My report to Council

Posted By: Zulfiqar Ali
Date Posted: 19/10/2009

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Children, Schools & Family Portfolio.

SCHOOLS SERVICE

BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
The BSF Procurement is progressing well with the appointment of Inspiredspaces as the selected partner on 21st August. It is anticipated that the contract will be signed by the end of 2009 with construction commencing at Hollingworth and Siddal Moor in January 2010, the original target date.

PRIMARY CAPITAL PROGRAMME
The DCSF (Department for Children Schools and Families) approved the Borough’s Primary Schools Capital Programme Strategy for Change in May this year. This means that the Authority has approvals of £3.8m for 2009-10 and £6.88m for 2010-11. Decisions on approvals for 2011-12 onwards will be subject to Government spending decisions. Each of the 10 schools in the programme has produced a “School Strategy for Change”. Work has been underway since early summer to prepare detailed plans for the first 3 projects due to start on site first. At Harwood Park and Kentmere Primary Schools work is due to start on site in January 2010, and arrangements are being put in place so that the education of the children can continue with the least disruption whilst this major capital investment is under way. At Deeplish CP work is planned to start on site in summer 2010. The Salford Diocese is working with St. Mary’s RC (Langley) on their re-modelling and work is scheduled to start in October this year. Design work is also taking place at the other schools in the Programme. Schools are being supported throughout the planning and design process and this will continue during the building programmes. A further important area of support to each of the schools is helping them to improve how they use ICT in the school.

Background note:
The ten PCP schools are: Harwood Park CP(£2m), Kentmere CP (£2m), St. Mary RC Langley (£3.3m), Little Heaton CE (£1m), Deeplish CP (£2m), St. John RC Rochdale (£1.5m), Holy Family RC (£1.25m), St. Margaret’s CE (£0.75m), Heybrook CP- new build (£10m), Lowerplace CP – new build (£7m)

KINGSWAY PARK HIGH SCHOOL
The Temporary Governing Body (TGB) has been set up, with partnership governors appointed from Middleton Technology School and Rochdale Sixth Form College, to support the development of the new school as a National Challenge Trust School after it opens in September 2010. The TGB is working with the support of officers of the local authority and has appointed a headteacher designate who takes up post in January 2010, with adverts being placed for the deputy headteacher posts. The staffing structure for the school has been approved following consultation with the staff, and after the deputy Headteacher and Business Manager appointments have been made other staff appointments will start to be made. Staffing appointments are being made in line with the agreed “Principles and Processes” document for staff appointments in secondary re-organisation. All staff (teaching and support staff) have been asked to complete a Professional Development Proforma to set out their experience and skills and identify the posts for which they would be considered, so that they do not have to fill out further application forms. All staff are being given the opportunity of a professional development meeting on a 1 to 1 basis if they want it, and all staff are invited again on a voluntary basis to training sessions on “Interview guidance and techniques” facilitated by Heywood Community High School.

Background notes:
1. National Challenge Trust status means that a new Trust will appoint the majority of governors to the new governing body. The Trust members will be Middleton Technology School, Rochdale Sixth Form College and Rochdale Local Authority.
2. The school is currently developing the uniform for the school and a logo
3. There has been joint working between Balderstone and Springhill- including a joint staff training day- and more are planned.
4. The Head Designate and senior staff from the current schools are visiting local primary schools to promote the new school and the open evening being held in September.
5. Balderstone and Springhill close on 31st August 2010. Kingsway Park High School opens on 1st September 2010. The new year 7 will all start on what is now the Balderstone site

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
A new OFSTED Inspection Framework came into operation from September. The framework places further emphasis on the Every Child Matters agenda with particular focus on Community Cohesion and Safeguarding. Guidance has been circulated to all Rochdale schools and a series of briefing events for Headteachers is planned.

A key initiative for the School Improvement Team during the coming year will be the roll out of the 1 to 1 Tuition programme which will see over thirteen hundred Rochdale pupils benefiting from personal tuition in either English or mathematics.

Once again, we were pleased with the results in the End of Key Stage national tests. The results at KS2 showed that Rochdale was above the national average in the key indicator of ‘Level 4+ in both English and mathematics’; maintaining the 73 percent achieved in 2008, whereas the national average dropped by one percentage point to 72 percent.

 English is one percentage point above the national average at 81 percent level 4 and above.
 Maths is down by one percentage point to 78 percent achieving level 4 and above.
 Science is down by 2 percentage points to 87 percent at level 4 and above.

At GCSE, the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more A*-C grades is up by 5.6 percentage points, from 59.3 percent to 64.9 percent and this is just below the 2008 national average of 65.7 percent.

In the key indicator for GCSE, the percentage of pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades including English & Maths is up 4.2 percentage points to 47.6 equalling the national average for 2008.

The 2009 national average indicator for these is not yet available.

LEARNERS & YOUNG PEOPLE’S SERVICE

Summer has been a busy time for the Youth Service and their partners. The Safe 4 Summer provision offered many young people the opportunity to take part in positive and enjoyable activities over the school summer holidays. As well as this, the new play areas built through the play pathfinder offered safe places for younger children to play.

The Youth Service, the Youth Offending Team and Greater Manchester Police have been working together to implement the Youth Crime Action Plan. This grant has funded ‘Operation Staysafe’ where late night patrols identify young people who are out and at risk, take them to a place of safety and then return them to their parents, offering support and on-going advice to the family as necessary.

I am pleased to report that the final figures for the 2008/09 school year confirm the reduction in permanent exclusions from schools that was predicted in my previous report. The 2008/09 school year saw just 38 permanent exclusions in the Borough, down by 14 from the year before.

More widely, children have benefited from the implementation of the Rights Respecting Schools initiative. Rochdale is one of just five local authorities working with the charity UNICEF UK to develop the scheme, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Schools involved report improved attendance and see the scheme as fundamental to supporting the development of their pupils.

Reducing the number of young people over 16 who are not in education, employment or training is a key target and one measure of that is the September Guarantee – that is an offer of a place in education, training or employment. the Borough’s figures show that as at mid September 94.9% of 16 year olds and 89.2% of 17 year olds had received a suitable offer. This is an improvement on last year and with the current economic climate it is an encouraging position.

CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE SERVICE

Current Issues
1. Children in care numbers continue to increase, now at 429. Same time last year (Sept.08) the number was 374, so a 14% increase. 57% of children who have come into care in 2009 are 4 years old and less.
There has also been a significant increase in the numbers of care proceedings applications initiated by the local authority during 2009.

2. Recruitment of RMBC foster carers is gathering pace. A significant local publicity campaign will be launched in October 09. This will be directed both at the public and the public sector workforce.

3. The Service Safeguarding Action Plan is delivering significant improvements to the safeguarding practice within RMBC Children’s Social Care.

4. There is strong evidence that our Remodelling Project , focusing on young people 11+ placed in our children’s homes and also young people at risk of coming into care, is proving to be very successful. Numbers of young people 11+ being admitted to care have reduced. We have young people in our children’s homes whose circumstances have dramatically improved because of their own efforts and the support and interventions provided by the Remodelling Social Care Team.




22nd September 2009