The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support explained that the purpose of the report was to provide an update on the support for Looked After Children in Education (LACE) across the local authority. The report specifically focussed on the support provided to Bridgend’s Looked After Children for the school year 2020-2021.  

The Group Manager, Family Support provided some background to the current position and then explained that as at 19 March 2021, there were 271 statutory school age pupils who were looked after by the local authority, 64 of these were educated out of county.  The role of supporting LACE sat within the Education Engagement Team (EET) and this provided a single point of contact for all agencies including schools, Children Social Care (CSC) and other services for information, advice, training and guidance for vulnerable learners including LAC. The team delivered training to the schools and remained a point of contact for the schools designated teacher relating to Personal Education Plans (PEPs) and any other issues presenting for LAC. The EET worked with each school cluster to develop a clear and coherent plan to support LAC via their PDG. This included the appointment of a school-based counsellor to acknowledge the impact of becoming looked-after, could have on learning, Learning Support Officers (LSO) delivering ‘Thrive’ training to promote educational attainment for looked-after children and mental health and trauma training for staff to consider how behaviour could present itself within school for children who had entered the care system.

The Group Manager, Family Support explained that to support LAC, the local authority via EET had access to PDG funding. This year, the funding had been used to offer additional education to those looked after children most in need of extra support. To date, 33 looked after children had accessed additional tuition via a school teacher over the course of the pandemic. This support ranged from one hour a week to six hours per week dependent on their needs. Support had focussed on literacy, numeracy and practical skills such as forest schools and online music projects. The EET also delivered training to schools and partners in respect of the impact of trauma and how this could affect a child’s ability to engage in learning. The team facilitated mental health first aid training to schools in response to the impact on LAC emotional wellbeing. He added that PDG plans produced by schools in Bridgend had been noted in a recent Estyn thematic review regarding good practice with looked-after children (eg tracking of pupils and dedicated transition work). In particular, Brynteg School and Penybont Primary School were identified as implementing good practice models for those learners. The local authority had also been central to the development of work experience and apprenticeship opportunities for LAC. This was developed as a pathway for those learners leaving education in the summer with the aim of securing an employment opportunity. All Year 11 looked after learners were presented with the opportunity to engage in work experience over their summer holidays.

The Group Manager Family Support explained that with the impact of COVID-19, multi-agency working had been key to ensure that all children continued to access education during this period. This included the opportunity to access on site provision within schools when national restrictions were being implemented. Digital equipment was provided for those learners who had required it to assist with home learning. There was regular monitoring and liaison by schools and children’s social care to ensure looked after children’s needs continued to be met during the pandemic. All looked after children were considered for on site school provision, however, emphasis and priority was given to those children in foster placements that were at risk of placement breakdown. Since January 2021, on average, 50 looked after children were accessing on site provision (primary school age through to Year 8) each week. These children were those deemed by schools, social care and foster carers to be most in need of accessing on site support during the height of the pandemic.

The Group Manager Family Support explained that moving forward, improvements would be made to the PEP process for look after children via EET. This work would focus on the plans being tailored to be more child centred and reviewed consistently within LAC reviews. Joint work between children’s social care and Education and Family Support was being undertaken in this area. Ongoing support would be offered to schools in respect of PDG to include the re-introduction (following Covid-19 restrictions) of the termly designated LAC leads forum facilitated by EET. The aim of this was to share good practice across schools in Bridgend with each other.

The Group Manager Family Support concluded that there had been lots of good work in challenging times for all pupils but in particular for LAC. This area would continue to be a challenge with the transition back into education and they would continue to do what they could to support those children.

The Chairperson thanked the Group Manager Family Support for the report and asked him to extend the Committee’s thanks to the teams for the way they had reacted in difficult circumstances. 

The Deputy Leader thanked the Group Manager Family Support for the report and referred to section 4.7 of the report and the ultimate goal of getting young people into meaningful employment. He asked what range of work experiences were offered and how children were placed, was there interaction with them and did they have the opportunity to go to a preferred area. He replied that yes, opportunities were tailored to young people to allow them to consider more options. The Family Support Services Manager  

referred to the importance of multi-agency working and that in terms of the work experience offer this was through joint working with children’s social care, Post 16 service, youth development, Inspire to Work and HR. Opportunities ranged from care work, hospitality to business administration and depended on where the young person said they had an interest. For 2019/20 they had 24 year 11 LAC and 14 were identified as being in schools in Bridgend. Of those 7 demonstrated an interest and went on to work experience placements. One young person then took up a business administration apprenticeship within the local authority.

