Agenda item

Report of the Acting Chief Executive and Interim Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

The six month performance report was presented to Committee. In terms of achievement it was reported that the LearningSkills Service was rated good by Ofsted at a recent inspection, in addition Grove House received an outstanding rating. The level of engagement in children’s centres is positive and above Ofsted’s requirement of engaging 51% of families.

It was reported that 38% of the schools in the nursery, primary and special sectors are judged as outstanding and provisional Key Stage 2 results place Gateshead 8^th in the country. Early years development is in line with the national average and 100% of childcare provision in Gateshead has been rated as good by Ofsted. Provisional figures show that performance at GCSE’s has improved. 

It was noted that work is ongoing in relation to the new Sexual Health Strategy for Gateshead. It was also acknowledged that a recent inspection of the Youth Offending Team (YOT) found it had substantially improved in all areas. It was noted that the Active Kidz activities continue to be popular with 294 children and young people accessing the service during the spring and summer holidays.

In terms of areas for improvement there continues to be a high number of children subject to Child Protection Plans and the number of Looked After Children (LAC) also remains high, at present there are 366 LAC. There are also challenges around the increase in permanent exclusions, the increase in the number of children in low income families and the experience and progress of care leavers.

Work over the next six months will include strengthening the Early Help Strategy and understanding the significant rise in child protection plans. It was noted that the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is currently looking into the increase in permanent exclusions and a meeting is planned with secondary Headteachers to try and understand why the figure is so high in Gateshead. It was reported that work is ongoing in relation to care leavers around challenges such as isolation and tenancy sustainability and work is underway with housing to develop taster flats. Committee was advised that the new taster flat development project has been shortlisted for an LGA award.

It was questioned whether the certain schools are seeing the increase in permanent exclusions or whether this is across all schools in Gateshead. It was confirmed that, although there are some outliers, all schools are excluding more pupils than previously, subsequently this has impacted on the Pupil Referral Unit.  Concerns were raised that some primary schools are encouraging certain pupils, for example those with an ASD diagnosis, to leave the school instead of permanent exclusion. It was stated that the Council would take action if this was evident in any school.

It was suggested that in future performance reports the key actions should be more focussed in order to better measure progress against.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That the Committee considered the activities

undertaken during April 2016 to September 2016 are achieving the desired outcomes in the Council Plan 2015-2020.

                                    (ii)        That the Committee agreed that the report be referred

to Cabinet on 24 January 2017.