Agenda item
Update: Education Climate Change Action Plan 2022-24
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.
Minutes:
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 carbon literacy training.
The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People informed the Committee about discussions which she and the Chair of the Environment, Climate Change and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee were having with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) on a fair distribution of school bus services across Greater Manchester. She advised that pupils could educate their parents on recycling. She expressed concern about the condition of school buildings, which she advised had not been satisfactorily addressed by the previous Government, and stated that she would be writing to the new Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson on a range of issues.
The Deputy Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport thanked the Project Manager (Educational Climate Change) for his work and welcomed that Manchester was one of only two local authorities which had created such a role. She advised that the biggest barrier to this work, despite school leaders and staff wanting to support this work, was the other pressures that schools were under, and she stated that the Council should ask the Government for support to make this a priority for schools and provide the guidance and resources needed.
The Director of Education reported that the Council worked with independent schools and supplementary schools, which had access to resources such as the Schools Hub. In response to a question about School Crossing Patrols, she advised that they were employed by the Council and the staff were contracted to work 38 weeks per year based on Manchester’s standard school term dates; however, some schools, particularly academies, had adopted different term dates. She advised that having hedges around school grounds was at the discretion of the individual school; however, she advised that a lot of schools had made good use of their outdoor space, using available grant funding.
The Project Manager (Educational Climate Change) informed Members about the new National Education Nature Park funding from the Department for Education (DfE) which 37 Manchester schools had received funding from so far and which could be used to provide green screening to protect children from air pollution. He reported that information on available funding was shared with schools and that help could be provided to individual schools with submitting a bid for funding. He informed the Committee about work the DfE was doing in relation to climate change action, including developing a resource hub, advising that his service had good relationships with the relevant people within the DfE and was consulting with them to ensure that the Council’s approach complemented theirs. He reported that, when working on climate change action planning with a school, they focused on one topic at a time to make it manageable, noting the other pressures on schools, and tailored the approach for the school. He informed Members that best practice was shared through network meetings and through case studies on the Schools Hub. He acknowledged a Member’s point about the importance of having buy-in from members of a school’s senior leadership team.
Decision
To receive a further update at an appropriate time.
Supporting documents: