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Meeting Details

Education and Children's Services Policy Board
24 Aug 2017 - 13:00 to 14:30
  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Agenda
Notification
Standard Items
Further Information
This is a meeting which is open to members of the public. 

A copy of the agenda and reports for this meeting will be available for inspection prior to the meeting at the Customer Service Centre, Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley and online at www.renfrewshire.cmis.uk.com/renfrewshire/CouncilandBoards.aspx

For further information, please either email
democratic-services@renfrewshire.gov.uk or telephone 0141 618 7112.
Members of the Press and Public
Members of the press and public wishing to attend the meeting should report to the customer service centre where they will be met and directed to the meeting.
Chair
Councillor Paterson, Convener, presided.
In Attendance
P Macleod, Director of Children’s Services; D Hawthorn, Head of Childcare and Criminal Justice, G McKinlay, Head of Schools and J Trainer, Head of Early Years and Inclusion (all Children’s Services); and G McLachlan, Senior Finance Manager and D Low, Senior Committee Services Officer (both Finance & Resources).
Apology
Reverend G Currie.
Sederunt
Provost Cameron and Mr Keith entered the meeting prior to consideration of the following item of business.
Items Of Business
Apologies
Apologies from members.
Declarations of Interest
Members are asked to declare an interest in any item(s) on the agenda and to provide a brief explanation of the nature of the interest.
There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.
Joint report by Director of Finance & Resources and Director of Children's Services.
1
There was submitted a joint revenue budget monitoring report by the Directors of Finance & Resources and Children's Services for the service for the period 1 April to 23 June 2017.  

DECIDED:

(a) That the budget position be noted; and

(b) That it be noted that since the budget had been approved there had been a number of budget adjustments resulting in a decrease of £134,000 related to the transfer of budgets to Finance & Resources for administrative support for the Early Years Strategy and to the Corporate Landlord for property repairs.
 
Report by Director of Finance & Resources.
2
There was submitted a capital budget monitoring report by the Director of Finance & Resources for the service for the period 1 April to 23 June 2017.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.
 
Report by Director of Children's Services.
3
There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to the plans being developed by the Council in preparation for the implementation of the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill.

The report intimated that the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill, published in June 2017, would introduce a duty on public and other services to consider if the sharing of information would promote, support or safeguard the wellbeing of a child or young person.  The Council was reviewing and updating the existing Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) implementation plan to take account of the new Bill and ensure compliance with the new requirements.  The Council would provide refresher training to all staff on information sharing laws to ensure clarity about the basis on which social work, health, education and other professionals supporting families shared and received information in their named person role.
        
DECIDED: 
  
(a) That the implications of the new Information Sharing Bill for Renfrewshire’s Children’s Services be noted; and 

(b) That it be noted that there was a multi-agency action plan in place to ensure preparation for compliance with the Bill and delivery of the Named Person Service.
 
Report by Director of Children's Services.
4
There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to consultation on a Private Member’s Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill proposal.  

The report intimated that the aim of the proposal was to promote and safeguard the health and well-being of children and young people by ensuring they were afforded the same right to protection from assault as adults which would be achieved by ending the current legal position that the physical punishment of children could be viewed as justifiable assault.  The report detailed the legislative and policy context of the proposal.

The Council’s draft response was appended to the report.  The draft response expressed support for the proposal from the perspective of offering additional support to parents to manage children’s behaviour in more positive ways and shift attitudes and behaviours rather than criminalise parents.   

DECIDED: That the response to the consultation on the Private Member’s Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill proposal, as detailed in the appendix to the report, be approved.
 
Report by Director of Children's Services.
5
There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to the Scottish Government’s document ‘Education Governance: Fair Funding to Achieve Excellence and Equity in Education – A Consultation’.

The report intimated that between September 2016 and January 2017 the Scottish Government had undertaken consultation on the way in which education services were organised in Scotland.  Coinciding with the publication of the outcome of that consultation, the Scottish Government had launched a further consultation seeking views on its future approach to school funding.  The draft Council response to the consultation was appended to the report.      

DECIDED:   That the consultation response appended to the report be approved for submission to the Scottish Government.
 
Report by Director of Children's Services.
6
There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to the inspection of Fordbank Primary School, Johnstone by Education Scotland.      

The report intimated that the purpose of the inspection was to evaluate the quality of education, with the assessment focussing on four quality indicators: leadership of change; learning, teaching and assessment; raising attainment and achievement; and ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion.

The letter to parents, appended to the report, identified four key strengths and four areas for further improvement.  Children’s Services would continue to monitor the improvement in the school and the inspection report would be used by the school and service to support and develop the quality of educational provision.  

DECIDED:    That the key strengths and the areas for improvement in the Education Scotland report on Fordbank Primary School be noted.
 
Report by Director of Children's Services. 
7
There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to the implementation by local authorities of the Scottish Government’s commitment to increase the entitlement to free early learning and childcare from the present level of 600 hours to 1140 hours per annum by 2020.

The report intimated that the Scottish Government had indicated that local authorities should explore opportunities for the expansion of free early learning and childcare entitlement on a phased basis over the next three years rather than waiting until 2020 to deliver.  Local authorities were required to present an expansion plan on how they would achieve the delivery of the increased entitlement to the Scottish Government by 29 September 2017.

The report detailed the work undertaken by the Council’s 1140 Hours Governance Board to develop the Renfrewshire Expansion Plan, highlighting three key work stream areas as workforce, infrastructure and policy.  Priority for the expansion programme would be given to establishments with high numbers of children from Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) areas 1 and 2 and the report set out a proposed amended admissions policy to help achieve this objective.    

DECIDED:   
   
(a) That the draft Renfrewshire Expansion Plan be submitted by the Head of Early Years and Inclusion to the Scottish Government by 29 September 2017 and that the plan be approved by the Board at its meeting in November 2017;

(b) That the admissions criteria for allocating 1140 hours of early learning and childcare to children attending establishments involved in the phasing of the entitlement, as outlined in the report be approved; 

(c) That the change of job title for early years staff as detailed in the report be noted; and

(d) That the change of name of Pre-Five Centres to Early Learning and Childcare Centres and classes as detailed in the report be approved.
 

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting