Mr Neil Cunningham, Parent Governor gave apologies for absence.

Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest, identified in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine: whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are also reminded to declare the nature of the interest at the earliest opportunity and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it is the Members’ responsibility to identify any interests and also update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of an interest, you are advised to seek advice prior the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services.

No declaration of disclosable pecuniary interest were made by the members.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the held on 15^th December 2020.

The minutes from the previous meeting of 15^th December 2020 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

A presentation will be made at the meeting.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal update on the impact Covid-19 is having on education in the borough, the steps taken to minimize disruption to children and the support provided to schools.

The Sub-Committee heard from Ms Christine McInnes, Divisional Director of Education and Partnership who stated schools had worked hard to meet the dual demands of having children of critical workers and vulnerable children in school as well as developing and running online learning packages for children at home. In addition to this, secondary schools have had to establish testing programmes for pupils. She said the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP) was analysing the evidence base on how schools can assess the learning gaps amongst different year groups and children and what could be done to address this. Ms McInnes said the lack of digital access and broadband had also impacted on individual students.

The Sub-Committee heard from Tracy Smith, Executive Director, Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP) and Headteachers Mr Oliver Woodward, Headteacher of Columbia Primary School and Mr Paul Woods, Stepney All Saints School on their experience of dealing with the impact Covid-19 was having on schools.

Tower Hamlets Education Partnership

Ms Smith said the lockdown this time had been very different to the lockdown experienced in March 2020. She said teachers were more prepared, with a better-quality offer being in place than before.

The key points made by Ms Smith were:

• Since the return to school in September 2020, bubble closures had led to schools honing their remote learning practice.
• THEP had conducted a survey of schools to better understand the gaps in access to digital devices. There were six reports available on their website looking at Maths, English and Science in primary schools. Study programmes and resources were tailored to support the teacher in delivering the learning.
• Ms Smith cautioned against labelling children as the ‘lost generation’ and said language like this was unhelpful. She said children were resilient and THEP would continue to work with schools to close the gaps in learning.
• Schools were working together to share good practice with ten different clusters of schools sharing their ideas. Work was being driven through subject networks in primary schools and ‘teach and meet’ groups in secondary schools as well as peer review models.
• Access of devices was a problem, especially in areas where schools had a more disadvantaged community. Of the schools surveyed 64 responses had been received from which it was clear that at least 10,000 devices across the borough were needed to ensure every child has access to their own device.
• Schools were tracking the usage of devices and were sympathetic to the dilemmas facing families, especially if a single device was being shared by siblings.
• THEP had been fortunate to receive a £53,000 donation which it had used to procure IT equipment for distribution to primary schools. THEP was working alongside the Education Business partnership who had delivered 150 devices to local schools, however a lot more were needed.

Columbia Primary School

Mr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.1

The Chair introduced this item and stated the Sub-Committee wanted to focus and understand the take up of Early Year Provision by different demographic groups.

She said the parent Overview and Scrutiny Committee had held sessions, approximately 18 months ago looking at aspiration and achievement and whilst Tower Hamlets had a good track record in terms of the excellent progress children made in schools, the crux of progression and attainment lied in Early Year Provision and access to it.

The Chair, Ms Bex White said she wanted to focus on the take up by white working-class communities as data showed this to be low. She said the progression made by white working-class boys was a concern because there was a significant gap when children entered primary school. She continued saying she was aware of the funding and sustainability issues faced by the sector and wanted to understand the experience of providers in the sector, during the pandemic.

Ms Pauline Hoare, Head of Integrated Early Years Service made a presentation to the Sub-Committee. The key points made by Ms Hoare were:

• The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA) indicated the pandemic was having a negative impact on childcare take up. There had been a fall from 64% to 42% for eligible 2-year olds taking up the offer.
• Early year funding (EL2) is free early year education funded by the government. The DfE shares data on children who are eligible and the DWP provide a list of those eligible for universal credit. Ethnicity data is not provided.
• Take up has been affected by the pandemic and issues such as mental health, emotional wellbeing and low levels of early language acquisition are the key challenges. Mitigation of this is through early education and childcare provision.
• Some of the barriers are overcrowded accommodation, shared accommodation with elders, parental nervousness due to Covid-19 and school closures preventing young children attending childcare.
• Reduction in national funding will impact locally, with the number of places on offer decreasing. Post Covid-19 there is the likelihood childcare setting will accommodate 3-4 year olds as it attracts higher funding than 2 year olds.
• Tower Hamlets has 82 childcare providers, 120 childminders who work with the Children Centres in the borough.

The Sub-Committee then heard from Ms Kim Arrowsmith, Matchbox Day Nursery, Ms Toni Evans, Lincoln Hall Preschool and Ms Gill Oliver, Winterton House Nursery of the issues facing them in the pandemic.

The key points raised were:

• There had been a dramatic decrease in the number of children attending childcare settings, particularly 2-year olds. Ms Arrowsmith stated they had seen a drop from 98 children to 70 children, considering the social distancing rules. Ms Oliver stated numbers at her Nursery had fallen to 98 children from a 140 and Ms Evans stated the ratio of staff to child had been affected by the cases of Covid-19 at their nursery, resulting in less provision being provided.
• Nurseries had innovated by offering virtual classes however pressure on prioritising IT for older children meant the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.2

A presentation will be made at the meeting.

Mr James Thomas, Corporate Director of Children and Culture provided an updated on forthcoming inspections. Mr Thomas said there were three separate inspection regimes that directly inspected services within the Directorate.

• SEND Inspection
• Youth Justice Inspection and
• ILCAS

Mr Thomas provided a brief summary of each inspection:

The SEND inspection was a local area inspection undertaken jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A considerable amount of fieldwork is included with visits to schools, interviews with parents as well as a range of health providers. Mr Thomas said that due to the pandemic inspections were on hold however the inspectorates were hoping to resume their inspections in April 2021, depending on if this was viable.

He said a narrative judgement is provided by way of letter and there is a benchmark which needs to be achieved. Mr Thomas said if the inspectorates are unhappy with local provision a ‘written statement of action’ is received which defines the aspects which require improvement. He said Tower Hamlets were in the last cohort of Councils to be inspected in a five-year cycle, so he expected the inspection to happen this year. Mr Thomas continued saying their plans with their partners for the inspection were significantly impacted by the pandemic however they were working hard over the last four to five months to recover ground. He said of the three inspection, this one would be the most challenging.

In relation to the other two inspections, Mr Thomas said these were more straightforward. The Youth Justice Inspection would be undertaken by HMIP and will inspect the Council who is the lead agency in delivering youth offending but would also involve an element of multi-agency inspection with the City of London. He said the inspection is unlikely to be before April but could be expected anytime thereafter. He said he was confident about this inspection as a considerable amount of preparatory work had been done such as external peer reviews and work on performance indicators.

Referring to the ILACS inspection, Mr Thomas said children’s social care were familiar with the framework of this inspection which would normally follow a three-year cycle. He said a visit from Ofsted occurs every year and in the third year there is a full inspection. Mr Thomas said if there was a focus visit, he was confident with their preparations, as it looked at one specific area. The JTAI involved more work, as it would involve a multi-agency inspection looking at multiple areas. Mr Thomas said he had updated the partners of the Safeguarding Partnership on the three core inspections.

In response to questions from members the following was noted:

• Mr Thomas said that of the three inspections the SEND inspection would be the most challenging. He said if the inspectorate came in April, he would expect some criticism has not all the improvements that had been identified and driven through. He said an inspection later on in the year would give them more time. He said this was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.3

No other business was discussed at the meeting.