UPDATE NO 447 02 April 2021

Ofsted inspection of schools in summer term 2021

In a press release published on 29 March, Ofsted announced it will inspect schools and further education & skills (FES) providers in the summer term to provide reassurance about how well children and learners are catching up, but it will not resume a full programme of graded inspections until September. 

“we will undertake on-site, lighter-touch inspections in the summer term. Unlike ‘full’ inspections, these visits will allow inspectors to assess how well schools and FES providers are educating their learners and keeping them safe, but they will not result in a grade.

“Revised handbooks will be published after Easter.” 

Monitoring inspections of Schools will begin from 4 May, under the EIF. These will not result in a change of grade.

Where inspectors find evidence that an inadequate school has improved, they can convert the monitoring visit to a full inspection, which would be graded. If schools judged ‘requires improvement’ on 2 or more consecutive occasions are found to have improved, inspectors will recommend that a full inspection is carried out before the end of the summer term.

Ofsted will also inspect ‘good’ schools that, due to the pandemic, have not had an inspection within the statutory 5-year window, and will also inspect some ‘outstanding’ schools that request an inspection, prioritising those that have gone the longest without an inspection.

Other than where significant concerns are raised, Ofsted will not inspect secondary schools during the first half of the summer term, to allow them to focus on teacher-assessed grades.

UNSAFE CHILDREN Driving up our country’s response to child sexual abuse and exploitation

The Centre for Social Justice has published “UNSAFE CHILDREN Driving up our country’s response to child sexual abuse and exploitation”

This report reminds all in the children’s sector about the importance of addressing child sexual abuse. Recommendations for education include needing to commit to good relationships and sex education, whole school approaches to child sexual abuse and increasing the capacity for school nurses to play more of a role.

The full report is here.

Future dates for Network meetings

Lead Members Group: Friday 23 April joint meeting with DCSs. More information from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Tuesday 13 July 2021. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 20 April 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 7 May 2021 – 10.30am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 June 2021. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: More information from Amanda Meadows (contact details below)

Fostering Network: 10.30am Thursday 12 April 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: More information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Local Data Accelerator Fund for Children and Families: Prospectus

The government has launched a £7.9m fund to support children and families through better use of local data: 

“MHCLG is making available £7.9 million for data projects which improve outcomes for children and families. Local organisations are asked to bid in groups.

“The closing date for applications is 11pm on Friday 30 April 2021.” The prospectus is here.

Through the Data to Insight project (see elsewhere in Latest News) we have a strong interest in bidding for further funds to continue our partnership working in this area.

Please contact Alastair Lee (details below) for further discussions about what might be possible in this next round of funding.

Launch of Supporting Families 2021-22

The DfE has announced the launch of supporting families 2021-22. The links below take you to the details

Supporting Families Programme guidance 2021 to 2022 (view a summary of the key updates here).

Also published is a refreshed policy narrative relating to the third iteration of the Supporting Families Programme in 2021 to 2022, and Improving families’ lives: annual report of the Troubled Families Programme 2020 to 2021

Refuge and Risk Report – Life Online for Vulnerable Young People

Heather Hadfield (SEGfL, contact details below) writes,

“This recent Refuge and Risk report is a very useful and interesting read. It is published by Internet Matters.Org. It provides insight into 6,500+ UK children with some form of vulnerability, how the online world has become their lifeline. Some are to up to seven times more likely to meet particular dangers over the internet than their non-vulnerable peers.

“The full report Life Online for Vulnerable Young People can be downloaded here. 

“I am in the process of putting together a free programme of webinars around inclusion and diversity for SEGfL members, having engaged a company GEC who specialise in this area. Some of the webinars will be aimed more broadly at all LA staff who want to join and others will be for school staff. The topics are likely to be: 

“Flexible Working; Disadvantage; Inclusive Schools; Anti-Racism; Disability  

“If anyone is interested in this programme and would like to discuss how they might support its development, or benefit from its delivery, please contact me (details below). 

“Kind regards, Heather”

Data science apprenticeship launched

Alastair Lee (contact details below) writes, 

“Dear all

“The data science apprenticeship supported by the DfE (via the Data to Insight project) for children’s services analysts had its first session yesterday. We had hoped to recruit 20 for the first cohort and we achieved 39 participants from 29 LAs. Thanks to Dave Myers and Julia Yong at DfE and to our partners at Social Finance for the work to set up the programme.”

Congratulations to the Data to Insight team on a magnificent achievement.

Data to Insight is a national project funded by the government, and led and hosted in the South East by Alastair Lee and East Sussex County Council.