NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

 

15 MAY 2024

 

STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR EDUCATION, LEARNING AND SKILLS

 

 

Adult learning and skills

·         The service provision for young people subject to Education, Health and Care plans will now formally be known as Personalised Learning College North Yorkshire as part of a formal relaunch that defines the services direction and objectives.

·         Adult Learning continues to see strong recruitment with 470 more community learners in programme in comparison to the same point last year with 131 more learners undertaking qualification-based provision.

·         Learning Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) Year 1 has seen investment in funds to support progression into Health and Social care and to widen digital engagement, the funds have allowed the service to invest in Virtual Reality technology, facilities to deliver high quality hybrid delivery of learning and practical engagement materials to attract people to learning in these areas.

·         The service has also received £200k from the UK Shared prosperity fund to facilitate the creation of a network of Information Advice and Guidance champions to be based in the community to improve the engagement with adult learning across all providers.

·         Multiply has finished its second successful year with a celebration event that demonstrated the work of all partners in engaging over 3500 people in the learning of maths, many of those now progressing into formal adult learning opportunities.

Music service

·         The Music Service should hear about its Arts Council Bid on April 8th however, news will not be able to be shared publicly until after the local elections.

·         The Music Service are running specialist Continued Professional Development (CPD) on music provision for pupils with SEND, for all our staff in April. This will then be rolled out to schools.

·         The Music Service have appointed two new Music Centre managers for Whitby and Skipton.

·         Our Scarborough Music Centre Manager, Ralph Alder, will be retiring at the end of this academic year after 35 years of service.

Outdoor Learning

·         North Yorkshire Outdoor Learning Service has received a second wave of funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to act as a delivery partner for the Adventures Away from Home Fund.  The service was awarded 135 day visit places and 12 Residential places for disadvantaged and/or vulnerable young people to take part in outdoor learning activities.

·         Both NY Outdoor Learning Centres were successful in receiving funding to offer holiday activities and food (HAF) programmes during the school Easter holidays. HAF programmes provide healthy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. The HAF programme funding is primarily for school aged children from reception to year 11 who receive benefits related free school meals.  The service received funding for 42 young people to attend activity days at the centres and has applied for more funding to deliver HAF over the school summer holidays.

 

 

·         Alongside HAF provision the centre launched an Adventure Club programme, during the Easter school holidays.  Adventure Club is a school holiday time multi-activity programme which can be taken as individual days or multiple days/weeks. Its aim is to provide a fun, activity-based environment for young people to access, during school holidays. Young people are encouraged to join in structured activities with their peers.  Adventure club places are paid for by parents/carers.  The centre received 59 bookings over the Easter period, which is a positive start to this programme.

 

School organisation

Fountains Earth, Lofthouse, CE Endowed (VC) Primary School

Following the publication of statutory proposals for the closure of the school on 1 February the Executive determined that the school should close at its meeting on 19th March.  Following receipt of call-in the decision was reviewed by the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 17th April.  The Committee agreed that the Executive’s decision had been correct and, therefore, the decision to close the school was confirmed.

 

St Hilda’s Ampleforth CE VC Primary School

Following receipt of a request from the School’s Governing Body a consultation on proposals to close the school commenced on 1st March and concluded on 19th April.  The consultation included a meeting at the Village Hall which was well attended. All the views submitted as part of the consultation formed part of the report to the Executive on 7th May.

 

Whitby

Council officers continue to support leaders and governors at the school in their preparations for the new amalgamated school which will come into effect on 1st September 24.

Primary Places Allocation

·         The ‘Primary Offer Day’ was on 16 April.

·         Within North Yorkshire 94% of families of primary age children in North Yorkshire have secured their first choice of school.

·         Of all the families in the county who requested a primary school place for their child from September 2024, just under 99 % (98.77 %) received an offer from one of their top three preferences for a school.

Home to School Travel

Consultation about proposed changes to the Council’s Home to School Travel Policy was undertaken between 19th February and 26th April.  The consultation exercise included a series of public meetings across the county, webinars and drop-in sessions for schools, and a stakeholder survey. The work so far will be considered by the CFOSC on Monday (20th May).

The results arising from the consultation exercise and proposals for a revised policy will be reported to the Executive on 11th June.

