To receive and consider the final report of the Task and Finish Working Group into the enquiry undertaken into school age education provision (absences and mental health).

 

THIS REPORT WILL BE “TO FOLLOW”.

On 11 July 2023, Full Council agreed the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committees work programme for 2023/2024, which included a Task & Finish Groups to enable scrutiny of pupil attendance and mental health support in secondary school education.

 

As agreed by the Task & Finish Group, the overall aims of the enquiry were:

 

With reference to secondary school age provision, to consider specifically.

 

• the rate of absenteeism in schools

consideration of the underlying reasoning for the rise in absence rates, and the good practise in place in schools currently to reverse this.

 

• mental health support available in schools

 

Partnership engagement would include:

·         Representative/s from Essex County Council education directorate in relation to school attendance/statutory compliance

·         Representatives of Tendring secondary schools

• Assistant Director, Partnerships

 

The Task & Finish group met on the following dates:

11 October 2023

11 December 2023

15 April 2024

 

School visits were arranged between January 2024 and the end March 2024.

 

It was important to highlight that the report was written on the basis that the Council had no statutory role for Education, and had been prepared on the basis of influencing and bringing partners together as the Council’s role as a Community Leader.

 

The inquiry supported the then Corporate plan themes of:

·         Community Leadership Through Partnerships;

·         Building sustainable communities for the Future and,

·         Joined up public services for the benefit of our residents and businesses

 

The inquiry found that:-

 

·         Schools were struggling to ensure that good attendance levels (95%) were being achieved by school cohorts. This challenge had increased considerably since the Covid pandemic.

·         SEND and EHCP student attendance figures were weaker when compared to the general cohort.

·         Schools were using a range of strategies to improve attendance figures. Most responses were in house and rely on school staff to ensure early intervention strategies were implemented.

·         The main cause of absence other than physical illness was mental health.

·         Fines were used for absence but mostly for holiday related absence.

·         Main barriers when attempting to improve attendance were: a) extra cost for additional interventions b) resolving mental health issues c) external support was either too costly or not readily available.

·         Mental health need in secondary schools across Tendring was very high.

·         Mental Health demand had increased since COVID and showed no signs of abating.

·         The mental health needs of young people had become more complex and this had led to teaching staff referring more concerns to higher level professionals/organisations.

·         Main support strategies were (a) In school staff support, Head of Year etc (b) School employed Counsellors (c) External referral agencies e.g. CAMHS.

·         In school Mental Health support was very costly and schools were absorbing these costs while trying to balance ever tighter budgets.

·         External waiting lists for Mental Health support were very long. CAMHS referrals currently stand at 9 months. A child’s need was often immediate, but the professional support that was needed takes months to be delivered.

·         The school GCSE curriculum was a contributing factor to some negative mental health issues. Pressure to achieve certain levels/grades and the absence of an alternative curriculum lead to mental health difficulties for some KS4 students.

·         Schools report that GP referrals were slow and parental support wes variable.

·         No school appears to have data that tracks the number of parents that de-roll their children due to Mental Health issues.

·         Our results suggest that the two issues investigated by the T&F Education group were linked. A significant contributing factor to increased absenteeism are the mental health issues faced by young people.

·         Schools appear reluctant to share percentage data with the T&F group

 

The enquiry invited consulted with Essex County Council and various schools in the District.

 

External

Anita Patel Lingam, Statutory Education Compliance Manager, Specialist Education Services, Essex County Council

 

Participating Tendring Secondary Schools:

Harwich & Dovercourt High School

Clacton County High School

Tendring Technology College

Manningtree High School

 

Internal

Anastasia Simpson, Assistant Director, Partnerships

Rebecca Morton, Executive Projects Manager, Partnerships

Bethany Jones, Committee Services Officer, Democratic Services

 

 

After a short discussion it was moved by Councillor Barrett, seconded by Doyle and agreed to RECOMMEND that Cabinet:-

 

1.    Advocate and champion where possible local mental health support for young people.

2.    Seek funding opportunities, wherever possible, to provide mental health support for young people.

3.    Promote the suicide prevention training (free online learning package) to schools across Tendring.

4.    Support and have Officer attendance at the Tendring Education Strategic Board, Attendance sub-group.

5.    Champion and continue to work closely with Family Solutions.

6.    To continue to support the Primary Wellbeing hubs and cascade the evaluation from the University of Essex through the Essex Health and Wellbeing Board, Tendring Community Safety Partnership/Health and Wellbeing Board.

7.    To request an update from ECC Education colleagues regarding school attendance data:-

 

           The following requests to be submitted to ECC post January 2025 - (this will be the earliest opportunity for school data to be available under new reporting arrangements for schools. (Ref: Department for Education Guidance, “Working Together to Improve School Attendance,” (update February 2024)):

 

·         Request attendance data relating to the autumn term of 2024/25 to show levels of persistent and severe absence within the district (for the Tendring area and broken down by school).

 

·         Number of alternative commissioning arrangements which have been commissioned by the LA (Education Access Team/SEND Team) for the Tendring district, including the reasons why such provision has been deemed necessary. This request should cover the autumn term 2024/25.

 

·         Number of SEND children (SEN Support or EHCP) who have been removed from a Tendring school roll in favour of elective home education, during the autumn term (Tendring district data for the autumn term 2024/25, broken down by primary and secondary phases), where the reason provided suggests needs have not been met by the school.