Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be found here.

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Convener advised Members that Mr Madhav Regmi, the recently appointed third religious representative, was in attendance for his first meeting of the Committee. He welcomed Mr Regmi to the Committee and added that he looked forward to his contributions.

The Convener proposed that the Committee consider item 11.1 (Community Campus Model – Exempt Appendix) with the press and public excluded.

The Committee resolved:-

in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of item 11.1 on the agenda so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the class described in paragraph 8 of Schedule 7(A) of the Act.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 23 September 2021 for approval.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Committee had before it the committee business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer – Governance. 

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that item 11 (Inspection Reporting) had been delayed to January 2022 as the inspection report in question had still to be made publicly available;

(ii)       following a query from Mr Sansom on item 22 (School Estate Plan) in respect of dates being added to the planner in relation to Countesswells, to note that the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord had confirmed that dates would be updated for the next meeting of the Committee; and

(ii)       to otherwise note the planner.

The Committee had before it the annual committee effectiveness report by the Director of Commissioning for consideration.  The annual effectiveness reports were introduced in 2018/19 following a recommendation from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) as part of the Council’s work towards securing that organisation’s accreditation in governance excellence.

The Convener stated that he wished to thank all Members and officers for their assistance and participation during the reporting period, adding that he was pleased to note that 32 out of the 35 reports considered had been approved unanimously, showing that the Committee had worked well together.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      provide comments and observations on the data contained within the annual report; and

(b)      note the annual report of the Education Operational Delivery Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

The Committee had before it an interim tracking report by the Director of Customer Services for the 2020-21 academic year, against the suite of Educational Improvement Journey Key Performance Indicator measures, supporting the Excellence and Equity agenda within the Aberdeen City Council National Improvement Framework Plan.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      note the content of this report presenting the pre- review outcomes from the 2021 Alternative Certification Model, releases provided through the Insight Tool, and Attendance and Exclusion information;

(b)      note the content of Appendix A, outlining the progress of actions supporting the Education Improvement Journey; and

(c)      provide comment on the approach taken to presenting the data within the report to inform future reporting styles.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that the Chief Officer – Education would clarify to Members outwith the meeting if the wellbeing project at Northfield Academy was due to run through to Summer or if it would end at Christmas;

(ii)       to thank all staff involved in delivering the Afghanistan resettlement scheme for their hard work in making the scheme a success;

(iii)      to agree the data trends submitted within the report against the various measures were positive, whilst pupil attendance remained high in comparison to national and urban benchmarks;

(iv)      to agree the approach taken to presenting the data within the report met with the Committee’s approval; and

(v)      to otherwise note the report.

With reference to article 4 of the minute of its previous meeting, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Customer Services which presented an update on the status of key performance measures relating to the Education Operational cluster.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee note the report and provide comments and observations on the performance information contained in the report Appendix.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Education and the Chief Officer – Integrated Children’s and Family Services which presented the Cluster Risk Register and Assurance Map in accordance with Education Operational Delivery Committee Terms of Reference to provide assurance that risks were being managed effectively within the Children’s and Family Services Cluster.

The report recommended:-

that Committee note the Cluster Risk Register and Assurance Map set out in Appendices A–B to the report.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Customer Services which provided information on actions being taken to maximise the number of eligible secondary school pupils taking free school meals and sought approval to extend eligibility criteria.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      agree the actions being progressed to maximise the number of eligible

secondary school pupils taking free school meals; and

(b)      approve the extension of free school meal criteria to include parents/grandparents in receipt of the Child element within Guaranteed Pension Credits.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to thank officers for the work towards ensuring that more eligible young people had access to free school meals; and

(ii)       to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Operating Officer which sought permission for education staff to participate in an all-expenses paid Academies of Nashville Study Visit.  The report advised that the visit was part of the Excelerate Programme, which placed partnerships at the heart of education, creating a collective sense of responsibility to prepare young people for the world of work and was fully funded by The Wood Foundation.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      note the content of the report; and

(b)      approve the involvement of 13 members of staff in the Academies of Nashville Study Visit subject to Public Health guidance in place as of March 2022.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to thank the Wood Foundation for their continued support; and

(ii)       to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 5 of the minute of its previous meeting, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Operating Officer which provided an overview of the attainment of care experienced children and young people which took account of the individual and often complex needs of the group and considered next steps.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      note the approach taken to evaluating the extent to which we met the needs of care experienced children and young people outlined in the report;

(b)      note the evaluation of the range of interventions put in place over 2020/2021 in response to on-going assessment of the identified barriers to achieving successful outcomes;

(c)      note the commentary on the key measures which provided an overview of the current performance of care experienced children and young people;

(d)      note the extent of the work currently being undertaken across the Council and wider partnership to support care experienced children and young people;

(e)      instruct the Chief Officer - Education to continue to take an agile approach to the identification of any barriers to care experienced children and young people achieving successful outcomes and take swift action to address them;

(f)       instruct the Chief Education Officer to implement plans to align further resource to the Virtual School to support those returning from Out of Authority placements; and

(g)      instruct the Chief Education Officer to present an annual report on the progress of care experienced children and young people to the Committee, commencing in September 2022.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to section 3.5.6 of the report and the query in respect of the nine young people involved in the RiteWorks pilot programme, to note that the Chief Officer – Education would investigate whether all were care experienced, or whether that applied to only seven of the young people, and provide that detail to Members outwith the meeting;

(ii)       to thank the Chief Officers for Education and Integrated Children’s and Family Services and their teams for the work done to support care experienced young people given the additional challenges as a result of the pandemic;

(iii)      to agree the report presented gave a clear sense of how the education service, Council and wider partnership were collaborating to support our care experienced children and young people; and

(iv)      to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided an update on the work to develop a Community Campus model for future school and community service provision within the city, and also demonstrated how the model could be applied to one of the Council’s new masterplanned developments at Countesswells.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      approve the Community Campus model principles for future education and service provision within the city;

(b)      instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to ensure that the principles of the Community Campus model were reflected within the forthcoming School Estate Plan to be presented to Committee in June 2022; and

(c)      note the revised school capacity figures for secondary schools as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report, which would be used to inform planning for future implementation of the Community Campus model.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that officers would circulate the weblink to the revised school forecast data to Members once it was available;

(ii)       to approve the Community Campus model principles for future education and service provision within the city;

(iii)      to nevertheless recognise that the campus model may not be either suitable or possible in some circumstances;

(iv)      to instruct the Chief Officer Corporate Landlord to ensure that the principles of the Community Campus model were reflected within the forthcoming School Estate Plan to be presented to Committee in June 2022;

(v)      to note the revised school capacity figures for secondary schools as detailed in Appendix 3 which would be used to inform planning for future implementation of the Community Campus model within the School Estate Plan;

(vi)      to agree that officers should as part of the School Estate Plan indicate preference for Aberdeen City Council’s first Community Campus taking into consideration the vision and strategic objectives highlighted at 3.12 of the report noting that those objectives were key to increasing attainment in schools within regeneration areas; and

(vii)     to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord and Chief Officer -  Education to jointly advise the Parent Councils regarding the updated school capacities.

In accordance with the decision taken under article 2 above, the following item was considered with the press and public excluded.

The Committee had before it an exempt appendix which related to the Community Campus model report considered elsewhere on the agenda.  Members heard from officers in relation to the content of the appendix and asked a number of questions.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the exempt appendix.

-          COUNCILLOR M. TAUQEER MALIK, Convener