Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies of absence were received from County Borough Councillors K Webb, J Elliott and J Cook.

To receive disclosures of personal interest from Members in accordance with the Code of Conduct

Note:

1.    Members are requested to identify the item number and subject matter that their interest relates to and signify the nature of the personal interest: and

2.    Where Members withdraw from a meeting as a consequence of the disclosure of a prejudicial interest they must notify the Chairman when they leave.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, the following declarations

of interests were made pertaining to the agenda:

Agenda item 4-Pre scrutiny of a draft Cabinet Report

County Borough Councillor M Maohoub- Personal Interest - “I know the family of the public speaker Mr Morris”

County Borough Councillor A Rogers- Personal interest- “I am a Governor of Rhigos School”

Agenda item 5 – Annual School Exclusion Performance Report for the Academic Year 2022/23

Mr Veale -Personal interest-“ I am a Governor at Hawthorn High School”

County Borough Councillor J Brencher – Personal Interest-“ I formerly taught at Hawthorn High School”

County Borough Councillor C Lisles-Personal Interest- “I am a Governor at Hawthorn High School”

County Borough Councillor S Evans -Personal Interest – “My son’s School is mentioned in the report”

Agenda item 6 – School Attendance Data

Mr Veale – Personal interest- “I am a Magistrate and sit in court on school non-attendances”

County Borough Councillor S Evans-Personal Interest-“I am Vice Chair of Governors of a School mentioned in the report”

To approve as an accurate record the minutes of the hybrid meeting of the Education and Inclusion Scrutiny Committee held on the 16^th October 2023.

Information is provided in respect of relevant consultations for consideration by the Committee.

Members were reminded of the open consultations being run by Welsh Government (WG) which had been circulated on the 30^th November which may be of interest to members of the Education & Inclusion Scrutiny Committee.

Pre-scrutinise the recommendations to Cabinet in respect of the ‘PROPOSAL TO CLOSE RHIGOS PRIMARY SCHOOL WITH PUPILS TRANSFERRING TO HIRWAUN PRIMARY SCHOOL’.

The Service Director Democratic Services and Communications presented the report to Members to provide the opportunity for Committee to pre-scrutinise the recommendations of the Director of Education & Inclusion to the Council’s Cabinet on the 18^th December 2023, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education, Youth Participation & Welsh Language in respect of the Proposal To Close Rhigos Primary School With Pupils transferring To Hirwaun Primary School. 

Members were advised that the draft Cabinet report was identified for pre-scrutiny by the Chair of the Education & Inclusion Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Procedure rules. The Service Director highlighted that the purpose of the pre scrutiny activity is to influence and scrutinise decisions of Cabinet before they are made as ‘critical friends’ and he reminded the scrutiny committee that it is not the decision maker in respect of this matter.

The Service Director referred Members of the Education & Inclusion Scrutiny Committee to the recommendations set out in his report.

The Director of Education & Inclusion Services presented the draft Cabinet report which advised Members of the outcome of the recent consultation in respect of the proposal to Close Rhigos Primary School with pupils transferring to Hirwaun Primary School by no later than September 2024. The Director advised that the report is seeking Cabinet’s agreement to progress the proposals to the next stage of the consultation process by issuing an appropriate Statutory Notice which will trigger the start of the Objection Period. The Director referred Members to section four of the report which outlined the outcome of the Cabinet meeting held on the 18^th September 2023 when approval was given to begin a statutory process to formally consult on the proposal to close Rhigos Primary school with Pupils transferring to Hirwaun Primary School. The justifications of doing so are contained within the report and a consultation document along with the Equality impact assessment, Welsh Language impact assessment and community impact were prepared in respect of the proposal and published on the Council’s website in line with the requirements of the Welsh Government’s School Organisation Code.

The Director outlined the content of the consultation report which has been prepared and contains information of meetings held to discuss the proposals with copies of notes taken at these meetings, Estyn’s full response to the proposal and the clarification to the response, a summary of the responses received during the consultation period and where required, the appropriate clarification to any issues raised.

The Director summarised the number of responses and petitions received in total, and outlined the arrangements for the two drop-in sessions which were arranged in Rhigos and Hirwaun Primary School for members of the public to discuss the proposal with Officers from the Council’s Directorate of Education & Inclusion Services. The Director added that all key themes to emerge from the consultation process are included in the consultation report set out at Appendix A to the report.

The Director outlined the statutory processes for the proposal if agreed and subject  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

For Committee Members to receive an analysis of school exclusion performance for the academic year 2022/23.

