Transcript Expanding the Best

Chairs and Vice Chairs of Governing
Bodies with senior officers
Tuesday 3 June 2014
DCS update – national and local development
Local elections
 All out elections took place on Thursday 22 May.
 Ward boundary changes resulted in the number of seats increasing.
 The outcome was as follows:
25 seats for Labour
18 for Conservative
13 for Liberal Democrat
1 for UKIP
 Council meeting on 11 June will confirm arrangements for year ahead.
 Very likely a new Lead Member will be named.
DCS update – national and local development
Milton Keynes Council
Carole Mills has been appointed Chief Executive.
Carole is currently Deputy Chief Executive
and Corporate Director for Resources at
Nottingham City Council - where she has worked
for six years.
She joins Milton Keynes Council on 14 July.
School Inspection Summary
Milton Keynes Ofsted Section 5 School Inspection
outcomes for the academic year 2013/14
Outstanding
Good
Requires
Improvement
Inadequate
Total
5
11
7
0
23
From Outstanding to Outstanding: 1
From Good to Outstanding: 4
From Good to Good: 3
From Outstanding to Good: 1
From Requires Improvement to Good: 7
From Requires Improvement to Requires Improvement: 2 (2 for Leadership and Management: 1)
(3 for Leadership and Management: 1)
From Outstanding to Requires Improvement: 1 (3 for Leadership and Management)
From Good to Requires Improvement: 1 (3 for Leadership and Management)
From Inadequate to Requires Improvement: 1 (3 for Leadership and Management)
From Not Previously Inspected to Requires Improvement: 2 (2 for Leadership and Management: 2)
Updated 15/07/2015
0 inspection reports yet to be published
Admissions
Improvements to admissions processing
Primary and Secondary Fair Access Protocol
Sufficiency and Access
Simon Sims
Programme Lead
(north)
Michael
Bracey
Assistant
Director
Marie Denny
Head of
Delivery,
Sufficiency
and Access
Susie Morrissey
Programme Lead
(central)
Programme Leads have
geographic responsibility for:
setting and school place
planning, organisation,
and admissions
Miranda Darbyshire
Programme Lead
(south)
6
Primary admissions
Better outcomes
for children
Helping children
to access places
more quickly
Improved
customer service
experience for
parents /carers

3863 first round applications received, 3695 for MK schools

88% offered 1st preference

97% offered 1st , 2nd or 3rd preference

So far this year: 190 late applications, compared to 552 this time last year

Processing time for in year applications down from 30 days to below 15 days

Changes to the 2015 admissions process:

Places offered are to be accepted by parent/carers, in order that places no
longer required can be reallocated to other children

No more waiting list for ‘in-year’ applications

New admissions booklet for 2014/15 with a double page spread per school with
greater information to help parents make decisions

Language used throughout the admissions booklet consistent with the School
Admissions Code
Secondary admissions
Better outcomes
for children
Helping children
to access places
more quickly
Improved
customer service
experience for
parents /carers

3008 first round applications received

83% offered 1st preference

94% offered 1st , 2nd or 3rd preference

So far this year: 169 late applications received, compared to 186 last year

To date 2986 children have been allocated places in MK schools.

Only 3 children currently in MK schools are yet to apply

Currently out to consultation to align the Fair Access Policy to the Schools
Admissions Code and to make it fair and transparent

New admissions booklet for 2014/15 with greater information to help parents make
decisions

Language used throughout the admissions booklet consistent with the School
Admissions Code
‘Children missing education’ and home educated
There are currently 200 children in home education (0.5% of cohort)
and 129 ‘children missing education’ (0.3% of cohort)
Better outcomes
for children
Fortnightly vacancy and school starters/ leavers data now allowing the LA to:

