Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

None were declared.

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4 p.m. on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to items appearing on the agenda and will be submitted in the order in which they were received.

Four questions were received for the meeting with the questions and responses below.

The first question was from Ms. Jones.

1.    With the number of children from the local area attending Urmston Grammar diminishing over the last decade, resulting in now almost two thirds of UGS pupils coming from outside the local area, what is there being done around access to Urmston Grammar for children from West Trafford?

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance responded verbally in the meeting and the written response is below.

“Urmston Grammar school is an academy and therefore independent of Trafford LA. They operate according to their funding agreement between the individual academy trust and Secretary of State.  There is no mechanism for an academy to return to local authority control.

An admissions authority is the body responsible for setting a school’s admissions arrangements (i.e., how it will allocate places) and for some aspects of administering the admissions process.

Applicants wishing to be considered for admission to a Grammar School in Trafford must first be successful in the entrance examination for the preferred grammar school.

Any decisions regarding these arrangements sit solely with the school, not the LA.”

The second and third question were received from Dr. Kelly. The statement asked to the officer was quite lengthy, and the responses below are regarding the two questions asked by the resident.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance provided a verbal response in the meeting and the written responses and questions can be seen below.

2.    What actions are the Council taking to ensure that Trafford schools are coding absences appropriately to ensure SEMH children are identified and supported as early as possible, AND ensure that parents are not subject to fines or prosecution for their SEMH child’s non-attendance?

“The Pupil Absence Team advises schools in accordance with the following:

The Department for Education (DfE) summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance links to the DfE Working Together guidance stating that school staff should advise parents/carers to notify them on the first day the child is unable to attend due to illness. School staff must record absences as authorised where it is not possible for a pupil to attend due to illness (both physical and mental health related).

Our Trafford Emotionally based school non-attendance (EBSNA) guidance document states: the absence should be authorised if school is satisfied that the reasons given are genuine and should therefore be coded I (illness) in the school register. DfE guidance is clear that schools should authorise absence due to both physical and mental health related illness.

Our Trafford Model Attendance policy does not differentiate between types of illness but does state:

In the majority of cases, absences for illness which are reported following the school’s absence reporting procedures will be authorised without the need for parents to supply medical evidence unnecessarily. In line with Department for Education guidance, if we do have a genuine concern about the authenticity of the illness, we  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

To receive and, if so determined, to approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 21^st November 2023.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on the 21^st November 2023 be approved as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

The Public Health Consultant introduced the report which had been circulated with the agenda. The report detailed the developments and leadership ongoing around substance and alcohol use for young people and how the Director of Operations at Early Break was in attendance to add detail to the wider programmes of work. The Public Health Consultant highlighted to the Committee that there was a new alcohol substance misuse and gambling group formed in Trafford that reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board, which had a nearly finalised action plan.

The Director of Operations at Early Break spoke to the work ongoing at Early Break and how focused they were on prevention, and not just to deliver treatment services, which they felt would strengthen the report. The Director of Operations pulled out the highlights of this work. This included working with families and operating a structured approach, working closely with young people with parents who had experience of substance misuse. Further to this, the Committee were informed of a group in the Northwest, chaired by Early Break, which looked at new and existing substance issues and collaborated closely with academics across the region to look at what education needs to be pushed out.

The Director of Operations also spoke of referral performance, which was now better than in 2019/20. The Committee were reassured that data showing an increase in use of the youth offending service was not a concern, rather that it was due to a designated officer now in place to support young people. Other themes such as outreach, pathways for cared for children, and recent earning of the Rainbow flag, which showed accessibility for LGBTQ+ young people to access the service was also shared. 

The Public Health Commissioning Manager spoke of the emerging substances for young people. The Committee were informed that work was ongoing around youth vaping which had become a more prevalent issue in recent years. This included teaching the associated risks of vaping in schools and providing webinars to parents alongside education colleagues. Feedback from these webinars were shared, with education around unregulated vapes being required being a common theme. The Committee were also referred to ongoing research projects on youth vaping. The Public Health Commissioning Manager also mentioned the increasingly emerging substance use of ketamine, with work ongoing alongside physical health colleagues to raise awareness of the dangers of ketamine use.

The officers were thanked for the report and Councillors were offered the opportunity to ask questions.

