Issue - meetings

Executive Report for Decision.

Scrutiny Report to Note.

ORDERED that Executive:

1.    Notes the report of the People Scrutiny Panel into Children Missing Education and the accompanying recommendations; and

2.    Approves the Action Plan prepared by the service in response to the recommendations.

The former People Scrutiny Panel had undertaken a review entitled Children Missing Education. A copy of the full report was attached. The Scrutiny Panel had made six recommendations upon which a response was sought from the relevant service area.

The recommendations of the Scrutiny Panel were:

A.    Ensures that CME forms an integral part of Middlesbrough Council’s Draft Poverty Strategy. CME, and its impact, should be explicitly referenced and included in any performance regime underpinning the strategy. Members of the Children’s Scrutiny Panel should be briefed on how CME will feature within the Poverty Strategy no later than January 2026, or sooner if the strategy is available.

B.    Ensures that Education & Partnerships are fully prepared for the Children’s Wellbeing in Schools Bill, in particular the monitoring of Elective Home Education and the implementation of a single unique identifier (SUI) for children. The Children’s Scrutiny Panel should be briefed on the preparations, no later than December 2025.

C.   Establishes a Working Group between Primary Schools in the Central areas of Middlesbrough, Education and Partnerships, Stronger Communities and local Councillors to explore if further assistance can be provided in respect of the large transient community and the issues of school roll turnover. The Working Group should report back on its progress by March 2026.

D.   Establishes a Working Group between Education & Partnerships and Stronger Communities to understand the nature of the higher rate of CME in the Romanian community. The Working Group should produce an action plan to help reduce this number against the baseline average of 22, at the time of the review. The Working Group should provide a progress update against their action plan to the Children’s Scrutiny Panel by March 2026.

E.    An update be provided to the Children’s Scrutiny Panel that provides assurance to the on the ongoing work of assisting children at risk of permanent exclusion. This should happen no later than October 2026.

F.    An update be provided to the Children’s Scrutiny Panel on the new Alternative Provision and the restructure of the Inclusion and Outreach Model. This should happen no later than April 2026.

The Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Education and Culture and the Interim Director for Education and Partnerships submitted a service response to the recommendations of the Scrutiny Panel. A copy of the action plan was appended to the report.

The Chair of the Children’s Scrutiny Panel introduced and presented the Scrutiny report and advised the review had been undertaken by the previous People Scrutiny Panel.

The Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Education and Culture provided a response to the Scrutiny report and presented the Service Response.

The Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Education and Culture commented that the work carried out by the Scrutiny was important and relevant to current developments.

The Mayor stated that this issue had been discussed extensively and remain an important matter. As such it was commented that an all-Member briefing be arranged to update all Members on the situation.

ORDERED that Executive:

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