This meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel was scheduled to discuss education standards and achievements in the borough in 2024, receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, and consider social worker recruitment and retention. The Panel was also scheduled to receive an update about the Children's Services' contribution to the delivery of savings as part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2024/25.

Annual Education Standards and Achievement

The Panel was scheduled to receive a report outlining education outcomes in Royal Greenwich schools in the 2023-24 academic year.

The report highlighted a number of positive developments, including the fact that early years outcomes in the borough exceed those of England as a whole and are slightly above the London average.

Children in Royal Greenwich settings continue to have an excellent start to their education.

Annual Education Standards and Achievement scrutiny report with legal comments

The youngest children in the borough's schools were significantly affected by lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions. Children in Reception last year would have experienced lockdowns between the ages of birth and two years, a sensitive critical period for language development. Schools reported high numbers of children starting school unable to socialise and with poor language and communication skills. Royal Greenwich funded the 'Talk Boost' programme to support language development. This training, offered to all schools, has had a positive impact. Children in Royal Greenwich are in the top 20% for outcomes at the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP). However, schools continue to report more children with higher levels of need entering their nursery and reception classes. More children than in previous years are entering Year 1 not prepared for the curriculum due to missed experiences in their earliest years.

Despite these challenges, children in Royal Greenwich achieved good outcomes at Key Stage 2 (KS2), exceeding the England average across all measures.

At KS2 Royal Greenwich schools exceed England across all measures and are in line with London for the expected level and just above London for the higher standard.

Annual Education Standards and Achievement scrutiny report with legal comments

The report also highlighted areas for improvement. It noted that less fluent readers did not have sufficient reading stamina to complete the reading test within the time allowed. School leaders in the borough identified that the children in their schools that did not achieve their predicted outcomes struggled primarily with reading fluency and speed. The School Improvement Service worked with schools in network meetings this year to help increase children’s reading speed and fluency.

At Key Stage 4, Royal Greenwich pupils performed better than England pupils, but just below London pupils across all measures. The report noted:

It is a positive that for the second year in a row, RBG outcomes in English and maths have an increased margin above national outcomes in test scores (48.2% in 2023 to 49.2% in 2024). Due to a slight decrease in some foundation subjects, outcomes at Attainment 8 have dropped slightly, this drop was also seen in national outcomes, but this was not the case for London averages.

Annual Education Standards and Achievement scrutiny report with legal comments

At Key Stage 5, Greenwich pupils continued to underperform compared to England and London at A level. However, there was a steady increase in outcomes. Performance in vocational qualifications was above the England and London average.

The report identified a number of priorities for the School Improvement Service for the coming academic year. These included:

• Maintaining high outcomes at KS2.
• Keeping more of the borough's most able children during the transition to secondary KS4
• Raising outcomes at GCSE above the London average
• Increasing outcomes at KS5 above the national average.

The Panel was also scheduled to discuss the performance of vulnerable groups in the borough's schools, absence rates, suspensions, and permanent exclusions.

Cabinet Member Update

The Panel was scheduled to receive a report from Councillor Adel Khaireh, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, updating them on his priorities and accomplishments.

The report highlighted the publication of the Children and Young People Partnership Plan and SEND Strategy, actions to enhance the voice of children and young people in council decision-making, plans to strengthen support for the borough's schools, and support for young people, children in care, and care leavers.

Councillor Khaireh noted that since taking up office, headteachers often raised concerns about accessing support around HR or maintenance of school premises. They would also often talk to him about increasing pressures in providing high-quality and bespoke services to children with additional learning needs.

The report outlined a number of actions that the Council had taken in response to these concerns, including:

• the publication of the partnership SEND Strategy and the completion of a diagnostic of SEND provision undertaken by Newton Europe
• a review of the effectiveness of enabling services and work to design and deliver a new model of enabling services for schools
• the introduction of the innovative ‘Wellbeing in Schools Hubs’ providing whole-family support addressing children’s wellbeing and mental health needs within the context of non-attendance
• establishing the Greenwich Learning Partnership which started its work in September 2024 (recognising that the 2024/2025 academic year is a transition period) in response to feedback from school leaders

Councillor Khaireh stated that his priority for the next 12 months would be to align these existing activities into an over-arching schools strategy for the borough.

The report also included a section about supporting children in care and care leavers. It described the findings from the recent ‘Bright Spots’ survey, which helps local authorities systematically listen to the children in care and care leavers about the things that are important to them.

The report noted:

Our survey results suggest high levels of well-being and trust in carers and social workers by children and young people who responded to this survey when compared to national averages. The results also pointed to a small number of areas for further improvement including feelings of isolation and loneliness in young people who have left care.

Cabinet Member Update

The results have been considered carefully by the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board, and partners are developing an action plan to respond to these findings.

Social Worker Recruitment, Retention, and Wellbeing

The Panel was scheduled to consider a report reviewing how social workers are recruited, retained, supported and developed when in post, and the challenges faced.

The report noted that there is a critical shortage within the profession nationally, and that London has seen Social Workers exit the capital due to cost of living and opportunities to work on hybrid and more remote working arrangements from outside of London.

The report outlined a number of initiatives designed to improve recruitment and retention. These included a continuous Social Worker recruitment campaign, dedicated resource to support recruitment activity, and continuous promotion and candidate attraction.

The report also described a number of other initiatives designed to improve retention, including:

• targeted advertising to agency Children’s Social Workers assigned to Greenwich, with a streamlined ‘easy apply’ application process.
• recruitment of overseas Social Workers
• career pathway recruitment – critical to the borough's ‘grow your own’ approach and developing, investing in Social Workers of the future
• benchmarking the borough's Social Worker offer
• the use of recruitment agencies for permanent recruitment
• a Social Worker job fair, providing an opportunity for prospective applicants to visit in person, meet the teams and hear more about the borough's offer, held in September 2024

The report also considered agency usage in Children's Services. It noted:

Whilst recognising the essential cover that agency Social Workers provide in covering vacant posts, the need to create resilience and greater stability in the Social Worker workforce by permanent staffing remains the aim.

Social Worker Recruitment Retention and Wellbeing

Medium Term Financial Strategy Update

The Panel was scheduled to receive a report updating them on the Children’s Services' contribution to the delivery of savings as part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2024/25.

A total of 29 specific proposals to make savings were included in the council’s MTFS, a summary of which is provided in the report.

At the end of period 7, Children’s Services had delivered £1.2m in MTFS savings and was on track to deliver a further £1.2m by year-end.

The report stated that:

At this stage, it is too early to assess any impact resulting from implementing MTFS proposals.

Medium Term Financial Strategy Update

The report noted that there are robust arrangements in place to monitor both the delivery of MTFS proposals and the effectiveness of service delivery.

Work Programme Discussion 2025-26

The Panel was scheduled to discuss the items to consider for next year’s work programme.

Commissioning of Future Reports

The Panel was scheduled to note the work items planned for its meeting on 16 April 2025, and consider the scope of forthcoming reports and specify any detailed requirements.

The following items were scheduled for its meeting on 16 April 2025:

• Children's Services Q3 Performance Monitor
• Elective Home Education (EHE) Annual Report
• Children Missing Education Annual Report
• Suspensions, Exclusions and FAP report
• Childcare Sufficiency (Early Years Provision)