Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director for Families and Communities

The Forum considered an update on the work done by the Education Welfare Officers (EWOs) to deliver the Core Offer for Education.  The EWOs had moved under the direct management of Targeted Services from October 2019 and there were now ten EWOs and one Education Welfare Co-ordinator to deliver the Core Offer to all Staffordshire schools.  However, approximately 70-80 schools did not share this information, generally because of IT issues.  The service therefore had to wait for the DfE return.  It was suggested that it would be helpful for those members of Forum who sat on other groups to take the message to them that it was helpful to share this data.      

Members considered details of overall absences at Staffordshire schools and noted that this was now in line with national absence levels.  It was encouraging to see an increase in the number of persistent absence cases dealt with by prosecution, up from 54 in 2017/18 to 82 in 2018/19.  Less children were having time off for holidays.  In relation to movement within the Elective Home Education (EHE) population in 2018/19 it was seen as a positive that 136 children had returned to school or started school.  However, the high number of people turning to EHE was a cause for concern.  Extra funding had been released to employ two additional EHE workers.

In relation to School Attendance Orders for pupils not on a school roll, one was issued in 2018 and three this year.  Members were informed that all of the children involved were thriving, and officers hoped to do another twenty to thirty.  Forum also considered details of Children Missing Education and noted that casework in this area had increased by 1,306 cases, which reflected the greater scrutiny of students records across Staffordshire.

A member commented that there were more mid-year requests for EHE and asked if it was possible for those cases were pressure had been put on parents to be reported, in order for the schools involved to be challenged.  It was confirmed that this information was available and was reported to the Regional Schools Commissioner and Senior HMI.  Another member commented that in recent Ofsted inspections schools were being challenged on how they followed up EHE children.  It was clear that this was an area Ofsted were focusing on.  A member commented that their school was using a robot to help a child who had difficulty with attendance interact with their class.  Members were informed that a company was shortly coming to visit the service to provide a demonstration of this.  It was questioned how many EHE pupils had special needs and it was confirmed that if they had an EHCP they would still have a home review and that 5.2% of the EHE population had EHCPs.  It was queried whether the new additions to the EHE population included children who had never been in school.  It was acknowledged that if a child had never attended school from birth and in some cases never registered with a GP the service would not be aware of them.  However, every effort was made to explore the existence of such children.  A member made the point that there was evidence that in Staffordshire that some parents were put under pressure to move to EHE.  Forum was informed that there were instances where Year 10 and 11 pupils were told that they could go to College, when in fact there was very little provision available for them.

RESOLVED – That the work done by the Education Welfare Officers to deliver the Core Offer for Education be noted.