[Emma Bennett, Director of Children's Services,to present report]

Emma Bennett, Director of Children's Services, presented a report which gave an update on work done since the briefing giving to the panel in September 2020 on education and children services.

The Director of Children's Services advised the panel that previously all schools and education centres were closed at the start of the Covid 19 pandemic but did remain open to vulnerable children and also those of key workers. The restrictions were relaxed over time before schools were allowed to reopen fully at the start of the new term in September. All Wolverhampton schools have remained open since the start of term. The Director of Children's Services commented on the efforts to encourage and support joint working during lockdown among schools which has helped to support education provision for all children and young people across the City.

This effort has been supported by a number of working groups which have focused on key issues such as developing arrangements for baseline assessments.

The education service continues to regularly engage with education providers and teachers who have attended engagement sessions. In addition, the previous weekly Headteachers bulletin is now published twice weekly to update schools on any changes to national guidance. This has been a joint effort involving the work of colleagues in Education Services, Public Health, Health and Safety, HR. 

The Director of Children's Services praised the response from schools and the shared commitment from partners across the City to work together to keep children and young people in education as long as it is safe to do so. The Director of Children's Services commented on the school attendance rates and reported that average attendance is now about 90 per cent, which is very encouraging. There have been increasing number of Covid-19 cases in schools which has affected attendance rates, but this is still largely in line with the national attendance rates. There is further analysis work to be done on the attendance data. The Director of Children's Services commented on the concern among some parents who remain cautious about sending their children to school if they're displaying any kind of symptoms whether that is a general cough or cold or similar to the signs of a possible Covid-19 infection.

The service is working closely with those families to assure them about the safety measures which have been introduced and to encourage them to bring their children to school. The Director of Children's Services commented on impact of school attendance after the change in Government guidance to parents who are assessed as being clinically extremely vulnerable.

To support parents to bring their children to school the School Attendance Team have been given extra resources to work with families in supportive manner, which has worked well. There is a reluctance from the service to act against parents who have concerns and the approach will be to continue working with them on building confidence in the safety measures that have been introduced in schools. The service has also used social media sites to target certain communities to get key messages to support parents to bring their children to school. The Director of Children's Services advised the panel that school attendance is mandatory, unless a child is clinically extremely vulnerable.

There has been a significant increase in parents choosing elective home education due to concerns about Covid 19 since September. The increase is similar to the number seen in other areas of the country. The Council has been advised that following the end of previous consultation on changes in home school education policies the Government are expected publish new guidance.

The Director of Children's Services commented on the range of support available to schools and colleges to help vulnerable learners in addition to specialist support given to children with special educational needs and disabilities who might experience the most difficulty in returning to school. The Director of Children's Services advised the panel that the Wellbeing for Education Return training programme is being rolled out to other schools after a trial. 

The Director of Children's Services commented on the arrangements for managing outbreaks of Covid 19 in schools. The total number of positive cases in education settings has stabilised. The work has been supported by Public Health colleagues who offer a telephone helpline for schools in addition support from DfE.

The Director of Children's Services commented on the findings from a Digital Divide survey which highlighted a key issue of lack of access to devices. The service is working with colleagues across the Council to address the issue of the digital divide for children. The findings from the survey will be used to target support available to young people and to inform the approach to remote learning. The service monitors the situation when a school bubble has had to self-isolate and ordered laptops from DfE. A self-evaluation tool to support schools in monitoring and evaluating remote learning has been developed.

The Director of Children's Services gave a summary of the range of projects aimed at helping young people gain skills as part of work done to reduce levels of youth unemployment.

The Director of Children's Services briefed the panel on the decision made by the Council to provide free school meals during October half-term to approximately 16,000 children and young people.

A local strategy for delivering free school meals will be developed for Christmas holiday. The Director of Children's Services praise the contribution of schools to the success of the free school scheme by either issuing vouchers or buying food for families, who responded at short notice.

The panel queried the increase in the number of parents choosing to home educate their children and also when new Government guidance was expected. The Director of Children's Services responded that the Council is making representations to the DfE of the need for a policy change and comments submitted as part of earlier consultation which set out a number of options being considered at the time. The issue of home education has also been raised by Association of the Directors of Children's Services who also have concerns about the current policy. A key proposal in the consultation was the introduction of a statutory register of children being home educated. Wolverhampton already has a register of parents or carers who are home educating their children and can follow up any issues of concern.

The panel queried the impact of Head Teachers Bulletin and how effective it was in getting key messages out to schools. The Director of Children's Services agreed to follow this up with schools and report back findings to a future meeting of the panel.

Cllr Dr Mike Hardacre, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, wanted to formally praise the work of led by the Director of Children's Services to ensure that free school meals and vouchers were provided over half term at short notice

The panel welcomed the comprehensive report and congratulated the service on the work done.

Resolved:

The panel agreed to note the report.