Track children who leave Milton Keynes’ schools

Identify where there may be safeguarding concerns

Virtually all schools providing the LA with this information
Improving our ‘Fair Access’ Protocols
We are seeking a fair and transparent system to ensure:
 That hard to place pupils are admitted to school as quickly as possible
 That no school takes a disproportionate number of hard to place pupils
To achieve this we propose that there are two separate protocols for primary and secondary:
Secondary Schools
 Statutory and local categories for children
that will qualify under the protocol
 A new process is to be followed in all
circumstances where the protocol is valid
 The Behaviour Partnership Panel to act as
the decision making body on behalf of the
LA
The consultation ends 20 June
Primary Schools
 Proposing a similar approach to secondary
 A decision needs to be made around the
Panel mechanism
Discussion question: What would be
an appropriate mechanism to review
and make decisions for primary stage
Fair Access cases?
The consultation will run 23/6 – 18/07
Virtual School
Virtual School
 Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to promote the
educational achievement of the children they look after, regardless of
where they are placed.
 Having a Virtual School Headteacher is now a statutory requirement.
 Over the last year we have been piloting the role with Jane Bellamy,
Headteacher at Bow Brickhill seconded to the Local Authority. Jane
retires this summer and following an external recruitment exercise we
are pleased to announce the appointment of Michele Mellor. Michele
will take up the role in September 2014 working three days a week.
 Michele will lead a restructured team of officers with a stronger focus
on PEP quality and compliance.
SEND Reforms – Local update
Caroline Marriott
Head of Delivery, SEN and Disability
Children and Families Act 2014
Key Principles within the Act:
 The views, wishes and feelings of the child or young
person and their parents must be sought and heard
 Children, young people and their parents must be
enabled to participate as fully as possible in decisions
 High aspirations for all children and young people with
SEN
Children and Families Act 2014
Key elements within the code:
 Provision for children and young people aged 0-25
 The Local Offer
 Education, health and social care plans ( EHC)
 Personal budgets
 Children in specific circumstances
 Resolving disputes
Milton Keynes SEN Reform Project
 Milton Keynes Council Corporate Project - Project Board
established Autumn 2013
 Refreshed project plan
 Working groups:
 Local Offer
 Personal Budgets
 EHC plans (now including transition to adulthood)
 Health Working Group
Local Offer Working Group
 Workshops with stakeholders to gather information
 Networking with SE7 pathfinders - good practice examples
 Continued development of our interactive website
 Coordinating with school websites - integrating local offer
 Building in feedback for ongoing development of local offer
EHC Plans Working Group
 Research with other LAs
 SEN information day February 2014 (180 attendees)
 Produced draft EHC plan & draft process / time-line
 Current work includes paperwork and processes for referral
and annual reviews
 Sub-group looking at transition to adulthood
 Current work on conversion strategy and EHC Plan criteria
Personal Budgets Working Group
 Building on Milton Keynes existing programmes:
 Children’s direct payments scheme
 Short break voucher scheme
 Personal budgets for continuing care in health
 Scoping initial priorities and possibilities for personal budgets
 Drawing on national expertise of “In-Control”
Peer Challenge: April 2014
Three SEND experts led by a DCS, spent two days looking at
our SEND Reform implementation. Key messages were:
 Acknowledged our strong partnership working,
commitment and ‘can do’ approach.
 Confirmed the areas we identified for further development
and provided some ideas to take these forward.
 Recommended a renewed focus on communication,
including agreeing key messages with partners.
 Advised greater attention to work force development.
 Highlighted our need to articulate how we ensure effective
work with families from across our diverse communities.
20
DfE Visit: May 2014
The DfE are visiting 40 LAs to monitor/support implementation
After meeting partners in Milton Keynes they:
 Acknowledged our increased pace of reform implementation
 Recognised our strong partnership working, including with
parents and joint children’s commissioning
 Suggested we pilot EHC plans before September
 Endorsed our plans to increase our focus on training & the
participation of children and young people
 Offered support from pilot LAs and individual “experts”
Current priorities and challenges
 Ensure that ‘reform’ delivers:
– Improved experiences
– Improved outcomes
For disabled children, families and carers
 Multi-agency training for core professionals
 Participation work with children and young people
 An opportunity to reconfigure our resources and achieve
wider change
22
Governing Body Reconstitution
Madeleine Carrington
Governor Support and Development Officer
Background
 The non-mandatory School Governance (Constitution)
(England) Regulations 2012 came in to effect in
September 2012.
 Consultation to amend regulations making reconstitution
mandatory during academic year 2014/2015 with the aim
of:
– Simplifying the overall legislative framework to ensure consistency
across all maintained schools.
– Enabling more effective governance by ensuring that the primary
consideration in decisions about the constitution and membership of
governing bodies is the skills required to contribute to the effective
governance and success of the school.
What the changes mean
 Smaller governing bodies - for a maintained school there
must be no fewer than seven governors including:
–
–
–
–
–
at least two parent governors
the Headteacher (if they choose to be a governor)
one staff elected governor
one local authority governor
co-opted governors (as needed)
 Additional requirements for foundation schools
 Greater focus on the skills governors need to be effective
 LA governor nominated by LA, appointed in line with
eligibility criteria set by GB
 Changes to arrangements for managing surplus governors
Next meeting
Thursday 16 October
Suggestions for agenda items can be sent to
[email protected]