Children And Families Services Committee - 09/03/2020

At a MEETING of the CHILDREN AND FAMILIES SERVICES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 9th March, 2020.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

External members for Articles I to IV

Miss K MANDS, Church of Scotland Representative

Ms M LECK, Roman Catholic Church Representative

Mr M CHOHAN, 3rd Church Representative

Ms J BARCLAY, Teacher Representative

Mr J ANDERSON-McGUINNESS, Parent Representative

Councillor Stewart HUNTER, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 27th January, 2020 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Councillor Alexander declared a non-financial interest in Article IV by virtue of a family member being in the employment of the Early Years Service.

II RETAINING RESERVED PLACES IN SCHOOLS 2020/2021

On a reference to Article V of the minute of meeting of the Education Committee of 19th February, 2001, there was submitted Report No 85-2020 by the Executive Director of Children and Families Service reporting the requirement to review the allocation of retained places on an annual basis and proposing the allocation for session 2020/2021.

The Committee agreed to approve the proposals to reserve places in schools as set out in Appendix 1 of the report and noted below:-

III CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE (CfE) ATTAINMENT LEVELS AND SCOTTISH QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY (SQA) ATTAINMENT UPDATE

There was submitted Report No 47-2020 by the Executive Director of Children and Families Service informing the Committee of the progress and attainment of Dundees pupils in relation to Curriculum for Excellence and the SQA results achieved in 2019. CfE Teacher Judgements were based on returns submitted to the Scottish Government in August 2019 and published in December 2019. Senior phase attainment data for S4 to S6 school leavers in academic session 2018/2019 had been extracted from the National Insight Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool.

The Committee noted the content of the report and the improvement in outcomes for children and young people.

IV EXPANSION OF EARLY LEARNING AND CHILDCARE ENTITLEMENT TO 1140 HOURS

On a reference to Article IV of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 13th May, 2019, there was submitted Report No 88-2020 by the Executive Director of Children and Families Service providing an update regarding the planned expansion of Early Learning and Childcare from 600 hours to 1140 hours by August 2020.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the content of the updated progress report including feedback detailed in Appendix 1 of the report; and

(ii) remitted the Executive Director of Children and Families Service to bring a further report on progress of the implementation to this Committee in 12 months time.

At this juncture, external members of the Committee departed.

V SCOTTISH CARE LEAVERS COVENANT AND CONTINUING CARE PAYMENT UPDATE

On a reference to Article VII of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 28th January, 2019, there was submitted Report No 46-2020 by the Executive Director of Children and Families Service providing a 12 month update on local progress made in implementing the six pillars of the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant. This included an update on progress in implementing the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 relating to Continuing Care.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the content of the report and continued progress made in the implementation of the Care Leavers Covenant and improving outcomes for Care Leavers; and

(ii) instructed the Executive Director of Children and Families Service to provide a further update on the Care Leavers Covenant in 12 months' time.

Stewart HUNTER, Convener.