Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report from the Strategic Director – People, which presented the Virtual School Headteacher’s Annual Report for Halton Children in Care (CIC).

It was reported that due to the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the subsequent restrictions, the formal education of children in care was ceased on 23 March 2020.  This resulted in the suspension of all Primary tests and a change to teacher assessment for the allocation of GCSE results.  Further, the requirement to attend school from 23 March 2020 onwards was altered and was determined by individual risk assessment.  As a result of all of the above, Members were advised that there could be no meaningful comparison between previous years and this year’s educational outcomes for Children in Care.

Despite the above however, the work of the Virtual School had continued throughout the academic year and the Annual Report provided details of how Halton Children in Care were supported to mitigate against the impacts of the Covid Restrictions.   The report also provided detailed data, analysis; a summary of the work of the School during the academic year 2019-20; and a summary of the School’s progress towards its identified key priorities and those priorities identified for 2020-21.

Members queried:

Following the ILACS inspection in March 2020, what was the strategy for apprenticeships – it was recognised that improvement was needed in the Post 16 area, one staff member left during the first lockdown and the young people that had apprenticeships were forced to suspend these due to the Pandemic.  The Strategic Director now chaired a group that was addressing this via the apprenticeship hub and funding had since been identified to recruit a replacement member of staff, who would focus on Post 16 NEET 16-19 year old young people in care and care leavers obtaining apprenticeships.

The rise in nursery aged children going into care was a concern – this could be attributed to the Covid outbreak resulting in some young families struggling without the support of health visitors / children’s centres due to lockdowns.  It was likely that children of this age would be adopted, nevertheless, once this spike was identified it was agreed to appoint an early years staff member who would work on identifying the needs, support and funding required going forward.

The Chair suggested a more focussed report on the nursery aged increases be submitted to the Board at the next meeting.

RESOLVED:  That the report and information be noted.