Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Strategic Education Improvement Manager which was presented to seek Members views on the revised quality assurance protocol for safeguarding arrangements in Local Government Education Services (LGES).

The Safeguarding in Education Manager spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.

A Member raised concerns regarding transfers of pupils from one school to another and out of county transfers and commented that it was incumbent on the school to pass on transfer information and felt that the Admission Policy was not being implemented by schools correctly i.e. completing the transfer forms fully. The Head of Education Transformation said that the Admission Policy was renewed annually and was presented to Education & Learning Scrutiny Members for consideration, however, he would work to ensure that implementation of the policy would be carried out more effectively.  Members acknowledged this course of action.

Another Member also raised concerns in relation to transfer information not being passed onto schools. He commented that staff and pupils could be at risk of violence and aggression if information was not passed on.  He also enquired what support was in place for school staff who had allegations made against them.  The Head of Education Transformation said that a task and finish group led by the Chief Officer Commercial to discuss violence and aggression against staff was to be arranged and one key point for discussion would be school-based staff.

A Member commented that a policy should be considered that if a parent was banned from one school they should be banned from all schools in the borough due to safeguarding issues.

The Committee AGREED, subject to the foregoing, to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1, namely that Members scrutinised the revised protocol and contributed to the continuous assessment of effectiveness.