Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services. 

Members noted the report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services, noting also that during recent engagement sessions Members had shared their preferences regarding the structure of the new strategy, recalling that Members had felt that the new strategy should focus only on aspects of education that the City Corporation can actually deliver or meaningfully influence. Members also expressed their desire that the strategy be less complicated, less siloed, and more focused. Members noted that environmental and outdoor learning would be interwoven through each agreed priority, not as an explicit priority in its own right.

Some Members suggested that EDI (especially Equity) should be retained as a priority to encompass SEND needs with Technology integrated across all the activity, noting also the importance of leveraging City of London assets and connections (including businesses and institutions) to deliver improved outcomes, particularly among disadvantaged children – especially in the light of the current Lord Mayor’s theme ‘Connect to Prosper’.

A Member commented that the purpose of the CoLC being involved with an Academy Trust was (partly, at least) to add value to the schools in terms of social mobility and that social mobility ought to be an overarching criterion, with EDI integrated across the strategy with Technology as a priority. Members noted that there was room for further elaboration on achieving social mobility. 

Members heard that the Board’s understanding of its role and expectations encompasses the supporting, promoting and championing of educational excellence and improvement without necessarily involving itself in operational matters, which would be fully reflected in further iterations of the strategy.

Some Members commented that criteria around Health, Safety, Wellbeing and Personal Development could be rolled into a single criterion, noting also the importance of having clearly delineated measures that could easily be tracked and monitored. 

A Member commented on the need to be more specific around priorities, including EDI.

RESOLVED, That the strategy specify five priorities by removing ‘EDI’ and ‘Technology’, and instead integrate these two areas across all activity, tightening overall focus and allowing for more actions and outcomes per priority, with an additional focus on ‘Environment’. Members noted that commitments to Environment, EDI and Technology will be reviewed to ensure they are more explicit within the context of social mobility alongside specific actions