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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings. East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Contact: Chantal Lass tel: 01424 451483 email: class@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Declarations of Interest
10:05
Minutes:
None Received
Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising PDF 122 KB
10:10
Minutes:
Minutes of the meeting 23rd September 2021 Accepted as an accurate record.
Lordes Madigasekera-Elliott gave an update on the meeting of the Health and inequalities working group. A draft term of reference was discussed. The two priorities will be centred around wider determinates of health and wellbeing economies. The final term of reference is planned to be agreed at the next meeting.
East Sussex College group update
Minutes:
Dan Shelly gave an update on the East Sussex College Group. On the week beginning 22nd November a full Ofsted inspection was completed with the results looking positive with some areas of improvement and will be available next year.
In the same week the college launched their new strategic plan was launched which is focused on campus identities. Hastings is green construction, energy and transport which is tied into a town deal bid. Masks and face coverings have been re-introduced in all areas as a result of COVID. The plan is to complete the final week of college online.
Tutorials on county lines and consent has been held with 16–18-year-olds as well as work on right wing extremist views. Mental health wellbeing is being supported with concerns around anxiety and COVID-19 uncertainty. Recruitment is down by 450-500 students across East Sussex College Group. This will have a financial impact on next financial year. Hopefully the positive Ofsted result will help rectify this. Face to face events have also started again with year 10 and 11 students. Apprenticeships are at a highest start rate for five years.
The Chair thanked Dan for his input at the LSP meetings and wished him well in his new role.
Issues for schools as a result of Covid-19 PDF 408 KB
10:15
(Alison Jeffery, Director of Children’s Services ESCC)
Minutes:
Alison Jeffery spoke to her presentation (see attached slides) Alison advises she has been in post since September 2021 and that there was a county wide agreement with schools not to share GSCE results publicly following teacher assessments.
She reported that there is a higher need for free school meals in Hastings than across the rest of East Sussex but the inspection outcomes from Ofsted have been good in Hastings recently.
Absence and exclusions from school continues to be an issue with high levels of persistent absence in with children struggling to come back to school following lockdowns. There needs to be a reduction in fixed period exclusions. We need to see children in school and see more supervision rather than part time, timetables and exclusions.
Reception and year 1 students have been most disrupted.
Key issues in schools during the pandemic have included ensuring the safeguarding focus on vulnerable children. There has been a lot of pressure on school leaders, managing the response to the pandemic whilst also delivering teaching and learning in the classroom and remotely.
The Excellence for All Strategy’ 2021-23 has been refreshed, school improvements strategies are focusing on inclusion and wellbeing, oracy and literacy.
The SEN county wide strategy is being refreshed with a focus on autism taking into account the National Autism Strategy. There is a Sussex wide Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy which has started to map the support that is available and works with the Children’s Board for Sussex as part of the new Integrated Care System (ICS) increasing the profile of children’s issues within the NHS.
Specific to Hastings
Discussions underway with a range of partners to see how we can all work together more effectively and gain maximum understanding. ESCC wish to apply a therapeutic thinking approach to behaviour challenges including restorative practice.
The Hastings response is to reinforce key messages and focusing some commissioning work on secondary exclusions and how multi agencies work for primary students.
The group discussed students who are elected home educated. Approximately 1000 children in East Sussex are being home educated (the equivalent of a large secondary school).
Darrell Gale advised there are a range of impacts regarding children and safeguarding and that we need to use the funding we have access to, to pro-actively repair the impacts of COVID-19 and continue so that we can maximise the long term benefit of short term funding and initiatives.
There is a rich community and voluntary sector support for children and young people in Hastings – need to make sure this is reflected in the mapping and the support it provides to statutory services.
Hastings Opportunity Area overview and the next 5 years PDF 655 KB
10:35
(Jan Downie, Head of Delivery, Department for Education and Helen Kay, Programme Director, Hastings Opportunity Area)
Minutes:
Jan Downie and Helen Kay presented a recap of Hastings Opportunity Area (HOA). The purpose of the Opportunity Area programme was to focus local and national resources to increase social mobility, especially children and young people. The priorities for Hastings were improve literacy, raising attainment in maths, improving mental health and resilience and broadening horizons and preparing for work.
