Agenda item

Report and Presentation of the Executive Director of People

Councillor Maton, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

The Committee considered a report and presentation of the Executive Director of People which set out the proposed Education Service redesign. The report was due to be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 24^th January, 2017. Councillor Maton, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills attended the meeting for the consideration of this item. Sybil Hanson, Church of England Co-opted Member for Education matters also attended.

The report indicated that the Council had a strong education partnership with the Coventry Family of Schools, putting the needs of children and young people at the heart of everything it did. This was captured in the vision for education services: “As champions of children: Successful partnership working enables children, young people and adults to access high quality education and learning, develop resilience, make positive life choices and contribute to a vibrant Coventry city; and to lift the cloud of limitation for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and enable their entitlement to an ordinary life.”

Coventry’s overall performance had continued to improve and the city now had a higher percentage of pupils in good or outstanding schools (88%) than the national average. This local improvement was set in the context of a very challenging financial environment for both the local authority and for schools. 

The redesign of Coventry’s Education Services, in collaboration with Coventry schools, was aimed at enabling services to be fit for purpose for Coventry children and young people, offering services that schools valued and dealt with grant cuts in a managed way. 

Management proposals were outlined at the start of a consultation on 3rd October, 2016 and the consultation ended on 23rd November, 2016. This provided the opportunity for staff and other stakeholders to feedback views. The proposals for implementation outlined in the report took account of this feedback. There had been strong collaboration with schools on the development of the model throughout and the final proposals were discussed with the Primary and Secondary Executive Headteacher groups who gave full support and agreement to the outline proposals.

Appendix A of the report set out detailed descriptions of the teams and services in scope, alongside the original proposals.  Appendix B, provided a summary of consultation feedback, the corresponding management response and the final proposals and recommendations for implementation, which reflected the outcome of the consultation process.

The proposals summarised in the report were in relation to the Hospital Education Service (including Pregnant School Girls Unit); Coventry Extended Learning Centre; Coventry Performing Arts Service; Work Related Learning Team;School Improvement; Minority Group Support Services; Special Educational Needs (SEN) Statutory Assessment and Provision Team; Educational Psychology; SEN Early Years Foundation Team; Social Emotional Mental Health and Well-being Team; Complex Communication traded offer; and the Sensory Team offer.

The presentation set out the financial strategy for the Coventry Education system; highlighted the timeline for the process; informed of the consultation outcomes; and detailed the new model including the proposals consulted on, the changes made following consultation and the recommendations for implementation. Attention was drawn to the staffing implications for each area. Overall the original proposal had a reduction of 74.49 FTE, the revised model had reduced this to 51.77 FTE.

Members questioned the officers on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Support for the consultation process which was recognised as a good practice model

·  Support for the redesigned education service

·  Details of the service for pregnant school girls

·  Whether flexibility is built into the system and whether the services will be evaluated and reviewed on a regular basis

·  How Special Educational Needs and Disability services are affected, specifically links with health partners around support for children being assessed for autism

·  The outdoor education service

·  How the proposed changes to the Minority Group Support Service will affect schools with high proportions of community languages spoken.

·  A request for the Committee to be kept updated on any further changes as a result of the evaluation, especially those services traded with schools.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The recommendations to Cabinet be endorsed.

(2) Scrutiny to be kept updated of any further changes as a result of evaluation, especially those services traded with schools.

(3) The Committee’s thanks and appreciation be conveyed to Kirston Nelson, Director of Education, Libraries and Adult Education and all the team involved in the successful consultation process which informed the development of the new Education Service model.

(4) Members of Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee to be invited to the Skills Summit to be held in Coventry during April 2017.