Agenda and minutes

Cllr Anna Keen opened the meeting and led introductions.

Special welcome extended to the Youth Mayor, Siena with Martin James, Youth and Community Worker

·       Post 16 Strategy

·       Reading City

·       Attendance Strategy

Post 16 Strategy

Summary of the task & finish group remit:

The LCP Board has agreed to support a two year project to help key partners work together to develop a collaborative strategy to achieve a fundamental transformation of our post 16 offer to significantly improve our provision planning and outcomes. In our first research phase, the group is collecting evidence against priority themes with a view to use our key findings to inform strategic plan priorities from 19/20. 

Lee Probert provided an update on the Post 16 Strategy task & finish group.

Highlighting the following:

a.      That the rationale for the geographical position on this provision was unclear; early findings indicate that schools took the decision on provision based on the availability of qualified teaching staff and funding; 6^th form colleges concentrate their efforts on A-levels and progression to University; St Brendan’s had a provision for level 3 learning;

b.      That there was a lack of provision to the East of the City; that the proposed new provision did not address this need.

c.      The next step is to examine the individual provisions in both the private and public sector;  challenging the ‘sovereignty’ of individual providers may bring tension, as the question on the right provision in the right area now needs to considered;

d.      Student’s narratives have been included to consider the advice given by institutions to them at pivotal points in their education progression decision making; students will be invited to complete surveys to share their stories; the survey will include older students to ensure the evidence considers a ‘look back’ element.

e.      Early findings are that many providers limit advice to students based on their own funding resource position; that there was competition between schools and colleges to retain good students and in some instance coloured the advice given to students.

The following was noted from the discussion that followed:

f.       Further explanation was sought on the group’s next steps; which is to listen to young people, parents/parent carers on those wider issues that impact decision making on future study, such as transport; to also consider the lived experience of young people; to compare this data the views of the providers.

g.      A request was made that the group should seek contribution from students who have completed post 16 education to gain a full picture, for the ‘look-back’ exercise.

h.      It was noted that the evidence gathering supported the notion that all provision worked in an environment of competition with limited collaborative work.  That there was concern that no overall authority would be able to own the outcomes from the working group.

i.       The Board was assured positives were arising from the evidence gathering work, that the research gatherings of representative from institutions had a positive unintentional consequence resulting in proposals for collaborative working and unified actions.  An early suggestion is the use of a common application process so all young people @16 have a destination, similarly to the UCAS system.

j.       The Board was further assured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2a

·       Recruitment and Retention –

o   Wellbeing

o   BME Recruitment

·       Bristol WORKS

·       Bristol Education Partnership

·       Learning City Festival

Wider work of the Partnership

Thomas Jarvis provided an update on Retention:

The Recruitment and Retention (R&R) Group was set up to increase the number of people entering and remaining in the teaching profession in Bristol. The group was commission by the now disbanded Learning in Education Challenge Group. Membership is drawn from across a range of partners including Bristol City Council, Bristol teaching schools, UWE, University of Bristol and City of Bristol College. The group has agreed to focus on the mental wellbeing of teachers and school leaders through the delivery of Acceptance and Commitment Theory (ACT) based interventions in partnership with Bristol City Councils Educational Psychology service. £30,000 of funding has been ring fenced for the work of the R&R Group.

a.      The Well-Being workshop is set for the 13^th June 2019 at the Harbour Hotel.  There are 200 delegate spaces; During September/October 2020 the project will commission a train the trainer practitioner event with the intention to train a cohort of 40; that they would be responsible for cascading the learning throughout their individual schools.

BAME Teach Diverse ‘Increasing BAME Participation in The Teaching Profession Conference’

Marie-Annick Gournet was invited to address the Board on the outcome of the Conference on BAME recruitment into the teaching profession held on the 8^th December at City Hall. (The presentation to be shared)

a.      The conference was pulled together in one month but was able to attract 107 attendees from across the BAME community.  Comments and statistic was shared to demonstrate the outcome of the conference that was well received by both attendees and participants.

b.      A positive outcome was the establishment of a BAME network to support those already in the education sector with a first meeting on the 22^nd April 2019.

c.      Tom Sperlinger offered support to the network meetings and asked MAG to make contact.

Bristol WORKS

WORKS is a Bristol Learning City Partnership (LCP) project which aims to deliver on the partnership commitment to make quality work experience and apprenticeship opportunities available to every young person.

The LCP has created and funded Bristol WORKS to build an innovative education, business and community partnership that aims to raise the aspirations of young people and their parents/carers through the development of experience of work opportunities and clear post 16 pathways for all young people, particularly those who face the greatest challenges in relation to learning, skills and employment.

Jane Taylor(JT), Service Manager Employment & Skills was invited to address the Board.

a.      JT spoke to the report highlighting; that 2477 young people had experienced work and the project aspiration for the coming year was to raise this figure to 2500; That 4 additional schools had signed up to the scheme that now includes the Bristol Education Hospital Service; that they were looking to place students with special educational needs and was offering employers support to enable opportunities; information being collated to report to WECA on regional need.

b.      The ask of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2b

·       Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth Strategy

Discussion Deferred due to the lack of time.

Meeting to close at 17:30

The notes and matters arising discussion deferred to the next meeting.