To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2021.

Decision

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2021.

Report of the Director of Education

This report outlines the work being undertaken by the Council to support the Education Sector in responding to the Climate Emergency declared by the City Council in July 2019, with a focus on decarbonisation. It also outlines the plans to develop this as a theme of Our Year 2022 in response to feedback from children and young people. This will enable children and young people to have their say and contribute to achieving the zero-carbon target for the city.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Education which outlined the work being undertaken by the Council to support the Education Sector in responding to the Climate Emergency declared by the Council in July 2019, with a focus on decarbonisation. It also outlined the plans to develop this as a theme of Our Year 2022 in response to feedback from children and young people. This would enable children and young people to have their say and contribute to achieving the zero carbon target for the city.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Planned conference;
• Carbon Literacy Training;
• De-carbonisation;
• Partnership working with the Department for Education (DfE) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA);
• Young People’s Offer;
• Our Year;
• Green skills;
• Early Years settings; and
• Promoting active travel.

Manchester resident, Ruth Todhunter, addressed the Committee, telling them about her involvement in campaigning for clean air with other local mothers and the British Lung Foundation.  She informed Members about the School Streets Initiative, where a road outside a school had a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times and the benefits of this for children and young people.  She encouraged the Council to work with schools and communities to identify where air quality could be improved to inform interventions and behaviour change.  She advised that funding to support School Streets should prioritise those schools most affected by poor air quality.  She reported that the British Lung Foundation was offering to meet with the Council to discuss how they could work together to monitor air pollution in the city.

Lee Ormsby and Kristian Cope from Our Lady’s RC High School delivered a presentation on their Climate Action Roadmap.

The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• Background information;
• Climate action activities by area;
• Student voice; and
• The steps of the roadmap from emerging to established to being a leading school on combating climate change, which could be a model for others and share its resources and learning.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the presentation from Our Lady’s RC High School and the work they were doing and to ask whether they would be looking to move to using organic food;
• To what extent were other schools undertaking this kind of work, how would the actions taken by other schools be monitored and could Members be kept updated on this work;
• The need for safe walking and cycling routes to schools;
• Request from a Member for an Ardwick school to be included in the Street Schools initiative;
• How was the retrofitting of schools being addressed;
• To welcome the work that the Director of Education and Executive Member for Children’s Services had done in this area and to ask that sufficient officer capacity be made available to bring together best practice and progress this work in time for the planned conference;
• The importance of the new Climate Change Officers in each district engaging  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

The Committee will receive a verbal update from the Director of Education.

The Committee received a verbal update of the Assistant Director of Education which outlined new developments and significant changes to the current situation, particularly in relation to schools. 

The main points and themes within the verbal update included:

• Temporary changes to the guidance on face coverings in schools;
• Other measures schools were implementing to reduce the spread of COVID-19;
• Lateral flow testing and requirements for those testing positive;
• Support for schools, including the use of Outbreak Meetings;
• School attendance;
• The impact of staff absence; and
• Vaccination of young people.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Support for young people’s mental health;
• The impact of staff being able to self-certify as sick for 28 days, data on schools and areas which were worst affected by staff absence and whether any schools had had to close;
• To ask for more data on vaccination levels at next month’s meeting; and
• That the Committee should look at the number of children being electively home educated.

The Assistant Director of Education outlined the work that had taken place to improve mental health support to children and young people, through Healthy Schools and Manchester Thrive and training for schools on other ways to access mental health support, advising that this support to schools had been increased during the pandemic.  She advised that, as term had only just re-started, data was not yet available on staff absences but that four primary schools had been affected by a partial closure, for example, a particular class doing remote learning but with vulnerable pupils still coming on site.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services praised the work of schools and the Council’s Education Service during the pandemic, including the prioritisation of vulnerable children and young people.

Decisions

1.            To ask for data on vaccination levels for young people in Manchester to be included in the next update.

2.            That the Committee should look at the number of children being electively home educated.

3.            That a letter should be sent to all schools congratulating them for their work during the pandemic.

Report and presentation of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services

This report and presentation provide an update on Our Year 2022.

The Committee received a report and presentation of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which provided an update on Our Year 2022.

