Documents
Agenda
Standard Items
Members of the Press and Public
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Chair
Councillor Paterson, Convener, presided.
In Attendance
S Quinn, Acting Director of Children’s Services; G McKinlay, Head of Schools, L McAllister, Acting Head of Early Years and Broad General Education and L Fingland, Service Planning and Policy Development Manager (all Education & Children’s Services); and G McLachlan, Senior Finance Manager and D Low, Democratic Services Manager (both Finance & Resources).
Declaration of Interest
Councillor Davidson having previously declared an interest in the following item of business remained in the meeting.
Declarations of Interest
Councillor Paterson and Mr Keith having previously declared an interest in the following item of business remained in the meeting.
Section 1
Apologies
Apologies from members.
Councillors Graham and Kerr.
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.
Councillor Davidson declared a non-financial interest in Item 6 of the agenda - School Holiday Arrangements School Session 2020/21 - as she was a parent member of Glennifer High School Parent Council. However as she had not participated in the consultation on school holidays she intimated that she would remain in the meeting and take part in any discussion or voting thereon.
Councillor Paterson declared an interest in Item 7 of the agenda – Distribution of Funding to Support Services for Children and Families – Funding Allocation for 2019/20 as his child attended one of the support services recommended for funding in the report. He intimated that he would remain in the meeting and would take part in any discussion or voting thereon.
Mr Keith declared an interest in Item 7 of the agenda – Distribution of Funding to Support Services for Children and Families – Funding Allocation for 2019/20 as he had an involvement with nursery provision in Kilbarchan. He intimated that he would remain in the meeting and would take part in any discussion or voting thereon.
Section 2 Heading
Budget Monitoring Reports
Section 2
Revenue budget monitoring report by Director of Finance & Resources and Acting Director of Children's Services.
1
There was submitted a joint revenue budget monitoring report by the Director of Finance & Resources and the Acting Director of Children's Services for the service to 4 January 2019.
This report advised that since the last report there had been a small number of interdepartmental transfers resulting in an increased budget of £5,000.
DECIDED: That the report be noted.
Capital budget monitoring report by Director of Finance & Resources.
2
There was submitted a capital budget monitoring report by the Director of Finance & Resources for the service to 9 November 2019.
DECIDED: That the report be noted.
Section 3
Report by Acting Director of Children's Services.
3
There was submitted a report by the Acting Director of Children’s Services relative to the inspection of Paisley Grammar by Education Scotland.
The report intimated that the purpose of the inspection was to evaluate the quality of education, with the short model of assessment focussing on two quality indicators: learning, teaching and assessment; and raising attainment and achievement.
The letter to parents, appended to the report, identified three key strengths and three 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 Paisley Grammar be noted.
Report by Acting Director of Children's Services.
4
There was submitted a report by the Acting Director of Children’s Services relative to the inspection of St Catherine’s Primary School and Nursery Class, Paisley by Education Scotland.
The report intimated that the purpose of the inspection was to evaluate the quality of education, with the short model of assessment for the school focussing on two quality indicators: learning, teaching and assessment; and raising attainment and achievement. In the nursery class the focus was on learning, teaching and assessment and securing children’s progress.
The letter to parents, appended to the report, identified four key strengths and two 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 Paisley Grammar be noted.
Report by Acting Director of Children's Services.
5
There was submitted a report by the Acting Director of Children’s Services relative to the inspection by Education Scotland of Renfrewshire Council, as one of the nine challenge authorities who had been supported through Attainment Challenge funding as part of their national inspection framework.
The inspection report, which was appended to the report, focused on how well Renfrewshire Council was improving learning, raising attainment and closing the poverty-related gap. The framework for this inspection used three quality indicators to enable Education Scotland to evaluate leadership of improvement and change, self-evaluation to secure improvement, and improvements in performance. Education Scotland gathered evidence to answer two overarching questions: how effective was the education service’s use of data to target, select and evaluate the impact of initiatives; and how effective was the education service’s leadership, governance and management of resources to improve learning, raise attainment and narrow the poverty-related attainment gap?
The inspection report concluded that Education Scotland was confident that Renfrewshire Council was making excellent progress in improving learning, raising attainment and closing the poverty-related attainment gap. Education Scotland highlighted five key strengths in the inspection report and recommended that the Council, as planned, build on the successes achieved to date in addressing the poverty-related attainment gap and continue with plans to develop the sustainability of initiatives beyond the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
DECIDED:
(a) That the exceptionally positive outcomes of the Attainment Challenge Inspection be noted; and
(b) That it be noted that Renfrewshire was the first local authority to be graded as making excellent progress as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
Report by Acting Director of Children's Services.
6
There was submitted a report by the Acting Director of Children’s Services relative to the proposed local school holiday arrangements for the school session commencing in August, 2020.
The report intimated that in line with the normal consultation arrangements, three potential options had been circulated to staff, parent councils, pupil councils, teaching and other trade unions for consideration. These proposals were detailed in appendices to the report. The school holiday proposal preferred by the majority of those who had submitted responses to the consultation was detailed in Appendix 1 to the report with Appendices 2, 3 and 4 providing an analysis of the responses.
DECIDED: That the Acting Director of Children’s Services be authorised to set local school holiday arrangements for academic year 2020/21 as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.
Report by Acting Director of Children's Services.
7
There was submitted a report by the Acting Director of Children’s Services relative to the distribution of funding to a range of private and voluntary sector organisations which delivered services for families and young children.
Appendix 1 to the report provided an overview of the proposed allocations for payments to support the delivery of services for children and young people for 2018/19; Appendix 2 to the report detailed allocations to out-of-school care groups for 2018/19 on the basis of the criteria and related points applied to each group; and Appendix 3 to the report detailed the allocation to pre-five voluntary sector playgroups and toddler groups.
DECIDED:
(a) That the resource allocation of £296,994 to support the delivery of services for children and young people, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;
(b) That the proposals for the allocation of grant funding for out-of-school care and pre-five voluntary sector, as detailed in Appendices 2 and 3 to the report, be approved; and
(c) That a points value of £100 for awarding grant assistance to out-of-school care providers be agreed.
Section 4
Report by Acting Director of Children's Services.
8
There was submitted a report by the Acting Director of Children’s Services relative to the Children’s Services Service Improvement Plan (SIP) 2019/22 which outlined what Children’s Services intended to achieve over the next three years based on available financial and employee resources. The plan set out the priorities being addressed, the key tasks to be implemented and the implementation timetable together with measures of success. A mid-year progress update on the SIP would be submitted to the Education & Children’s Services Policy Board in November 2019. A copy of the Plan was appended to the report.
It was proposed that a report be submitted to a future meeting of this Policy Board relative to the services provided to the Council by the Place2Be counselling service. This was agreed unanimously.
DECIDED:
(a) That the elements of the Service Improvement Plan which fell within the remit of this Board be approved;
(b) That it be agreed that mid-year progress with the Service Improvement Plan be reported to this Board in November 2019;
(c) That it be noted that this Service Improvement Plan would also be submitted to the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board for approval of the elements covered by that Board’s remit;
(d) That a report be submitted to a future meeting of this Policy Board relative to the services provided to the Council by the Place2Be counselling service.
Attendance
Declarations of Interests
| Councillor Carolann Davidson | 6 | Member of Gleniffer High School Parent Council. | Non-Pecuniary | Intimated intention to remain in the meeting and to take part in any discussion or voting. |
| Councillor Jim Paterson | 7 | Child attended support service recommended for funding in report. | Non-Pecuniary | Intimated intention to remain in the meeting and to take part in any discussion or voting. |
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