Education Providers' Bulletin

Tuesday 3rd November 2020

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Bulletin Summary

1. Message from the Director of Children's Services
2. COVID-19 Public Health
3. Early Years
4. Free School Meals
5. Finance
6. Good News
7. Health and safety
8. HR Workforce
9. Information
10. Support Services for schools
11. Training
12. DfE daily update

Message from the Director of Children's Services

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that you managed to have some rest and relaxation last week to recharge the batteries after a demanding half-term. I think it was the toughest one yet in these challenging times we find ourselves in!! As I have previously said – you and your staff have worked tirelessly to support our children and young people and this is recognised and appreciated across the City!

As you can imagine I have done lots of reflecting on the Free Schools Meals activity on the Friday we broke up and I wish to offer you all an apology. I appreciate that it was awful timing and the request of you did not land well nor the way we made it, including a specific email. I’m sorry for any offence caused – this wasn’t the intention and I’m sorry it was interpreted in the way it was. However, I hope you understand that it was a political leadership decision which officers were attempting to carry out in a very short timescale and as a result the execution wasn’t great! That said – the response we had from you all was amazing and together we most definitely made a huge positive difference to those children and young people most in need in our City.

To give you some idea of the outcomes:

• Approx. CYP total entitled to FSM - 16,000
• Total provision offered by schools to FSM – approx. 9000 (these were mainly vouchers)
• Approx. eligible from council scheme – 7000
• We received applications for 6351
• Of those 5270 applications were eligible for FSM
• All 5270 children were delivered a food package by the end of the week

So in total

• Approx 85-90% of the overall cohort received a FSM during half term

(Final numbers will be confirmed by the end of the week)

I hope that we can now move on and begin this half-term with our continued commitment to ensuring that children and young people get their education.

We know that schools will stay open during the forthcoming lockdown and whilst we know this is the right thing for our children and young people I know it may also cause you concern. Please do not hesitate to contact our local Public Health team if you need support. On Thursday 5^th November I have the Director’s briefing and Public Health will be giving an update during the session. (link here)

I look forward to seeing you then and thanks again for your continued hard work and commitment.

Best wishes,

Emma

COVID-19 Public Health

COVID-19 – Considering staff to staff risks in schools

Figures from the Wolverhampton Public Health schools’ helpline from the first half term indicate that 37% of all positive cases reported were amongst staff members. Although most of these cases were not transmitted within school, high numbers of staff members were identified as contacts of a single positive staff member and then had to self-isolate. We would ask schools to use the attached slides (click here EY) to help review their COVID-19 risk assessment, particularly in relation to staff-to-staff contacts, interactions and environment.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Howard Jobber
Senior Public Health Specialist
howard.jobber@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Electronic Scales recalibration and NCMP

SECA will be contacting Wolverhampton schools who have SECA 287 electronic scales in the coming weeks to book an appointment with your school for one of their engineers to make a visit between early December and the end of January. The purpose of the visit is to recalibrate the SECA 287 scales – a vital piece of maintenance work required for the commencement of the statutory National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). The recalibration visit should take no more than 20 minutes on site, with the engineer working where the scales are located in the school.

We encourage schools to enable access to the SECA engineers in a Covid secure way. Attached (click here EY) is the SECA COVD-19 risk assessment together with a copy of CWC expectations for PPE to be worn by visitors acting on their behalf when visiting schools. (click here EY)

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Howard Jobber
Senior Public Health Specialist
howard.jobber@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Public Health and Education Team Drop in Session - Important

This week's Public Health and Education Team drop in session will move from Thursday the 5th to Friday the 6th 10-11am due to the SIA Day taking place on Thursday. The new link to the session is here.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Louise Sharrod
Principal Public Health Specialist
Tel. Office: 01902 555931
Louise.Sharrod@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Early Years

Childminder Update session  

The next Childminder update session will be held on Saturday 7 November 9.30-11.00 am. To join please click link below.

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

Public Health will be attending the meeting.  As you are aware the local Covid-19 situation is changing rapidly. This session will be an opportunity to hear from our local Public Health colleagues to support you in responding to the current situation.  As well as update regarding Ofsted inspections, encouraging children to talk and ways to support physical development.   

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Stacey Henderson
Senior Early Years Advisor Stacey.Henderson@Wolverhampton.gov.uk 

The new date for actuals to be returned by Thursday 12 November payment will be received by Friday 4^th December.

The guidance states that from the start of the autumn term 2020, local authorities should continue to fund providers which are open at broadly the levels they would have expected to see in the 2020 autumn term had there been no coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The intention is to fund on the basis of ‘as if autumn term 2020 were happening normally’. In order to do this, local authorities might, for example, use the numbers of children in places in the previous autumn to inform funding levels this autumn.

Following this guidance once your settings actuals have been submitted, the Local Authority will liaise with providers around any reduced hours compared to the autumn term 2019 return. Funded hours will be increased where the reason for the reduction is due to the current situation and the impact of Covid-19. 

