Agenda item

To respond to the Board's request to receive information on the subject.

Before the commencement of the meeting, Councillor Graham Jones asked to put on record the Board’s thanks to Leila Fergusson for her service to the Board since it’s establishment in 2013 and welcomed Garry Poulson as the new voluntary sector representative.

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 2) to respond to the Board’s request to receive information regarding the educational attainment and health outcomes of children from vulnerable families. The report had been written jointly between the Public Health and Education departments.

Maxine Slade began introducing the report by explaining that the definition of a vulnerable family came from the Department for Education and included children entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) or children/ young adults in care. This definition was problematic because all children in Key Stage 1 were now entitled to a free school meal, therefore parents were encourage to still apply so they and the school could benefit from Pupil Premium funding. Maxine Slade also explained that there was a limitation with how progress in educational attainment was defined; pupils who improved from a ‘D’ grade to ‘C’ grade were recorded as making progress but a pupil who improved from an ‘F’ grade to a ‘D’ grade was not, despite that potentially being a significant achievement for that pupil.

Dr Barbara Barrie joined the meeting at 9.38am)

Maxine Slade explained that in 2016, all children entitled to FSM had improved educational attainment, however children not entitled to FSM made more improvement so the attainment gap widened, likewise with children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). Referring to the report, Maxine Slade summarised the activities undertaken by the Education department and schools to address the educational attainment gap.

Councillor Lynne Doherty commended the amount of work undertaken to encourage the take up of Pupil Premium funding. Regarding the recommendations in the report, Councillor Doherty expressed the view that these could be more specific about how the Board could help to drive improvement. She also expressed the view that there might be some key messages that the Board could help transmit, such as the importance of breakfast to a child’s health and attainment at school. Councillor Doherty continued that there might be more work around the transition from early years that to be done. Maxine Slade responded that staffing levels had reduced so this was more difficult but vulnerable two year-olds were tracked through early years and their information was given to the accepting school.

Councillor Doherty asked how West Berkshire’s performance compared with national averages. Ian Pearson advised that the South East usually performed better than the national average and West Berkshire was usually in the higher part of the South East overall but there was work to do and there was no complacency.

Councillor Doherty suggested that the Children’s Delivery Group be consulted to develop clear recommendations for the Board and report back at a later date, including the best ways to spend Pupil Premium Grant. Ian Pearson clarified that Pupil Premium and FSM were just proxy measures and there was another cohort, families just about managing, that might need just as much support as Pupil Premium children but were not eligible for the funding. Maxine Slade added that officers have known about that cohort of children for some time and encourage schools to include those children in targeted support groups for Pupil Premium children.

Dr Lise Llewellyn noted that reducing the educational attainment gap was a difficult problem nationally and a particularly difficult problem to address in area of relative affluence. She enquired whether health visitors could do more to identify children from vulnerable families at their two year-old checks or if wider activities such as breakfast clubs could be pursued. Maxine Slade responded that a lot of work had been done regarding health visiting. Ian Pearson, on breakfast clubs, stated that many schools have offered these but changes in the way schools were funded by the government had lead to breakfast club closures.

Councillor Rick Jones agreed with Councillor Doherty that the report’s recommendations could be more focussed and explain what the objectives were, where on the path West Berkshire was and how the Board fit in.

Dr Bal Bahia noted that there was still work to be done to identify the barrier for increased take up of free nursery places and also raised that there were other health issues, such as low physical activity and low self esteem, particularly for adolescent girls, which played a factor in educational attainment. Maxine Slade agreed with this point and explained that seven of the ten West Berkshire secondary schools were academies so the School Improvement Team did not have the same footprint.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.