Report of the Director of Education

This report provides an update on work done by the Council to increase the number of young people accessing EET (education, employment or training)opportunities in the city, aligning with the city’s economic priorities. It also outlines the plans for this work moving forwards, with the strategic plan developed to coincide with the Our Manchester Forward to 2025 Strategy and Manchester Inclusion Strategy 2022-25. The paper highlights the challenges the City will have in ensuring sufficiency of places for young people wanting to continue in Education due to the growth of the school population. It outlines the work that has been done to date including promoting opportunities for our post 16 providers to access capital funding through bids to the DFE and  actively encouraging the submission of applications to open new provision through the free school process.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Education which provided an update on work done by the Council to increase the number of young people accessing EET (education, employment or training) opportunities in the city, aligning with the city’s economic priorities. It also outlined the plans for this work moving forwards, with the strategic plan developed to coincide with the Our Manchester Forward to 2025 Strategy and Manchester Inclusion Strategy 2022-25. The paper highlighted the challenges the city would have in ensuring sufficiency of places for young people wanting to continue in education due to the growth of the school population. It outlined the work that had been done to date including promoting opportunities for post 16 providers to access capital funding through bids to the Department for Education (DFE) and actively encouraging the submission of applications to open new provision through the free school process.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Post-16 provision;
• Young people not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET);
• The Risk of NEET Indicator (RONI);
• Post-16 EET Strategic Action Plan 2022-25; and
• Governance.

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

• Support for vulnerable young people;
• The resources needed for the expansion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects;
• Post-16 education for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND);
• To request that Wythenshawe councillors be briefed on what was going on in their area; and
• Careers advice including for girls and young people who were less academic.

The Director of Education reported that STEM was one of the most in-demand areas where work was having to take place to try to increase capacity, whereas demand for subjects such as modern foreign languages and history was reducing. The Post-16 Lead informed Members that Manchester College had invested significantly in upgrading its facilities for STEM subjects in recent years and that other providers had put in bids for funding to improve their facilities.  In response to a question about additional staffing that would be needed for the expansion of STEM subjects, the Director of Education stated that this was not something which had been raised by the post-16 settings.

The Director of Education advised Members that there was a strong post-16 sector for pupils with SEND, with most special schools having a sixth form, a strong offer from mainstream providers such as Manchester College and Loreto College and supported internships.  She encouraged Members to visit one of the special schools’ sixth forms.  She informed Members about an event which had taken place recently with businesses about employing more young people with SEND.

In response to a question about vulnerable young people, the Post-16 Lead outlined work to identify, in conjunction with schools, young people who were at risk of becoming NEET and to work collaboratively across teams and with partners to address this.  He informed Members about the post-16 steering group, which included a range of stakeholders, including the Virtual School, Youth Justice, Care Leavers and EHCP (Education Health and Care Plan) Teams, contributing to an action plan for targeted support, and the introduction of NEET prevention panels which provided an opportunity for schools to get advice and put early intervention strategies in place.  He reported that approaches to careers advice varied across schools and post-16 settings, with some schools having their own in-house career services and some commissioning a service.  He reported that the Council used Career Connect, which worked to prevent young people becoming NEET.  He informed Members how his team was working with the Work and Skills Team on the quality assurance of school career services and about work to encourage targeted groups, such as girls, into areas in which they were under-represented.  In response to a Member’s question, he outlined some of the support available to young people who wanted to start their own business.

In response to a comment from the Chair about young people travelling across local authority boundaries for post-16 provision, the Director of Education reported that the Council had commissioned a sufficiency report which had looked at the number of young people coming into and going out of the city to access post-16 provision.  In response to a question from the Chair, she informed Members about Manchester College’s work to rationalise its buildings, improving the facilities and modernising their offer.  She suggested that Members could visit their facilities, in the city centre or at Openshaw. 

The Chair suggested that the government should provide funding for more secondary schools to expand to include their own sixth form and that Members should lobby the government about funding for post-16 places.  She advised that the issue of pay in Further Education needed to be addressed.  She expressed concern that the entry requirements for T Level qualifications would exclude some young people.  She requested that a more detailed report be provided to a future meeting, including utilising social value, changes in the number of places available at Manchester College, whether Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES) could be utilised more and information from the sufficiency report which had looked across the Greater Manchester area.

Decision

To request a more detailed report at a future meeting, including utilising social value, changes in the number of places available at Manchester College, whether Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES) can be utilised more and information from the sufficiency report looking across the Greater Manchester area.