UPDATE NO 480 19 November 2021

Portsmouth successful in resisting challenge to Elective Home Education policy and procedure

On 16 November, the High Court published Mr Justice Lane’s decision ([2021] EWHC 3057 (Admin)) in support of Portsmouth CC on all four of the claimant’s grounds for Judicial Review of the Council’s policy and procedures for discharging its statutory responsibilities under the Education Act 1996 in respect of children of school age who are not receiving education at a school.

The Secretary of State joined Portsmouth CC in defending the challenge. 

For more information please contact Mike Stoneman at Portsmouth or Chris Owen (details below).

Children looked after in England including adoption 2020-2021 – new statistical release

On 18 November 2021, DfE published Children looked after in England including adoption: 2020 to 2021. 

Alistair Herbert at Data to Insight reports that the Benchmarking Tool and ChAT are already updated.

Social care common inspection framework review: Ofsted Consultation closes 24 January 2022

On 2 November 2021, Ofsted launched a  consultation on the way they carry out interim inspections of children’s homes and the way they inspect residential holiday schemes for disabled children (RHSDC).

Proposals include changes to how judgements of inspections are presented and revisions to inspection activities. The consultation closes on 24 January 2022.

LGA Webinar Programme for officers and strategic partners

Wednesday 1 December 2:00pm Understanding Parent and Infant Mental Health

Tuesday 11 January 2:00pm Working in partnership with Libraries

Tuesday 18 January 10:30am webinar Developing Early Childhood Music across Local Authorities and Action Learning Sets to follow Tuesday 8 Feb 10:00am and Thursday 10 March 10:30am

For more information on these programmes, please contact Liz Hodgman at LGA

Future dates for network meetings

Lead Members Group: Friday 3 December – Joint meeting with DCSs. More information from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 9 December 2021. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Education: ***NEW DATE*** Friday 4 February – 10.00am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 10 December 2021. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: ***NEW DATE*** Thursday 6 January 2022. 2pm – 5pm. The meeting will consider performance of health and dental assessments for Children looked after. More information from Amanda Meadows (contact details below)

Fostering Network: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: LA and Health SEND Conversation 30 November 2021 More information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Using Pupil Premium Effectively – from EEF

On 5 November, Becky Francis launched the EEF’s updated Pupil Premium Guide. It is a practical guide to support schools to develop their pupil premium strategy based on the best evidence, and to meet updated DfE requirements.

Research has found that disadvantaged pupils have been worst affected by the impact of the pandemic. It is therefore more important than ever that school strategies focus on support for disadvantaged pupils. 

In October, the DfE released updated pupil premium guidance and a new template that schools are required to use to publish their strategy statement from the 2021/22 academic year onwards. This includes a new requirement for schools to demonstrate that they have considered evidence when developing their strategy.

Reforming how local authority school improvement functions are funded

On 29 October DfE published a consultation on the future funding of LA school improvement functions. 

The closing date is 26 November. The AD Education Network is coordinating a response. More from Chris Owen (contact details below)

SESLIP Special Guardianship conference – Tuesday 30 November 1-4pm interactive and online

This is an interactive online 3 hour conference open to all working on Special Guardianship in the 19 local authorities in the South East. It will be held 1-4pm Tuesday November 30 2021, online event register here, for social workers, managers and anyone else with an interest or seeking to build their experience in Special Guardianship.

Any questions please contact Rebecca Eligon (details below)

Hear from Lucy Peake, the Chief Executive of national charity Kinship on the trends being observed nationally on Special Guardianship and the national task and finish group focusing on SG as well as the implications and relevance of the Care Review to Special Guardianship
Understand the Special Guardianship audit tool developed by the national Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board (which can be applied to your LA to assess the quality of practice). There is also an offer of free coaching support to apply the tool after the conference.
Hear from Special Guardians, other LAs in the South East about their practice models (both the strengths and challenges) and tell us what you would like to see in a SG training programme for South East LAs that will be running in the new year

Register for the free event here