Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel held on 18 July 2022 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Head of South Tees Youth Justice Service (STYJS) will be in attendance to provide the Scrutiny Panel with an introduction of the topic, including:

·        an overview of the role of the STYJS; and

·        an outline of planned changes to data requirements in order to capture and evidence the impact of offending on educational attainment, truancy and exclusion from school.

The Head of South Tees Youth Justice Service (STYJS) and the Youth Offending Service’s Education, Training and Employment Specialist were in attendance to provide:

•                     an overview of the role of the STYJS;

•                     information on the link between education and young people in the criminal justice system; and

•                     an outline of planned changes to data requirements in order to capture and evidence the impact of offending on educational attainment, truancy and exclusion from school.

In terms of the role of youth offending teams, the Head of STYJS explained:

·         Youth offending teams supervised 10 to 18 year-olds who had been sentenced by a court, or who had come to the attention of the police because of their offending behaviour but had not been charged - instead, they were dealt with out of court. There was a range of out of court disposals, which were available to youth offending teams.

·         Youth offending teams were multidisciplinary statutory partnerships that aimed to deal with the needs of the whole child.

·         Youth offending teams were required to have staff from local authority social care and education, the police, the National Probation Service and local health services.

·         Youth offending teams were governed by the Youth Justice Board (YJB). The YJB provided the majority of funding to youth offending teams and monitored their performance. The YJB also published guidance on issues, such as the national standards for youth justice services.

·         HM Inspectorate of Probation was the regulating body of youth justice services.

·         There were three national outcome measures for youth justice services:

o    to reduce first time entrants to the youth justice system;

o    to prevent re-offending by children and young people; and

o    reduce the use of custody for young people (both sentenced and remanded).

·         Currently, there was no requirement for youth justice services to collect data in respect of educational attainment, truancy or exclusion from school. However, future changes to data requirements were planned, in order to capture and evidence the impact of offending on those areas.

In terms of the link between education and young people in the criminal justice system, the Head of STYJS explained:

·         In 2016, Charlie Taylor had been commissioned to review the entirety of the youth justice system. Following the review, it was concluded that education needed to be central to the response to youth offending. The review reported that too many children in the youth justice system had been out of school for long periods of time through truancy, or following exclusion, and half of 15-17 year olds in youth offending institutions had the literacy or numeracy levels expected of a 7-11 year old.

·         In 2017, One Education had reported that;

o    approx 90% of young people in the youth custody population had been excluded from school, at any one time, compared to 3-5% of general population;

o    63% of boys and 74% of girls had been permanently excluded (Members were advised that there was a significantly lower number of girls in the youth custody population and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22/17

The Chair will present a verbal update on the matters that were considered at the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 22 June and 19 July 2022.

The Chair advised that at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board, held on 22 June 2022, the Board had considered:

·         the Executive Forward Work Programme;

·         an update from the Chief Executive;

·         the Culture and Communities Scrutiny Panel’s Final Report on Enforcement in Middlesbrough and its Impact on Crime and Anti-social Behaviour;

·         information on school exclusions and feedback received from school visits;

·         the Strategic Plan 2021-24 - Progress at Year-End 2021/22;

·         the Revenue and Capital Budget - Year-End Outturn Position 2021/22; and

·         updates from the scrutiny chairs.

It was also advised that at the following meeting, held on 19 July 2022, the Board had considered:

·         the Executive Forward Work Programme;

·         an Executive Member update from the Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Children’s Services;

·         an update from the Chief Executive;

·         the Children and Young People's Learning Scrutiny Panel’s Final Report on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND);

·         the Scrutiny Work Programme Report for 2022-2023; and

·         updates from the scrutiny chairs.

NOTED

Cost of School Uniforms

A Member raised concerns in respect of the high costs associated with purchasing new school uniforms.

The Head of Access to Education and Alternative Provision advised that, over the past 18 months, work had been undertaken with schools in respect of uniform related issues. It was commented that generally primary school uniforms were relatively inexpensive. However, secondary school uniforms were more expensive.

Each secondary school in Middlesbrough had been approached in order to determine their uniform requirements and the costs associated with those. It became apparent that some secondary schools had bespoke suppliers and costs were high. Prior to the summer break, all secondary schools had confirmed that uniform requirements had been relaxed, some schools had changed their requirements quite considerably. Therefore, all secondary schools had reduced the number of branded items that were required and a number of schools had reduced the requirement to buy all items from a particular supplier and were allowing the purchase of non-branded items from high street stores or supermarkets. Although the cost of uniforms could be reduced further, on average, costs were now considerably less than last September (2021). Therefore, schools were moving in the right direction.

Members were advised that the Government had introduced guidance on the cost of school uniforms. The purpose of the guidance was to ensure the cost of school uniforms was reasonable and secured the best value for money.

Schools aimed to ensure that their uniform supplier arrangements provided the highest priority to cost and value for money. All schools had taken positive steps to ensure their uniforms were more affordable.

It was added that a number of schools had set-up exchange schemes, which ensured that second-hand uniforms were available for parents to acquire.

A Member queried whether the Local Authority provided school uniform grants for parents/carers. In response, the Director of Education and Partnerships advised that grant funding had previously been associated with local-authority-maintained schools. However, as many schools had now become academies that money was dispersed directly to schools, rather than being held by the Local Authority. In order to make uniforms more affordable for parents/carers, it was explained that each school had a different approach to utilising the funding provided by the Government.

NOTED