Agenda item

John Coleman, Director of Children and Families presented the report to the committee stated that there had not been much movement since the last quarter but over the year, there has been continued improvement and notable positive performances across the board.

Notable highlights from the report included -

·         Attendance of children with ECH attending mainstream school is now at 37% highest since 2018; this is a very significant factor

·         Really positive that the Warwickshire children’s homes are open and have children placed.  The final certificate was received yesterday for Oak House so that can now start to progress.

·         In terms of challenges; the provision at Teleton Academy (an alternative provision academy); we have no control over things at the moment and we have raised this multiple times with the Department for Education to ask what they are doing about the situation.

·         ECHP completed in 20 weeks – progress is happening and work in ongoing for how it can be improved.

·         The budget – education service is slightly underspent at this point.  Overspend in Children and Families is at 7.2%; that’s predominately the cost of residential care and is less than it was this time last year.  Having our own homes will contribute to the overspend reducing.

Johnny Kyriacou, Director of Education echo how pleased we are with the overall positive performance across the county and how much we are doing.

Following the comments in relation to the Teleton Academy; this alternative provision is much needed in Warwickshire and at this point has been delayed for many years.  Unfortunately, at this point we can’t see when it might happen.  AS previously mentioned, it is outside our control, it is down to the Department for Education.  We are now looking at a different approach which is to open up Coleshill Pod as an alternative local provision, with an outreach service.  We would then look to extend this around the county.

Regarding the EHCP indicators, although we aren’t meeting the deadlines of 20 weeks, no child will be disadvantaged as a result of this as the funding is backdated and the support is in place while that happens.  The team will be increasing with additional staff and a team redesign.  We will also be linking in with partners.

The committee noted that the admissions service continues to perform strongly after a challenging period a few years ago.  High standards are now business as usual.  This is very welcome news.

Councillor Tim Sinclair commented on the good performance information and thanked officers for their continued hard work.  Councillor Sinclair raised one question in relation to the performance figures for the EHCP’s completed in 20 weeks.  The information shows steady improvement from 16%, 22% and then 30%; but the report shows that overall, it is “declining”? The Chair responded that although service performance is improving there has also been a continual increase in the number of referrals coming in and that is why the target hasn’t been achieved.  Johnny Kyriacou added that the backlog has been a concern but it needs to be included in the data to give the full story.  Following a second question, it was agreed that a further report looking in more detail to the process would be beneficial and a deep dive report would be added to the future work programme.

Councillor Jerry Roodhouse asked a question in relation to the residential care homes and the reduced spend, asking if the potential increase in energy costs etc had been taken into account.  Will savings continue in view of this?  John Coleman confirmed that savings may be unachievable in this financial year, but savings would be made.

The Chair thanked officers for the report adding that it is important everything is joined up and presented together in the report to understand that it isn’t always standalone issues.

Resolved

That the Committee considers and comments on Quarter 3 2024/25 organisational progress against the Council Delivery Plan, performance, management of finances and risk.