Issue - meetings

The reports detail the educational performance of Haringey’s looked-after children,  Children and Young People for 2017 and 2018,  and the Virtual School Annual Report. 

Fiona Smith, Headteacher Virtual Head of School, introduced this report to the Committee. It was highlighted the year-on-year analysis was an important indicator of overall performance but the Virtual School was primarily focussed on tracking and monitoring the progress of individual children and responding to their needs.

The Chair praised the achievements of Haringey Virtual School and noted the positive statistic that the educational performance of Haringey’s looked-after children at the end of Key Stage 4 was within the top 10% of the country.

Where there was statistical evidence that an ethnic group was being outperformed by other ethnic groups, the Committee queried whether any strategies existed to respond to those disparities. Officers confirmed the Virtual School did not have any such strategies but that each child was individually assessed using the data provided by schools and the Virtual School would hold the school to account over how it was providing for that child. The Virtual School focussed on ensuring that looked-after children were at either good or outstanding rated schools and had the support they individually required. 

The Committee noted that 75% of 219 pupils in care for one year or longer between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2017 in reception to year 11 attended education provision outside Haringey and sought Officers comments on this. Officers informed that Department for Education guidelines recommended education provision be within 20 miles of the children’s home address, and this was the case for approximately 90% of Haringey’s looked-after children. Officers further clarified that the data informing the statistics of the report were only for those looked-after children who had been looked-after for one year or more, to prevent a misrepresentation of the statistics. 

The Committee queried how confident Officers were that premiums provided to schools were being used appropriately in spending on the pupils it was provided for. Officers admitted there had been reservations about the premium spending but a more efficient strategy was in place to monitor the spending and better hold schools to account. This included closely monitoring Personal Education Plans (PEP) meetings and signing every PEP off. 

The Committee suggested removing the word ‘slightly’ from the report at paragraph 34 of Appendix 1, as they felt it did not reflect the statistical comparison between the ethnicity of look-after children and ethnicity of Haringey Borough as a whole.