Agenda item

This report provides an update on the current scrutiny review of the Extended Schools Agenda.

The Assistant Director of Partnership and Early Intervention informed Members about the Extended Services Disadvantaged Subsidy and circulated a one-page briefing note (see appendix A).  He stated that:

·          The government recognised the importance of extended services for children from disadvantaged and vulnerable families

·          A key fund had been set up, which for 2010/11 would be £217 million to assist disadvantaged families to access Extended Services.

·          The Government suggested that ‘disadvantaged children’ be defined as those receiving free school meals and/or ‘looked after children’

·          The new subsidy would encourage a greater degree of collaboration between schools which was considered crucial to making the services ‘fit for need’

·          York had been invited to pilot the subsidy using a small cluster of schools with funding of £80,000 in 2009/10

·          Currently schools in York do not operate on a conventional cluster model, and for the most part, each school decides for itself what Extended Services it will provide

·          The pilot would be officially launched in York on 29 April 2009 and would focus on schools that were geographically close - York High School, Westfield Primary Community, Hob Moor Community Primary and Woodthorpe Primary schools

·          The money will be used to enable families to access existing services or to purchase new services not currently available

·          The funding calculations per family were based on Pathfinder work and believed to be about £300 of benefit and 60% eligible take up

·          In 2010-11, the Disadvantaged Subsidy Funding will rise to £217m to be used by all schools across England

·          York would receive £300,000 from the 2010/11 funding

Members noted that the take up of free school meals in York was not as high as in other authorities and expressed concern about entitlement to the service i.e. whether it should be ‘eligible for’ not ‘take up’ of Free School Meals. They also agreed that some flexibility in the criteria would be helpful where there were other deprivations and difficulties for the child or the family, and raised concerns about small village schools and access to extended services.  Officers agreed to:

·          look at the definition of disadvantaged and the common assessment framework,

·          circulate information on the Free School Meals eligibility criteria to Members ¹

·          explore how the subsidy would work in rural communities

Members recognised the difficulties around transport and the need for effective provision i.e. safe and affordable transport arrangements.  Officers confirmed they had already explored the issue of collaboration between schools with the head teachers from the schools involved in the pilot scheme, and work had been done on linking with the community and helping vulnerable children through primary and secondary schooling. 

The Assistant Director of Partnership and Early Intervention also confirmed that:

·          an Extended Services Team had been set up, but as yet this did not include cluster coordinators due to lack of funding

·          after 2011 the funding would be mainstreamed into school budgets giving a two year period to prove that the service could make a difference - feedback on this would come from schools and pathfinders

·          work was continuing on setting up the new strategic steering group for Extended Services 

·          Ofsted reports now include a community cohesion section and that this could be made available via an annual report to the Committee

·          the Child Care Sufficiency Audit could be broadened to include extended services and issues around quality, accessibility, affordability – both collectively and individually, inclusive provision and flexibility in adapting to the needs of the local community

Having fully considered the draft final report and the information provided at the meeting, Members expressed their thanks to Eddie Needham for his contribution to the presentation evening on 24 February 2009, and agreed that the findings and recommendations arising from the review should be brought to the attention of the Ofsted Sub-Committee and school improvement partners to inform their on-going work. 

Finally the Committee requested that the Scrutiny Officer make a number of amendments to the wording in line with their comments above, to enable the report to be signed off at the next meeting of the Committee. ²

RESOLVED:             That the draft final report be amended in line with Members comments

REASON:                  To enable the final report to be signed off at the next meeting of the Committee