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There is no summary of this meeting yet. One is written once the council publishes the minutes. The agenda and papers are below.
In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County of Swansea, no interests were declared.
Resolved that the Minutes of the Education & Skills Service Transformation Committee held on 4 December 2024 be approved and signed as a correct record.
Helen Howells presented a report which updated the committee on the progress made in relation to developing the new Swansea Council behaviour policy for schools and sought their input on the next steps. Contained and detailed within the circulated report were the following areas and information: · Background to the development of the new policy; · Change and increase in challenging behaviour in schools and increase in exclusions; · Various social and demographic reasons and impacts on behaviour; · Increase in numbers of Additional Learning Needs and Neuro Diverse pupils; · Duties of the Local Authority to promote high standards of education; · Progress to date, including the holding of two face to face multi agency workshops with over 120 attendees from a significant breadth of stakeholders including representatives from schools, education officers, local health board, public health wales, social workers and social services staff, welsh government, committee members and councillors, trade unions and swansea parent carer forum and others; · Attendees provided detailed feedback to five key questions which have been collated and themed; · A questionnaire was circulated to and completed by 22 schools, the results of which have also been analysed and themed; The workshops, surveys and feedback have enabled a clearer focus on issues and the approaches required to address them, including: Issues: · Dysregulation and emotional responses · Increased physicality · Gap between home and school expectations · Insufficient resource for LA to provide support · Children with ‘complex’ needs and ALN · Issues of respect Approaches needed: · Early intervention and support · Training and development · Parental involvement and support · Consistent policies and procedures · Positive reinforcement and relationships · Funding and resources · Specialist support and training · Parental and community engagement · Support from external agencies · Consistent and clear guidelines After the collation of the feedback, a follow up workshop was held in November, with a second one planned in late January, the purpose of these workshops include the following areas: · Sharing the collated feedback and refining the detail where there were some anomalies e.g. agreeing definitions · Production of a draft policy with our stakeholders by agreeing the main content, focus and design of the policy document · Consideration of producing a toolkit and seeking agreement for format and purpose · Identifying best practice · Drawing on experts within schools to help identify relevant research · Drawing up a delivery plan The first follow up workshop in November was helpful in agreeing the policy scope, content and format and the following is proposed: · A Swansea Council overarching policy focussing on respect, rights and responsibility which will outline the vision, aims and strategic approaches needed to foster school environments where all members of the school community treat each other with kindness and consideration and instil a sense of accountability for their actions and decisions The aim is that this policy will also provide a model policy for schools. School leaders and governing bodies can then choose to adopt this policy and personalise it to their individual schools with the overarching policy providing the guiding aims and principles which will ensure the consistency which has been identified by stakeholders as a requirement. The policy will also provide a link to a toolkit which will provide practical advice, guidance, strategies, resources, good practice models and training. This toolkit is currently being developed with practitioner input. All of the work being developed is also being informed by research which is being undertaken in tandem with the development to ensure there is a strong evidence based rationale to any policy requirements and recommendations. The launch of the new policy with stakeholders is planned for 21 March, and it was indicated that the draft policy would be brought before the February meeting of the committee for consideration and approval. Following on from the circulated report, the officer then provided the committee with a detailed powerpoint presentation which outlined and covered the following areas: · Workshop aims - design and agree the vision (including name), agree scope and content of policy, school example policy, strategy and delivery plan and toolkit content; · Workshop activity - discuss and rank the 12 main priorities that were identified in the first workshops; · Expectations of the policy/strategy - the LA has a duty to promote high standards of education in accordance with Education Act 1998 and schools and governing bodies have to meet their obligations, including those specified under the Education and Inspection Act 2006; · Expectations of the policy/strategy - respective roles & responsibilities, LA role has a specific remit and expectation, schools and governing bodies have specific responsibilities in law e.g. exclusions, expectations around consistency; · Policy, Scope and Content – vision, aims, principles, expectations (schools / LA / parents / pupils / partners), strategies and tools; · Main aims; promote respect and responsibility, foster an environment where all members of the school community treat each other with kindness and consideration, and instil a sense of accountability for their actions and decisions. This aim is supported by early intervention, specialist support, and positive reinforcement. encourage parental and community engagement: ensure all member of the school community understand the importance of taking care of each other and the school environment and promote responsible digital citizenship. This aim is reinforced through parental involvement, community engagement, and support from external agencies. supportive and consistent environment: encourage open, honest, and respectful communication among students, staff, and parents to build a supportive and collaborative school community. This aim is backed by consistent policies, procedures, clear guidelines, training and development, and resources • Next Steps – Governors, Trade unions, CYP, Parents / carers, Service Transformation Committee then collation of findings and resharing of draft policy. The Committee discussed in detail the report and the powerpoint presentation and the issues raised within it and made various comments relating to them both and asked various questions around the information, issues and topics detailed within it. The officer and Director responded accordingly to the questions and queries raised by Members. The Cabinet Member also thanked the officer for her presentation and overview/update of the ongoing work towards the development of the new policy. The Chair thanked the officer for her report and presentation and input into the meeting.
The Chair outlined the workplan for the committee for the remainder of 2024/2025 and indicated that further to the discussions on the previous item, a updated report on the Behaviour Policy would be brought to the next meeting.
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