The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• The feedback from engagement with children and young people on what was important to them and what Manchester could do better;
• Key themes identified from this;
• Events, activities and campaigns;
• UNICEF Child Friendly City submission; and
• How Members could support this work.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services encouraged the Co-opted Members to watch the webcast of the Council meeting on 1 December 2021, at which young people from across Manchester had spoken about the issues that were important to them.  He highlighted the last slide of the presentation on how Members could support Our Year and encouraged the Committee Members to get involved.  He advised that support was available in doing this and that the Our Year Project Lead could circulate an information pack.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome this work;
• The number of children and young people across different settings who had been engaged through this work and whether they were representative of all children and young people across the city;
• The importance of the voice of children of all ages being heard;
• How Our Year would be promoted, including engagement with parents;
• That many teachers would welcome the opportunity to support this work and that it was important to ensure that this was communicated to them; and
• The lack of work experience placements during the pandemic and what could be done to encourage more organisations to take part, noting that Members might be able to offer work experience or shadowing opportunities.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services advised that the communication strategy was being refined and developed and the intention had been to start with a soft launch through a series of events with the website being fully up and running by mid-February.  He also highlighted the briefing packs which were being produced.  The Chair advised that empty billboards across the city should be used to promote Our Year as well as using social media.  The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services emphasised the importance of Our Year not just being about the Council but involving the wider community, with a cultural shift and a legacy of children and young people being involved in the big decisions for their city.  He advised that the Executive Member for Children’s Services and the Director of Education were engaging with schools regarding Our Year.  He outlined how children and young people had been engaged with across school settings, advising that pupils, for example, those who were part of the School Council, spoke on behalf of their peers so the views gathered reflected a wider range of pupils than just those who were directly engaged with.  He informed Members that engagement with the business sector as part of Our Year was not just about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report and presentation of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services

This report and presentation reflect the development and current position of the quality of practice being delivered to children and their families in Manchester, with a particular focus on Children’s Social Care.

The Committee received a report and presentation of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which reflected the development and current position of the quality of practice being delivered to children and their families in Manchester, with a particular focus on Children’s Social Care..

The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• Manchester’s children and young people population;
• What was quality of practice and what sources did the service use to assess its quality of practice;
• What was known about the current position; and
• How the service planned to drive continuous improvement and learning.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Whether the better quality of practice and the poorer quality were concentrated in particular service areas;
• How were young people’s views and experiences captured and was any negative feedback received;
• The importance of addressing IT issues to enable social workers to work effectively; and
• To note that some issues would be looked at by the Ofsted Subgroup.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services informed Members that the IT issues were being addressed, that a lot of progress had been made on this and that Children’s Services were receiving top priority within the Council for new devices.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services advised that the service did not just rely on the auditing tool to understand where it was at in terms of quality of practice, noting the role that scrutiny played with Members visiting social work teams, asking questions of staff and then using what they had learnt on these visits to effectively question and challenge the service’s senior leadership at its meetings.  He outlined how areas were identified which would benefit from targeted auditing and observed practice and the work to drive up quality of practice, taking the learning from this into workforce development training.  He advised that he would bring a report on Participation and Engagement to a future meeting which would provide additional information on how the views of young people were gathered.  The Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Practice Development outlined some of the ways that young people’s feedback was gathered and advised that key issues young people raised were that they did not like being allocated a new social worker, when they had already built a relationship with the existing one, and that they wanted improved transitions to adult social services.  

Decision

To note the report.

Report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services

This is the 2020/2021 Annual Report of the Independent Reviewing (IRO) Service for Cared for Children, which is required in accordance with the Children and Young Person’s Act 2008 and subsequent statutory guidance published by the Department for Children Schools and Families in 2010 as set out in the IRO Handbook.

The Committee received the 2020/2021 Annual Report of the Independent Reviewing (IRO) Service for Cared for Children, which was required in accordance with the Children and Young Person’s Act 2008 and subsequent statutory guidance published by the Department for Children Schools and Families in 2010 as set out in the IRO Handbook

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Service and legal context;
• Our Children and Young People data 2019/2020;
• Our Children statutory reviews;
• Participation and engagement;
• Quality assurance;
• Outcomes and impact of the service 2020/2021; and
• Key priorities 2020/2021.

In response to a Member’s question about children placed outside the local authority area, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services reported that the vast majority were placed within Greater Manchester.  The Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Practice Development advised that for most of those children they had been placed there because that was the best way to meet their needs and that the service still took the same responsibility for them as for children placed within the city, although she acknowledged that there were additional barriers to overcome.

Decision

To note the report.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

This report provides the Committee with details of key decisions that fall within the Committee’s remit and an update on actions resulting from the Committee’s recommendations. The report also includes the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee is asked to amend as appropriate and agree.

A report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit was submitted. The overview report contained key decisions within the Committee’s remit, responses to previous recommendations and the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee was asked to approve.

Decision

To note the report and agree the work programme.