The Committee will elect its Vice-Chairman.

Upon being moved by Councillor Clifton and seconded by Councillor Davidson, it was RESOLVED that Councillor Steady be elected Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of this current Municipal Year.

The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies for absence were submitted by Councillors Miles (substituted by Councillor Baker), Nash (no substitution) and Skeels (no substitution). 

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Monday 31 January 2022.

It was RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on Monday 31 January 2022 be approved as a correct record.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest by Councillors in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting.

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted notice of a question.

Pursuant to the provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13, the Committee will review any new and/or amended published forthcoming decisions relevant to its terms of reference and decide whether it wishes to enquire into any such decision before it is taken.

Matters may only be raised on those forthcoming decisions at Committee meetings where the Member has notified the Committee Services Manager in writing (or by personal email) of the question they wish to ask, no later than Midday, two working days before the day of the meeting.

The Committee was advised of three proposed decisions by Cabinet in the coming period. One of these concerned Freeport East Business Case which would be within the scope of the Committee’s enquiry into Freeport East scheduled for the provisional meeting on 9 May 2022. The Committee NOTED the contents of the report and decided not to amend the work programme based on this report.

To present to the Committee the updated Recommendations Monitoring Report, outlining any recommendations the Committee have sent to Cabinet. The Committee is requested to consider the report and determine whether any further action is required on the recommendations submitted.

The Committee was advised of the responses from Cabinet in respect of its recommendations from 27 September 2021 (Minute 12), 10 January 2022 (Minute 33 and 34). The Committee NOTED the contents of the report and decided that the issue of Housing and Homelessness should be provisionally added as an item for enquiry in 2022/23.

To present to the Committee a draft detailed Work Programme 2021/22, to consider the detail and ordering of the Work Programme.

The Head Democratic Services and elections will update the Committee on new proposals for the scheduling of meetings of the Committee going forward in to 2022/23.

Further to Minutes 33 and 34 above, the committee was advised of its forthcoming enquiry into Freeport and the need to commence a process to identify the enquiries for the Work Programme 2022/23. In respect of undertaking enquiries in 2022/23 the Committee was made aware that proposed dates for this Committee to meet in 2022/23 would be considered at Annual Council and the emphasis would be on enquiries task and finish groups. This was recommended after the CFGS being undertaken in scrutiny review in 2021 workshop.

The Committee was also reminded that it had decided to have two Joint Scrutiny Panel with the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Chairmen of this Committee and the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee have met recently to agree a process to take these forward. 

It was RESOLVED TO NOTE the work programme report and that the process for developing the work programme for 2022/23 would commence in the next few weeks.

This Committee will enquire into the safeguarding and educational position concerning those of school age not attending mainstream schools. In undertaking this enquiry, the Council has identified those to be invited as being representatives of Essex County Council, Local Academy trust representatives, representatives of Alternative Education Providers and organisations mentoring or other support for those not in mainstream education.

A report is attached that seeks to meet the requirements of the Committee for this enquiry.

The Chairman reminded the Committee that Council had requested an enquiry be undertaken into the safeguarding and education position concerning those of school age attending mainstream schools. In undertaking the enquiry the council had identified those who were to be invited as being representatives of Essex County Council, Local Academy Trust representatives, representatives of Alternative Education Providers and organisations mentoring or support for those not in mainstream education.

A report was submitted to the meeting identified that representatives of Essex County Council had been invited to attend remotely and present to the meeting. The report identified some information concerning those missing from education and also information on those children who were missing from home.

From Essex County Council, Anita Patel-Lingam, Statutory Education Compliance Manager and Michael O’Brien, Head of Specialist Education Services, joined the meeting using MS Teams and presented slides that included detail on the subject of the enquiry.

The Members were advised of the potential impacts, suggested by research, of children missing school:

-       Slower progress in learning

-       Worse Prospects for future employment

-       Poorer mental health and emotional well-being

-       Restricted social and emotional development and

-       Increased vulnerability to safeguarding issues and criminal exploitation

 The Committee was also informed which children that were more at risk of missing education:

-       Children at risk of harm/neglect

-       Children of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families

-       Families of Armed Forces

-       Missing Children/runaways

-       Children and young people supervised by the Youth Justice System

-       Children who cease to attend a school

The Essex County Council officers advised Members of figures within Essex and specifically in Tendring of children who were Electively Home Educated (EHE) and that a rise was being seen nationally. They were shown figures of the following:

-       Children Missing from Education (CME) broke down by quadrants

-       EHE broke down by quadrants

-       A breakdown of school aged CME by district

-       A breakdown of school aged EHE by district

Members were informed that currently parents who remove their child from school were not required to tell their Upper Tier Local Authority, they were not required to provide the school a reason for de-registering their child from a school, they did not have to have their EHE plans documented at the time of de-registering their child and they were not required to let an inspector come into their home to observe their EHE system.  

The Committee was advised that in the admissions process for schools, the Education Compliance Team of the County Council offered support for parents to navigate the appeals process to reduce the perception of alienation from the process by parents. Where there were schools with statistically unusually high numbers of children being de-registered, the Education Compliance  Team would look to work with the school to address any issues leading to those de-registrations.

The meeting was informed that schools across Essex were signed up to support Young carers who otherwise could lose out on mainstream education. It was also the case  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.