Minutes:
The Portfolio Holder for Education, Children and Families, Cllr Peter Fortune, addressed the Committee highlighting work undertaken within the Portfolio since the last meeting.
· A number of schools had been visited by Ofsted inspectors with a high number of schools being assessed as either Good or Outstanding.
· Efforts were being made across the Portfolio to ensure that the Local Authority was more visible to schools and that schools were aware of the support that the Local Authority could provide.
· Harris Academy had recently hosted A National Citizen Service (NCS) event which had been attended by the Portfolio Holder and Minister Tracey Crouch MP.
· A review of SEN provision across the Borough continued.
· Provisional results from Key Stage 4 had been good with over ¾ of schools achieving above the national average. 2017 had seen strong academic results across the Borough.
· In terms of building new schools in the borough, challenges continued. The planning application for the Shaw Academy had been rejected by the Development Control Committee, and the application for Bullers Wood School for Boys was due to be reconsidered by the Development Control Committee on Thursday 25th January 2018.
· There had been a positive outcome from Ofsted’s 5th Monitoring Visit of Children’s Services. The letter received from Ofsted following the visited recorded that “no inadequate practice had been found and some aspects of Good practice had been identified.”
· The Portfolio Holder had met with the Independent Chairman of the Bromley Safeguarding Children’s Board.
· The Portfolio Holder had attended a meeting of the Living in Care Council and continued to attend the regular meetings of the Children’s Service Improvement Governance Board.
· Members of the Committee were urged to go and see the fantastic work that was going on out in the Community.
· Finally, the Portfolio Holder had extended his congratulation to his Executive Assistant, Councillor Tom Philpott, and his wife on the recent birth of their son.
The Portfolio Holder responded to questions, making the following comments:
· As yet, it was not clear whether Shaw Academy would appeal the decision of the Development Control Committee to refuse the planning application and the best case for the Bullers Wood application would need to be presented to the Development Control Committee on Thursday.
· A comparison of Bromley’s exam results with the top 10 authorities in the Country would be circulated to Members following the meeting.
· Over the next few years the Local Authority’s relationship with schools in the Borough needed to fundamentally change. The Local Authority needed to ensure that it was visible to schools, would work to overcome issues collectively, and was able to facilitate relationships with the wider Bromley partnership.
· It was expected that in September 2018, there would be no primary schools in the Borough that were not academies; there would be only three schools maintained by the Local Authority (2 Special Schools and 1 Secondary School).
· A date for the School Place Planning Working Group would be set once information had been collated and analysed.
Action Point 1: That the comparison of Bromley’s exams results with the top 10 authorities in the Country to be circulated to the Committee following the meeting.
The Chairman thanked the Portfolio Holder for his update.