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

Apologies for absences were received from Councillors Davidson and S Honeywood (no substitutions). Councillor Davidson was able to participate in the meeting by way of a remote connection using MS Teams.

To confirm and sign as correct records, the minutes of the meetings of the Committee, held on Tuesday 22 November 2022 and Tuesday 13 December 2022.

It was RESOLVED that the minutes of the two meetings of the Committee held on Tuesday 22 November and Tuesday 13 December 2022 be approved as correct records.

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.

To provide an update regarding the issue of “children not in education” which had previously been considered by the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting held on 21 March 2022, i.e. “To enquire into the safeguarding and educational position concerning those of school age where an elective decision has been made that they will not be attending mainstream school but be home schooled.” 

The enquiry commenced with the Head of Democratic Services and Elections. He reminded the Committee that they had last look at this matter on Monday 21 March 2022 and had heard from Essex County Council (ECC) representatives about measures it was seeking to promote in legislation with Government and that this Council had decided to support them with their endeavours. The Head of Democratic Services and Elections also reminded the Committee that it was its wish to revisit this issue and receive an update as to where things are in relation to those people taught in school, home educated and missing from education.

The Chairman invited the Councils’ Executive Projects Manager, Rebecca Morton, to address the Committee on this item. Rebecca reminded the Committee that this item is to enquire into the safeguarding and educational position concerning those of school age where an elective decision had been made that they would not be attending mainstream schools and were home educated. She made reference to an email response to Cllr McWilliams (Portfolio Holder for Partnerships) from the Department of Education (following the meeting where this Committee last looked at this matter) which confirmed its current position in respect of the issue. Within the letter (circulated to Members of the Committee) it stated that:

“At the Secretary of State’s appearance before the Education Select Committee on 7 December 2022, she confirmed that the Schools Bill, which included the Children Not in School (CNIS) measures, will not be progressing in this parliamentary session.

The Department remains committed to measures on safeguarding and attendance, including CNIS registers and a duty on local authorities to provide support to home educators. These will be progressed when the legislative timetable allows.

In the meantime, the Department will continue to:

1. work with local authorities on improving their current voluntary registers;
2. analyse local authority data from the voluntary EHE and Children Missing Education (CME) collection to build a more accurate picture of the EHE and CME landscape and;
3. review the current EHE guidance for local authorities and parents in due course, and will seek to work collaboratively with local authorities and home educating parents on any updates to this.”

The Chairman of the Committee invited the representatives from (ECC Anita Patel-Lingam, Statutory Education Compliance Manager and Michael O’Brien, Head of Specialist Education Service) to provide the Committee with an update on this item. Anita advised the Committee that the numbers for electively home educated Children across Essex had risen year on year and that, that pattern was continuing. She also confirmed that the pattern of rising numbers of electively home educated (EHE) Children was a National Pattern. Anita informed the Committee that within Essex there was a “Lasting Legacy” of Children that were home educated throughout Covid-19 Pandemic and their families had decided to not send them back to school following this. Anita advised the Committee of the various reasons why families choose to home educate. The Committee were provided with the numbers of the electively home educated the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF THIS AGENDA THE CALL-IN HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN AND THAT THEREFORE THIS ITEM WILL NOT NOW BE CONSIDERED BY THE COMMITTEE.

To enable the Committee to scrutinise an Executive Decision made in respect of the revisited Tendring Beach Hut Strategy, which has been called-in.

PLEASE NOTE: This item is subject to the outcome of the Mediation Process on the Call-In carried out in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 17(c).

(THE REPORT, IF STILL REQUIRED FOLLOWING THE AFOREMENTIONED MEDIATION PROCESS, WILL “FOLLOW”)

This item was withdrawn as a valid call-in had not been received.

The report provides the Committee with an update on its approved Work Programme for 2022/23 (including progress with enquiries set out in its Work Programme), feedback to the Committee on the Cabinet decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respect of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which notice has been given since the publication of the agenda for the Committee’s last meeting.

The Head of Democratic Services and Elections introduced this item and advised the Committee that at Appendix A was the detail of the enquiries intended to be undertaken through Task and Finish Groups, Appendix B had the Recommendations Monitoring Report (which there was nothing specific to report to the meeting) and at Appendix C was the list of the 4 items that are on the forward plan of the Council relevant to this Committee.

He advised that the items in Appendix C were there for the Committee to note as the date for the first two (Events on Council Land Policy and State of Tendring District Statement) had already passed, the update on the work of the Tendring Education Strategic Board would not now be submitted to Cabinet on 17 March 2023. That left the Citizens Advice Tendring – Service Level Agreement 2023/23. He informed the Committee that as this Council would be going into its pre-election period on Monday 13 March 2023 this would provide little opportunity for this Committee to be considering that item.

The Head of Democratic Services and Elections advised the Committee that  (in terms of Appendix A) the Committee would need to acknowledge that those Task and Finish Groups now won’t reach conclusion and so, they would be referenced back to the new Committee following the elections to see what needs to happen in relation to them.

It was RESOLVED to submit the enquiry detail at appendix A to the report to the Committee to determine how to proceed with those enquiries.