In 2016 the literacy standard in Hastings’s children were significantly behind that of their peers nationally. Actions taken were funding Early Years Projects – to support young children’s speech and language development. There was a literacy fund to support improvements in literacy for all pupils and improve teacher skills and confidence. The impact was that all schools in Hastings implemented evidence-based literacy programmes. There are common programmes and sharing learning resulting in greater collaboration across schools. There are significant improvements in literacy at key stage 2.
To help raise attainment in maths there was the funding of the Hastings Maths project, the funding four schools in Hastings to access additional support from Sussex Maths Hub and supporting of schools to deliver a number of maths competitions. Prior to covid there were significant improvements I the number of pupils achieving expected standards in Maths. Schools reported that the Hastings Maths Project had the students enthused and engaged.
To assist with improving mental health all the secondaries and 14 primaries completed a self-review of their provisions. They engaged with a programme of support and training to further develop and promoting children and young people’s mental health. Extra funding was used to expand the i-ROCK service to five days a week and a model was developed for an emotional well-being service for 9–14-year-olds. The parenting support work was also expanded with group work and one to one support. The Emotional Well-being key work service was well received by schools, pupils and their families, with almost universally positive around key worker’ skills and adaptability.
To assist with broadening horizons there were two enrichment managers appointed to work with schools and local communities to maximise the impact of the broadening horizons strand. Funding was provided to schools so them can expand their extra-curricular offer and a grant program that included summer enrichment programme. Pre covid there was a huge expansion of what is available. Motivational speakers visited 17 schools. Over 50 local employers and businesses took park in the Hastings Opportunity Day offering hands on sessions and discussions relating to routes into employment. The programme was refocussed during year 3 to address the impact of covid. Online enrichment activities were provided and an ‘on-line’ Hastings opportunity Day.
Due to a high rate of exclusion in Hastings a shared approach was developed to prevent exclusions with a focus on pupils engaged in persistently challenging behaviour. There was a reduction across all schools with secondary schools developing ‘in-school’ approaches to inclusion for core group of vulnerable pupils.
An attendance fund was used to improve attendance used for transport and breakfast clubs. Presently schools are facing high persistent ... view the full minutes text for item 23.
Local business / Chamber of Commerce update PDF 107 KB
11:15
(Clive Galbraith, Chairman / Sean Dennis, Director, Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce)
Minutes:
Clive Galbraith and Sean Dennis reported that over 50% of businesses who had responded to their survey had already experienced issues with recruitment. The main reasons were a lack of applications, quality of applicants and skills gaps. Comments submitted are that it’s an applicant’s market, so that applicants can be choosy, waiting for a better paid role.
Businesses are also impacted by increased staff costs and the impact of rising inflation.
The group discussed how across the board there are recruitment challenges in all sectors of employment for the town and further afield.
LSP Board governance - chair rotation and representation on the Board
11:35
(Jane Hartnell, Managing Director, Hastings Borough Council)
Minutes:
Jane Hartnell advised that under governance arrangements of the LSP it would be time to rotate the chair at this meeting. On this occasion it has been decided to delay until the March meeting, to allow time to review the Board membership and ensure it is reflective of what we need to be doing. The public sector, Hastings Borough Council, will provide the next chair when it rotates in March 2022.
Any other business
11:50
Minutes:
Victoria Conheady updated the group about a funding stream from the Youth Futures Foundation called the Connected Futures Fund. It will operate in two phases, the first of which will see grants of up to £125,000 handed to six to eight partnerships over 18 months which “focus on bringing people together, with young people facing disadvantage in the lead, to explore the problem and develop a shared ambition for change”.
The second phase, which will run from January 2024, will see larger grants of as much as £1.5m awarded to between two and four partnerships initially chosen for stage one to fill service gaps identified by young people in their areas. Hastings has been identified as an area that could receive funding.
Victoria suggested working under the guise of the LSP to work with a broader partnership to develop a bid for this grant fund. Interested parties were invited to indicate their interest in taking part. There is a very tight timetable applications need to be received by the 17th January 2002.
Action - Victoria Call a meeting of organisations interested in the Connected Futures Fund.
Date of next meeting: Monday, 7th March 2022 at 10am
For information: briefing note - LSP Health in equalities working group PDF 84 KB
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