The Head of Inclusion Services presented the report to Members to provide them with an analysis of school exclusion performance for the academic year 2022/23 and a comparison of performance over the last five years where appropriate.

Members were informed that the report provides an analysis and evaluation of exclusion data over a 5-year period. Due to the fact that rates of exclusion during the pandemic were affected by significant school closures during this period, rates of exclusion during the pandemic are not directly comparable with typical academic years, hence the inclusion of comparators with pre-Covid data in relation to specific data sets throughout the report.

Following the presentation of the report a Member asked whether the data relating to expulsions can also be linked to those pupils demonstrating poor attendance and that having this correlation may be useful to overcome attendance issues in the future. The Head of Inclusion Services confirmed that the analysis could be undertaken from this perspective to understand if there is any correlation and subsequently provided to the Education & Inclusion Scrutiny Committee in due course.

Another Member questioned whether there is any evidence of wellbeing issues affecting those children just below the point of expulsion and what factors, if any, are different in the county borough that could impact the data specific to RCT. The Member was particularly concerned about the higher rates of expulsion in RCT than other areas and the impact of the expulsions on the wellbeing of teachers and those pupils wishing to get on with their learning. 

The Head of Inclusion Services commented that data relating to the wellbeing of individuals is not collated however, the team liaises with all schools on these particular issues and they are now raised more regularly. The Head of Inclusion Services referred to the support that is available in schools such as ALN support and the more nurturing support that is available to address social and emotional wellbeing issues. She referenced NurtureUK training which is an organisation dedicated to improving the social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing of children and young people with an emphasis on understanding the triggers for behaviour and the benefits of receiving data of this kind.

The Director of Education & Inclusion Services suggested that the impact of Covid on the county borough was immense with high levels of trauma as a result of the significant numbers of deaths suffered by families and communities. This, in addition to existing levels of high poverty and deprivation rates in the region, which all have an impact on wellbeing issues.

The Head of Inclusion Services advised that the overall national ranking has improved. Although there remain issues relating to social media (which is common across other local authorities)  there were no underlying or unique factors contributing to the data and higher levels of expulsions.

The Head of Inclusion Services referred to grant funded additional support in place for Head teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff which offers counselling and wellbeing sessions during out of school hours  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

For Committee members to receive an update on school attendance data across the local authority and the actions of the Attendance and Wellbeing Service and wider Education and Inclusion Services to increase attendance levels.

The Head of Attendance and Wellbeing presented the report to Members with an update on school attendance data across the local authority and the actions of the Attendance and Wellbeing Service and wider Education and Inclusion Services to increase attendance levels.

 A Member noted that as with the previous report presented to Members, this one lacked the same level of detail and requested that this is considered for the subsequent meeting and also whether the next report could include local variances relating to attendance which would be helpful to Members. In addition, a query was raised in relation to paragraph 4.1 and whether Summer 2 statistics are available at secondary phase as this term is traditionally known as the worst school term for attendance.

The Head of Attendance & Wellbeing advised that half termly reports are published and circulated to every school which include comparative data, which can be requested by Governors should they wish to view it. This report was shared with Scrutiny following the previous report on attendance earlier in the year. However, in line with the Estyn framework, it is not the role of the LA to compare schools’ performance against other schools. The Head of Attendance & Wellbeing explained the difficulties collecting an overall LA performance target; however, he was able to confirm the indicative figures as 91.8% for primary and 89.4% at secondary level. He added that there are no national figures for the last half term for secondary schools (primary was provided) as the national data collection by Welsh Government takes place at the end of May. Summer 2 data collection would include anomalies, with year 11 absent following their exams. Despite this anomaly and the drop off in attendance figures, the Head of Attendance & Wellbeing was happy to provide the data as Members pointed out that education covers six half terms and attendance should also be tracked across this period. It was agreed that this would be a clear action for the next report.

Another Member asked whether it was possible to include a clear summary of the key salient issues from the Attendance Monitoring Report and commented that this additional information would help the committee understand the real challenges and requested further detail around the section within the report outlining truancy, to understand how it is being addressed and if the advertising campaign had been undertaken as yet.

The Head of Attendance & Wellbeing explained that work is currently being undertaken with two advertising companies, one for primary schools using the character ‘Super Attender’ which had previously been used in schools as a physical costume. This had been a challenging concept, so the local authority is looking at a social media campaign and videos for use within schools. For the secondary level, the videos will concentrate on barriers to overcome attendance, filming the videos in schools and gathering case studies that can be shared. He concluded that this fits in with the strategy, with a progress report provided to Members next March, which will be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

To reflect on the meeting and actions to be taken forward.