To appoint a Chair for the meeting.

As the position of Chair was vacant, the Committee Support Officer asked for nominations for a Member to chair the meeting.  A Member nominated Councillor Gartside, which was seconded by another Member and agreed by the Committee.

Decision

To appoint Councillor Gartside as Chair for the meeting.

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive        

This report provides an update on the development of a new Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035. A project team and steering group was formed in late 2023 ahead of the phase 1 engagement being launched in early 2024. This report provides a summary of the approach to engagement, the overall phase 1 engagement reach and a summary of the findings that are most relevant to the work of the Committee.

The Committee considered the report of the Assistant Chief Executive which provided an update on the development of a new Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035. A project team and steering group was formed in late 2023 ahead of the phase 1 engagement being launched in early 2024. This report provided a summary of the approach to engagement, the overall phase 1 engagement reach and a summary of the findings that were most relevant to the work of the Committee.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Providing an introduction and background, describing that the Our Manchester Strategy 2025 was the ten-year strategy for the city and the current Our Manchester Strategy was due to expire in 2025;
• That officers had completed the first phase of development for the next Our Manchester Strategy for 2025 to 2035; and
• Providing an update on the activity undertaken to date, a summary of the outputs from the first phase of the development for the new strategy, and a summary of the next steps.

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

• How the needs and perspectives of marginalised groups, including young people with disabilities and from minority groups, were being addressed through the Strategy;
• Whether safe travel to schools would be addressed through the Strategy;
• What mechanisms would be put in place to monitor and evaluate the progress of the Strategy, particularly its impact on children and young people;
• That the branding should be reviewed, including seeking residents’ views, to ensure that it reflected the diversity of the city; and
• That response rates were low in some wards and how could engagement be increased.

In response to a Member’s question about the data at 5.7 in the report, the Strategy and Economic Policy Manager advised that Wythenshawe had been identified by respondents as an area of importance to them and he offered to share a corrected version of this data.  He reported that the Council had worked with a range of different groups, as outlined in appendix 2, to help them to reach children and young people with disabilities and from minority ethnic groups.  He informed Members that targeted work had taken place to seek responses from groups which were under-represented in the responses to the universal engagement activity and outlined how a more detailed analysis was now taking place, breaking down the responses further, and considering the weighting given to responses.  He reported that other data sources were also being used, such as information that had been gathered through the UNICEF Child Friendly City work.  In response to a Member’s question, he informed Members that the questions used in the engagement on the Our Manchester Strategy had been very broad, for example, asking what made the respondents proud of Manchester, to enable people to raise issues which were important to them, rather than leading them towards a set range of responses.  In response to the Member’s question about travel to school, he advised that improving public transport  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Report of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services)

This report provides an update on work done by the Council to support the Education sector with decarbonisation since the previous update on this work, which was presented to this Committee in June 2023. It also outlines the plans for this work moving forwards at a time when both the citywide Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) and that of Education services are due for refreshment. This work has and will continue to play an important role in Manchester’s bid to become a UNICEF child-friendly city.

The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) which provided an update on work done by the Council to support the Education sector with decarbonisation since the previous update on this work, which was presented to the Committee in June 2023. It also outlined the plans for this work moving forwards at a time when both the citywide Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) and that of Education services were due for refreshment. This work had and would continue to play an important role in Manchester’s bid to become a UNICEF child-friendly city.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Progress that had been made towards the completion of actions in relation to the ‘four Cs’:
  • Campus;
  • Culture;
  • Community; and
  • Curriculum
• Green Schools Festival; and
• Buildings.

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

• To welcome the initiatives outlined in the report, while acknowledging the competing pressures that schools were facing;
• The Council’s partnership with Improveasy, who were delivering free energy efficiency upgrades for residential properties across the city;
• Support for other types of schools, including independent schools and supplementary schools;
• Members providing examples of work taking place in their ward or schools where they were a Governor;
• How was best practice being shared; and
• The importance of hedges around schools to protect children from air pollution.

The Chair of the Environment, Climate Change and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee commended the work that had taken place and stated that the ‘four Cs’ approach was a useful way to break down the work.  She advised that school buildings were an important part of the city’s carbon emissions but that, with many school buildings being the responsibility of academy trusts, rather than the Council, this made it more challenging to take action; however, she welcomed the work on solar panels, which was referred to in the report.  She asked for clarification on how progress was being measured and monitored.  She emphasised the importance of changing the way children and young people travelled to school, including promoting active travel and focusing on the transition from primary to secondary school and highlighted the role of the Council in providing safe routes. 

The Project Manager (Educational Climate Change) acknowledged the point about responsibility for school buildings, while advising that some multi-academy trusts had made significant progress on this work and that best practice was shared with other trusts.  He reported that schools were now able to calculate their carbon footprint, which would provide a better means of monitoring progress than the previous approach.  He outlined some of the approaches to increasing active travel to schools, including active travel maps, the Living Streets programme, the Green Bee Relay and a recruitment drive for more School Crossing Patrollers.  He reported that the Improveasy information would be sent to schools in September and that it would be possible to report on how many referrals were made.  In response to a Member’s question, he provided an update on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

Report of the Directorof Education

This report provides a summary of the 2023-24 provisional school attendance data and the proposed changes to school attendance legislation as outlined in the revised Department for Education (DfE) guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools, and local authorities.  The report reviews activity that has taken place over the course of the current academic year and an outline of the strategic approach for 2024/2025.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Education which provided a summary of the 2023-24 provisional school attendance data and the proposed changes to school attendance legislation as outlined in the revised Department for Education (DfE) guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools, and local authorities.  The report reviewed activity that had taken place over the course of the current academic year and provided an outline of the strategic approach for 2024/2025.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• The national context;
• Attendance data overview in 2023/2024;
• Analysis of ward-level attendance data and targeted intervention;
• Statutory attendance processes and analysis;
• Targeting Support Meetings; and
• Strategic approach to school attendance in 2024-25.

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

• To request a breakdown of fixed penalty notices by ward for 2023/24 and a comparison with how many were issued in the previous year;
• To welcome the focus on children transitioning from primary to secondary school;
• The impact of the introduction of ‘support first’ expectations on the issuing of fixed penalty notices;
• Support for families and addressing barriers to attendance;
• Whether the figures included children who were not registered at a school; and
• The benefits of making pupils and families aware of the costs and the impact on the child’s education of missing school.

The Assistant Director for Education informed the Committee that officers would include a ward breakdown of fixed penalty notices and a comparison to the previous year in the next report on attendance, when they would have the final data.  

The Statutory Lead for Attendance clarified that the data only related to children who were registered at a school.  He reported that in 2022/2023 approximately 75% of fixed penalty notices were due to holidays and 25% due to sporadic absence.  He reported that, for 2023/24, while the overall number of fixed penalty notices was on-track to be similar to the previous year, the breakdown was approximately 87% and 13%, which was partly due to the number of holidays but also because his team had been providing challenge to schools who were issuing fixed penalty notices for sporadic absence to ensure that they were offering support to families first, such as Early Help, a parenting contract and breaking down in-school and outside of school barriers to attendance.  The Senior Schools Quality Assurance Officer outlined the multi-disciplinary approach to supporting families and the increased universal offer the Council was providing to schools.

In response to a Member’s request for a breakdown of attendance data by year group, the Statutory Lead for Attendance reported that this would be produced at the end of the school year and shared with Members.

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People outlined the issues raised by children at a recent event, including the difference in holiday prices between term-time and school holidays and about contact with a home country.  She highlighted the ongoing impact of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

The monthly report includes the recommendations monitor, relevant key decisions, the Committee’s work programme and any items for information.

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.