Issue - meetings

Rob Powell (Strategic Director, Resources) introduced Chris Baird -Interim Assistant Director for Education Services and Matt Biggs - Education and Early Years Strategy and Commissioning Manager to the committee explaining that they would also be presenting the report to the committee.

Rob Powell reminded the committee that on January 1^st, 2023, the admissions service transferred to Education Services to ensure a more integrated approach.  The committee was reminded of the activities of the admissions service which can be found in paragraph 1.5 of the report.

The report presented to the committee was completed following a review and conclusion from an independent reviewer following significant problems with the in-year admission process during the summer of 2022.  Warwickshire County Council commissioned the review to ensure they were open and transparent and to allow officers to learn from when things don’t go according to plan.

Rob Powell gave sincere apologies to children, parents, carers, and elected members that things went wrong stating that it was avoidable stress.  The core issue was a poorly introduced change which has now been embedded in and has significantly improved.

It was noted that once problems became apparent, officers were able to move quickly and all issues were resolved by the 16^th September 2022.  Rob Powell confirmed that by January 2023 the service was 100% compliant and this reflects the stabilisation of the process.

The report identified six related factors  which caused the issues over the summer of 2022 –

1.     high demand for in-year applications, caused in some part by

increasing demographic movement into the County including children

arriving through the Homes for Ukraine scheme;

2.     the decision to deploy an untested automated process for in-year

admissions;

3.     a lack of consistent and appropriate communication with families and

schools;

4.     the Council and schools not sharing timely data and school place

availability;

5.     a lack of live data and management information to enable effective

oversight of service performance

6.     unclear responsibilities and accountabilities for the admissions

process

The committee noted that there are 7 recommendations highlighted in the report that will be part of the improvement plan.  The new assistant director for Education, Johnny Kyriacou, starts at Warwickshire County Council on 1^st March 2023 and has been tasked with the implementation of the improvement plan, to be completed by the end of March 2024.

Chris Baird asked the committee to note that the current actions and work that is still underway, started before the service moved to Education Services.  In addition, the service is receiving fewer complaints now which is a sign that things are improving. Work is continuing to build up the confidence and skills of the team; including the response to correspondence such as emails and letters.  The backlog of communication issues has been cleared.  Everything will be captured in the action plan which is to be completed by the end of March 2023.

The Chair stated that the committee would like their apologies to be noted in the minutes.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4