Select Committee, the Portfolio Holder would be required to attend meetings of the Care Services PDS Committee for scrutiny of children’s social care. There was also no intention, as yet, to move housing into the Education Portfolio although the opportunities presented by this had been raised with the Leader of the Council. There was currently no detail in relation to what the reconfigured Portfolio may be called.
The Chairman reported that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Southwark would be meeting representatives from Bromley Council (including the Chairman of the Select Committee and the Portfolio Holder for Education) the following week to discuss the provision of a Catholic Secondary School in the Borough. The Government had indicated that it was planning to remove the 50% faith admission bar on Free Schools and in light of this the Catholic Church was willing to consider opening a Free School.
The Chairman also reported that he had met the Secretary of State for Education at a function before Christmas and had taken the opportunity to raise the issue of acadamisation and tipping points. It was likely that Bromley was going to be left with 5 maintained schools out of 100 and it was not practical to maintain an Education Department to support so few maintained schools. The Chairman had written to the Secretary of State to follow up the conversation and would be providing the Portfolio Holder with a copy of the letter.