Councillor Paul asked if the services liaise with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to remove access to drugs and alcohol. The Director of Operations responded that Early Break had started getting referrals from GMP as part of the service aim for early intervention and prevention. It was also added that a group of young people. who had developed training and creative resources called ‘stressed out brain,’ which worked with young people to find what messages would be helpful to get the issue of substance misuse across. The Public Health Commissioning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director for Children’s Services and the Director for Education Standards, Quality, and Performance

The SEND Improvement Lead introduced the report on behalf of the Corporate Director for Children’s Services, which provided an overview of the SEND Inspection Framework, the activity that took place during the inspection in October 2023 and summarised the findings and subsequent actions. The previous inspection had taken place in 2017 under a different framework.

There were three possible outcomes from the inspection, and the outcome for Trafford was that arrangements led to inconsistent outcomes for young people. The SEND Improvement Lead shared that, as highlighted in the report, the Council had to produce a comprehensive self-assessment during the inspection process. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) had fed back on this, that Trafford knew there service well, with the evaluation accorded with what they had found of the experience of children. The SEND Improvement Lead shared the next steps following the report which included a strategic improvement plan that needed to be published by the 14^th February and an upcoming meeting with the Department for Education (DfE) as part of their monitoring arrangements.

The Committee were shared some of the positives and areas for improvement in the report included below.

The inspection had been clear that there were passionate people in Trafford working hard with children and young people who were ambitious in wanting to improve experience, however, the self-assessment had shown that translation of this into strategic intent and practice on the ground was too inconsistent.

Furthermore, the inspection highlighted that there was good work in terms of parental engagement and through the Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAP). The inspection had made clear that the children’s voice was not the strongest in Trafford and was to be an area of focus to improve, with work also to be done on improving the systems response to neurodiverse children and young people.

Signs of improvement had shown in educational healthcare plans (EHCP), however, some variability in the service remained. Further to this, support in preparation for adulthood had been an issue in Trafford for a long time and this was highlighted in the inspections, with work on this needing acceleration.

The Committee were provided with the next steps following the inspection, with an ambition’s plan being produced, and were offered the opportunity to ask questions. The Committee were also offered the opportunity to receive the action plan at future meeting of the Committee.

Councillor Ennis asked if the officers could elaborate further on each of the six work streams behind the six pillars within the ambitions plan. Secondly, what efforts beyond the parent carer forum were being made to reach new SEND experienced families, and how they will improve. Furthermore, Councillor Ennis asked if the Committee could have access to the SEND data dashboard. 

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance responded positively to the ambitions within the plan and that those were identified as the correct ambitions to have by the inspectors. Each ambition had an ambition lead, who attended a steering group which had them reporting back  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

To receive a report from the Director for Education Standards, Quality, and Performance.

The Head of Education Places, Access, and Vulnerable Children spoke to the report which outlined the Councils approach to school place planning in the borough and was shared as part of the agenda.

The Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children shared key statistics and information from the report. Firstly, the Council had secured significant amounts of education contributions through section 106 agreements in areas where large levels of development was taking place. This contributed to basic need money which the Council receives from the Department for Education (DfE). Pupil forecasting and accuracy remained strong. Furthermore, regarding entry to reception, 94% of children received first school preference. The Committee were referred to decreasing birth rates in Trafford, which would result in less need for primary school places in some areas of the Borough. However, the Committee were informed that this was expected to be offset in other areas of the borough due to migration into Trafford, with significant spikes of in year school applications in 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Secondly, the Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children spoke of the pressures of sufficiency for places at secondary schools in the borough, which was especially an issue in the Central and South of the borough. This was seen in the number of first choice schools offered to young people and families (75%) being much lower than the national levels (82%). The strategy to support families on this issue in recent years had been to provide tailored advice, to make sure that they apply for all their local non-selective schools, so to protect as many places as possible for Trafford residents. The Committee were informed that this had largely been a successful position.

Finally, the Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children highlighted access to selective schools from out of borough families, with this seeing a 1% increase in 2023, with 363 children in year seven. In non-selective schools there were ninety-four out of borough children in schools in Trafford in year seven. The Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children did mention to the Committee that there were 211 Trafford residents choosing to access schools outside of the Borough. Reassurance was given that the Council was confident in the strategies in place to protect as many places as possible for Trafford residents.

The Committee were offered to ask any questions.

Councillor Duncan asked how the Council prioritises school preference. The Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children responded that parental preference was the priority, with the highest possible preference offered as they could. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance added that when looking at sufficiency planning and whether further places were required, this data had helped to support the generating of further funding.

Councillor Deakin enquired whether section 106 agreements included in the report were for the financial year to date and if the discrepancy between the amount taken for primary and the amount taken for secondary could be explained. The Head of Education  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.