The Deputy Leader asked if COVID had affected the provision of the scheme.  The Family Support Services Manager replied that they were in the process of talking to the year 11 young people and exploring opportunities. They were trying to establish exactly what could be done given the restrictions with social distancing etc. The Chairperson added that having teenage children herself, developing that work ethic, routine and confidence building were all key to a young person’s future development.

A Member said that she appreciated they had had a very difficult year and asked if the gap in achievement between LAC and other children was consistent across all secondary schools. She asked which schools were doing most for their LAC. The Corporate Director - Education and Family Support explained that it was very challenging drawing on the data for a particular cohort such as LAC because they did not have data particularly from last year and this year would continue to be challenging. The last time there was a national comparison around the performance of LAC was around 2015 so it was difficult to compare the national picture. A statutory requirement was for local authorities to look closely at how schools deployed different resources for example if schools were in receipt of the Pupil Development Grant and the Looked After Child element of that they were required to publish what they did with those learners. Officers would work closely with those schools to ensure the resources were being deployed effectively and that best practice was shared across schools. They were trying to close the gap across schools to make sure there was more consistent performance. The Chairperson explained that she thought the question was more to do with identifying schools at a local level. Brynteg had been identified as a school with good practice and asked if it was being shared with other schools. The Group Manager Family Support replied that there were variations in terms of attainment across secondary schools but it started from a good point in terms of the schools engaging. Clearly LAC would be at different points depending on when they came into the system so there would be variations. Good practice was shared across the schools. A young person’s support plan was developed to maximise their performance and ensure the best possible outcome both in terms of educational engagement and practical examples such as being ready for adult life. The Member confirmed that she was not looking to name and shame but for confirmation that good practice was shared.

The Leader asked if officers were confident that all LAC had proper digital access in terms of their own individual devices. At the start of the pandemic they were keen to ensure every home had access to a device but this could create problems if the device was shared. Also he asked if all young learners were part of the book literacy scheme where children received books from the Trust and how successful this had been. He asked if LAC were encouraged to sign up to libraries and take part in some of the activities that took place such as the Lego Club and the Coding Club, activities that had taken place since the pandemic. The Group Manager Family Support replied that yes, all LAC had been offered a laptop and if required, a dongle to help with connectivity issues. The Book Club was still running and was overseen by the Education Engagement Team and figures could be provided if required. Through the Youth Justice Management Board arrangements, they were looking to work with staff in the library service to encourage young people to sign up. There were significant numbers and they could encourage this although there could be a logistical problems. The Corporate Director - Education and Family Support said that this was an area they were proud of in Bridgend and that over the last year  they had worked closely with Welsh Government and the families of 23,000 

Learners of which 2,000 learners were identified as being at risk of digital exclusion at the start of the pandemic. Over the last year supported by Welsh Government funding they had now distributed over 6000 devices, often to multiple recipients within the same household. It was not just laptops but also those not having access to the internet with more than 310 supportable broadband devices also distributed, enabling children across the county to have unlimited access for education resources. This was something they were very pleased with and currently there were no outstanding requests for additional kit. The Chairperson agreed it was very positive and added that the authority was committed to its socio-economic duties so it was really important to ensure the learners weren’t discriminated against in any way.

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations asked with regard to literacy and numeracy, why only 33 of the 271 had accessed additional tuition during the pandemic. Why was there such a big discrepancy between the figures? The Family Support Services Manager replied that the authority had used the PDG funding to look at the impact the pandemic had on learners and in particular the LAC cohort to identify those that required additional support in addition to what the school was already doing. That offer would continue moving forward, liaising with schools to make sure they were aware that the support was available.

The Leader suggested that if the Summer Reading Challenge was being organised again this year, it would be a fun way of engaging children in learning with lots of activities. It was an opportunity for some to help narrow that gap and do some reading over the summer. He suggested that they consider that initiative specifically because it was a fun and engaging way of getting children more interested in reading. The Chairperson added that introducing children to audio books could be worth exploring in future.

RESOLVED              The Corporate Parenting Committee noted the 

                                  content of the report.