Agenda and draft minutes

Note:

a)    Apologies for absence have been received from Cllr Levy.

b)    Membership:

In line with the changes required to reflect the composition of pupil numbers across the different types of provision, the Forum is advised that:

·        Following conversion of their schools to academies, Mrs Sless and Mrs Goldwater were now attending the Forum as academy representatives;

·       Nominations for the primary governor and Headteacher representatives were being sought.

a)    Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were received from Mrs Leach, Mr Bruton, Ms Datta, Mr Sadgrove, Mr Lamb, Ms Day, Cllr Erbil, Ms Palmer and Mr Hintz.

Noted Ms Caroline Davies was substituting for Mrs Leach.

b)  Membership

Reported:

·         Following conversion of their schools, both Mrs Goldwater and Mrs Sless were now attending the Forum as academy representatives.   This change meant there were two primary vacancies for a governor and a Headteacher.  Nominations were being sought for these vacancies.

·         For the new municipal year, the Council had confirmed that Cllr Rick Jewel as Cabinet member of Children’s Services and Cllr Susan Erbil as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Cllr Jewel and Cllr Erbil were welcomed to the Forum.

Members are invited to identify any personal or prejudicial interests relevant to items on the agenda.  A definition of personal and prejudicial interests has been attached for members’ information.

There were no declarations of interest.

(a)   Election of Chair of the Schools Forum for the municipal year (2019/20)

(b)   Election of Vice Chair of the Schools Forum for the municipal year (2019/20)

(a) Election of Chair of the Schools’ Forum for the municipal year 2019/20

Ms Seery invited nominations for the position of Chair of the Schools’ Forum.

      Received a nomination for Ms Thomas from Ms Baptiste and seconded by Ms Ballantyne.

Resolved Ms Thomas be elected Chair of the Schools’ Forum for the municipal year 2019/20.

Ms Thomas thanked the Forum and Ms Seery and took over as the Chair.

(b)Election of Vice-Chair of the Schools’ Forum for the municipal year 2019/20

Received a nomination for Ms Nicou as Vice-Chair from Ms Baptiste and seconded by Ms Ballantyne.

Resolved that Mrs Nicou be elected as Vice-Chair of the Schools’ Forum for the municipal year 2019/20.

(a)  School Forum meetings held on 6 March 2019 (attached)

(b)  Matters arising from these minutes.

Received and agreed the minutes of the meeting of the Schools Forum held 6 March 2019.

(a)  Different types and level of SEND provision

-       To be presented by Gillian Douglas

(b)  Nurture Groups

-       To be presented by Julia Hide

(c)   Durants School

-       To be presented by Peter De Rosa

(d)  Advisory Service for Autism:  Monitoring visit

-       Verbal report Gillian / Daniel Bruton

a)    SEND Provision:  Ms Douglas presented this item

Received a paper describing the level and type of provision provided to support pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in Enfield and the Outreach provision provided by Special schools to support mainstream schools ; copies of these papers are included in the Minute Book.

Ms Douglas explained the Council’s aim was to educate Enfield children and young people (CYP) locally by identifying and providing appropriate provision to meet their needs. The information circulated outlined the different level of provision to meet the needs of CYP. The Council was working with special and mainstream schools to create additional places to address the increasing demand to support pupils with SEND.

Noted:

                  (i)  until the additional places required to meet the increasing demand were developed there would still be a need to place pupils in independent and / or out-borough provision;

                (ii)  The Outreach enabled mainstream to access valuable support to increase and strengthen knowledge of staff from experts in a variety of areas in special schools.

Clerk’s note:  Ms Mahesh arrived at this point.

b)    Nurture Groups; Ms Hide presented this item

Received a presentation and paper providing information on Nurture Groups and how they operated to support CYP; a copy is included in the Minute Book.

Ms Hide outlined that Nurture groups were founded on evidence-based practices and offered a short-term, inclusive focused intervention to support for the long term for children with attachment difficlties.

Nurture groups were arranged in classes of between 6 - 12 children or young people in early years, primary or secondary settings supported by the whole staff group and parents. It was recommended that schools had two members of staff running their Nurture group.

Annual assessment of the Nurture groups had been positive, and the impact showed:

·         increased knowledge and awareness of attachment across the schools with a group

·         increase in parental engagement

·         access to professional pathways for Nurture group staff to become SENCos.   

Clerk’s note:  Ms McNamara arrived at this point.

Noted:

               (i)     It was commented by Forum members that all schools could benefit from the intervention carried out by Nurture groups and that a  significant sum of money was being allocated to a small number of schools and it had been some time since the allocation to these schools had not been reviewed. 

It was stated that the aim had been to expand the number of Nurture groups, but this development had to be curtailed due to the wider school funding reforms.

             (ii)     In response to a query, the Forum was advised that the occupancy information provided to the Forum was based on a fixed point in time.  Each Nurture Group had between 6 - 12 pupils at any one time and each pupil generally remained in the group between 2 - 4 terms.  Due to the nature of the provision, there was constant movement of pupils and the number of pupils at any one time varied accordingly.       

            (iii)      The Forum’s view was that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Any additional items arising from the meeting would be added to the workplan.     

                 Action: Mrs Brown

(a)  Date of next meeting is Wednesday 10 July 2019 at 5.30pm (venue to be confirmed);

(b)  Dates of future meetings:

·         2 October 2019

·         11 December 2019

·         15 January 2020

·         4 March 2020

a)    The date of the next meeting was set as Wednesday 10 July 2019 at 17:30 at Chace Community School.

b)    Dates for future meetings:

To consider which items should be treated as confidential.

No items were considered confidential.         The meeting closed at 7.30pm.