Agenda and minutes

The apologies of Councillor Barnes -Andrews were noted.

To elect the Vice Chair for the Municipal Year 2025-2026

RESOLVED that Councillor Webb be elected as Vice-Chair for the Municipal Year 2025-2026.

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings held on 27 March 2025 and to deal with any matters arising, attached.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 27 March 2025 be approved and signed as a correct record.

The Panel considered the report of the Chair of the Children and Families Scrutiny Panel recommending that the Panel discuss the Schools Capital Programme with the Cabinet Member for Children and Learning and invited officers.

Councillor Winning, Cabinet Member for Children and Learning, Clodagh Freeston – Head of Education, Tina Dyer-Slade - Director of Corporate Estate and Assets, Jon Pawsey - Service Manager, Construction Project Management, Ola Onabajo – Service Manager, Asset Management and Nick Humphries – Head Teacher, Townhill Park Junior School were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

The Panel discussed a number of points including:

• How the repairs and maintenance budget is insufficient to address the existing backlog of repairs thereby resulting in a service that is reactive not proactive.
• How the Corporate Estate and Assets Service are reviewing their approach to capital projects.
• How the Service are considering opportunities to improve communications with Headteachers, encourage feedback about projects, develop a portal enabling schools to access information on waiting lists and schedules, and raise awareness of the out of hours emergency contact number.
• The first of a number of workshops with Headteachers to discuss asset management and project management has been scheduled for 9^th June.
• How the Service were keen to encourage maintained schools to sign up to a servicing, inspection and remedials Service Level Agreement provided by the Council.

RESOLVED that in the light of the concerns raised and the actions planned, the Education Capital Programme returns to the Panel in 2026 to enable progress to be scrutinised. To enable an informed discussion the Panel expect the 2026 report to include relevant KPIs, including:

·  The number of projects delivered

·  The number of projects slipped

·  Projects delivered on time and in budget

·  Client satisfaction rates

·  The backlog of repairs

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Strategic Lead for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) providing the Panel with an update on the implementation of the improvement plan developed following the SEND local area inspection.

Councillor Winning – Cabinet Member for Children and Learning, Daniel Beck - Strategic Lead SEND and Maria Anderson - Virtual School Head were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

The Panel discussed a number of points including:

• Ways to improve and build upon multi-agency working across the Council;
• Attendance at school and the potential methods that could be made to increase a child’s presence at school; and 
• Encouragement of stakeholders to engage and support the improvement plan.

RESOLVED: that

(1)  data on the uptake of health reviews across the city is circulated to the Panel.

(2)   the developing SEND performance dataset is circulated to the Panel when it is available.

(3)   an update on implementation of the SEND improvement plan returns to the Panel in 2026.

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Service Manager for Education Standards on alternative provision.

Councillor Winning – Cabinet Member for Children and Learning, Clodagh Freeston – Head of Education, Silas Bingley – School Improvement Manager, and Maria Anderson - Virtual School Head were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

Councillor Allen declared an interest and withdrew from the meeting after briefly describing how the organisation he works for operated and detailing how it was able to help children.

The Panel then discussed a number of points including:

• The value of good alternative provision;
• Whether there had been an increase in the provision of Alternative Provision (AP);
• How AP is paid for; and quality assurance for AP providers.

The Panel considered noted the report of the Scrutiny Manager recommending that the Panel consider and challenge the performance of Children’s Services and Learning in Southampton.

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Scrutiny Manager recommending that the Panel considers the responses to recommendations from previous meetings and provides feedback