Agenda item

4.1

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 4^th February, 2019, were approved as a correct record, with the exception of (a) Item 1 – Apologies for Absence, which was amended by the addition of Councillor Mohammad Maroof and (b) Item 8 – Special Educational Needs in Sheffield, which was amended by the deletion of the word “Councillor” immediately preceding Jayne Ludlam (Executive Director, People Services) and, arising therefrom:-

(i)       the Policy and Improvement Officer (Deborah Glen) stated that she had circulated a draft document to Members containing statistics regarding indices of deprivation for the Batemoor, Beauchief, Beighton, East Ecclesfield, Greenhill, Jordanthorpe and Lowedges Wards.  Councillor Bob Pullin, who had originally requested the information, stated that, whilst thanking officers for the information, indicated that the statistics only referred to income deprivation, and that the information requested was specifically in relation to statistics for indices of multiple deprivation within the Wards.  Deborah Glen stated that this information would be provided to all Members of the Committee at the earliest possible opportunity; 

(ii)      Deborah Glen stated that she had circulated to members of the Committee the full response received from the Chair of the Schools Forum in relation to ensuring that schools continued to record and report the five-stage proficiency in English code, requesting Members’ comments;

(iii)      the Chair reported that he had met with Mark Sheikh (Head of Service – Business Strategy), who had informed him that the Council were risk averse in terms of investing schools which were likely to become academies, thereby potentially resulting in a financial debt to the Council;

(iv)     Deborah Glen reported that she had received the information  relating to youth activities, including dates and times of sessions, from Dan White, and had circulated this information to all Members of the Committee on 7^th March, 2019;

(v)      Deborah Glen reported that (A) the briefing note prepared by Dan White (Head of Health and Targeted Services) on the reasons for the increase in referrals of Looked After Children to the Child and Sexual Exploitation Team, would be submitted to a meeting of the Committee to be held in July, 2019 and (B) Victoria Horsfield (Assistant Director) had advised that the end of year performance review of the Friend or Foe training in schools would be available mid-April, 2019, and that Deborah Glen would circulate such details to Members of the Committee, when received;

(vi)     Deborah Glen reported that she had sent a request to Paul Dempsey (Assistant Director – Provider Services) for the information requested by Members at the meeting but, to date, had not yet received a response; Mr. Dempsey had been invited to attend the first meeting of the Committee to be held in the 2019/20 Municipal Year to respond to the issues raised by Members; and

(vii)     the Chair reported that a special meeting of the Committee had been arranged for Monday, 25^th March, 2019, to discuss the joint response to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Inspection, prior to submission to Ofsted; he added, however, that there was an issue of confidentiality regarding the report, which may mean that Members would not be able to see the report in advance of the meeting.