 

Schools Capital

 

The Council’s Schools Condition capital allocation for 2024-25 was announced in March.  The Council received £5,883,316, which was a reduction from the £6,044,988 received for 2023-24.

Proposals for a capital programme for the year will be reported to the Executive on 28th May 2024.

 

 

School performance

Spring Term 2024

In the period 1st September 2023 to 29th February 2024 there were 55 published state-funded school inspections of North Yorkshire schools. Of these, 47 were of primary schools, 6 of secondary schools, 1 Pupil Referral Unit and 1 special school inspection.

Of the published inspections 25 were Section 8 (ungraded inspections), 30 were Section 5 (graded inspections). Almost all schools that received a graded inspection retained their good or outstanding judgements except for one secondary school that received a ‘requires improvement’ judgement.

It is pleasing to note that safeguarding has continued to be judged effective in all schools and academies during this period. This continues the positive trend previously reported.

Ofsted performance – North Yorkshire compared with national results.

·                     As of 29th February 2024, 85% of North Yorkshire state funded schools and academies were judged good our outstanding compared to 90% nationally.

Early Years

·         First phase of government’s expansion of childcare was implemented from 2nd April for working parents of two-year-old children.  The council has not been made aware of parents who have not been able to access some or all their entitlement in a childcare provision.

·         According to the DfE, the number of validated codes for North Yorkshire for the April expansion was 2,663.  This is validation of 85.6% of codes issued from a total of 3,111.  This is higher than the national average of 81.88%.  There are various reasons why codes would not be validated.

·         An Early Years Sufficiency Planning Officer has been appointed and took up post on 12th February 2024.  Preparations continue for the second roll out from September 2024 for working parents of children aged over nine months old.

·         A Wraparound Co-ordinator has been appointed and took up post on 8th April 2024.  Preparations continue for roll out of government’s expansion of wraparound provision for school age children from 2 years to Y6 from September 2024.

·         The end of year grant funding financial statement for early years delivery plan has been submitted to the DfE.

·         The end of year grant funding financial statement for wraparound delivery plan submitted to DfE.

·         The delivery support plan for the wraparound provision needs to be submitted to the DfE between 8th May – 14th June 2024.

·         As of 29th April 2024, the childcare market has 645 providers, no change since 2nd April.  Two new day nurseries have opened (Harrogate and Skipton) and two childminders have closed (Selby and Ripon).

·         Since February half term (19th February), there have been 14 Ofsted inspections in early years settings; 4 Outstanding; 8 Good; 1 Met (childminder); 1 Requires Improvement.  

Finance

The Department for Education continues to move towards a direct National Funding Formula to distribute school funding across the country. Further consultation from the DfE is anticipated around technical changes to the formula. At the end of March, the local authority was able to deploy a one-off fund (£972k) to assist LA maintained schools in financial difficulty. Academies in financial difficulty will be able to access funds directly through the Department for Education. The local authority continues to work with several schools in, or projecting, a financial deficit to support school leaders to deliver a good quality, financially sustainable education to children and young people. Work will continue with individual schools to ensure that they are able to deploy their resources effectively.

Following consultation with the sector, the local authority published early years provider funding rates for the financial year 2024-25 by the end of February 2024 – one month in advance of the statutory deadline. We will continue to engage and consult the sector on any further funding changes associated with the planned expansion of working parent entitlements to funded hours. 

 

Medium Term Financial Strategy – May 2024

As previously reported to Full Council, the local authority continues to face significant financial pressure from the continued rise in funded Education, Health and Care Plans. Existing mitigations include the implementation of a £20.5m capital programme to increase places within specialist provision across the county and I am pleased to confirm that additional funding has been allocated from the Department for Education which will support this programme.

Through the local authority’s participation in the Department’s ‘Delivering Better Value in SEND’ programme, further proposals are being developed to work with schools and academies to sustain inclusive communities that enable children and young people to be educated at their local school.

Consultation on a proposed new home to school travel policy to comply with statutory requirements began on 19 February 2024 and closed on 26 April 2024. The feedback from the consultation will be thoroughly considered prior to any decision by the Executive in June 2024.

Although this information appears in my Statement to Council it should be noted that both Executive Members for the Children and Young People’s Service have joint responsibility for all relevant resources.

 

 

 

COUNCILLOR ANNABEL WILKINSON