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Gurpreet Ghateaura
Early Years & Data Support Officer
Tel. Office: 01902 550865
Gurpreet.Ghateaura@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Finance

School Cleaning Charges 19 August – 15 September 2020

The attached (click here EY) schedule shows school cleaning charges for the period 19-08-2020 to 15-09-2020. Should you have any queries, please contact Caroline Holt or Lisa Green.

Lead person(s) to contact in the LA:

Caroline Holt
Caroline.Holt@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Lisa Green
Cleaning Manager
01902 555202 Lisa.Green3@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Free School Meals

Holiday Hunger - update

Following activity to support pupils and families to prevent holiday hunger during October half term, there are a number of eligible pupils who were not able to access this support. Plans are being made to provide vouchers direct to parents as soon as possible.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Jo Smith
Service Development Team Leader
freeschoolmeals@wolverhampton.gov.uk / jo.smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk
07766 473190

Good News

Autism School Friendly Mark

Oak Meadow Primary has become the first mainstream school in Wolverhampton to be named 'autism friendly' by the city's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Outreach Service.

Click here (here EY) to find out more!

Please remember to send your good news stories to School.Post@wolverhamtpon.gov.uk and we will include into our bulletin!

Health and Safety

Covid self-assessment and action plan

There have previously been requests to community schools to complete and return the attached (click here EY) covid self-assessment audit by October half term break. There remain a handful of schools that are yet to make this submission, and I would encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience please. Please note that the HSE are continuing to contact schools and therefore a completed self-audit assessment will go some way to providing assurance to the regulatory body that key controls are not only in place but are being monitored.

Please return completed forms to natalie.barrow@wolverhampton.gov.uk

I would like to thank all of the schools that have made a submission, you should have received direct feedback from me.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Natalie Barrow
Health and Safety Advisor
natalie.barrow@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Health and Safety Policy Update

For any schools that are looking at reviewing their Health and Safety policy in light of coronavirus, please find attached (click here EY) a supplementary policy template to sit alongside your main Health and Safety policy that has been produced for your convenience.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Natalie Barrow
Health and Safety Advisor
natalie.barrow@wolverhampton.gov.uk

HR Workforce

Urgent: Changes to the guidance for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable employees

New Government guidance (accessible from here, section 9) has been issued on 3 November in relation to employees who where previously shielding due to having a medical condition which placed them in in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable category.

Those employees will be receiving a new shielding notification from the Government informing them of this and advising them not to go to work, and only work from home.

It is anticipated that this impacts on a small number of your workforce (refer to the definition of Extremely Vulnerable Category) who have been in some instances able to attend work in school since 01 August 2020. These employees will only be able to work from home from Thursday 5^th November.

A review of our current individual risk assessment templates is underway to ensure compliance with the latest government guidance and further information will shortly be provided.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Marie Marenda
HR Business Partner
Marie.marenda@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Information

Hill Avenue Click here (here EY) to find out more about the proposal expansion of Hill Avenue Academy.

The Vision for School Organisation in Wolverhampton 2020-2022; Wolverhampton Education Place Planning

Reminder:

Consultation on the Council’s Vision for School Organisation in Wolverhampton 2020-2022 ends on 8 November 2020. The Vision details the significant challenges that the City faces regarding the sufficiency and distribution of school places in Wolverhampton and outlines a framework to guide the future development of school provision across the City.

Please follow the link to view a draft copy of The Vision and to provide comments via the survey.

https://consultation.wolverhampton.gov.uk/school-organisation/vision

Thank you to those stakeholders who have already responded.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Dawn Long
School Place Planning Manager
school.organisation@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Support Services for Schools

FAO PE Teachers – Short Survey for completion by November 13^th

Sent on behalf of City of Wolverhampton Public Health Department.

With the disruption to school activity caused by COVID-19, we are aware that the normal delivery of P.E. sessions may have been affected.

Please complete our short survey (4 questions) which takes less than 2 minutes. 13^th November deadline.

The survey will underline the impact of COVID-19 on Primary school P.E. sessions and enable us to design an intervention to facilitate safe delivery of sessions.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Dr Manroy Sahni
GP Registrar
Manroy.sahni@wolverhampton.gov.uk
07805776358

Stars in our schools

Each year UNISON holds a 'national stars in schools' week, in recognition of school support staff. The City of Wolverhampton's UNSION branch has worked well with schools over a number of years to celebrate this event and would like to do this again this year, especially under the current circumstance of COVID-19. This is an opportunity to recognise the hard work of school support staff in keeping the children of Wolverhampton safe, including working above and beyond whilst continuing to support pupils and colleagues during difficult times. Friday 27^th November is the day to celebrate support staff in schools and settings. Click here to access the letter (here EY).

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Wendy Bond
UNISON City of Wolverhampton Branch
Tel: 01902 554096
Mobile: 07969375171
Wendy.Bond@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Training

Louise Mututa
School Improvement Advisor
Louise.Mututa@wolverhampton.gov.uk

HR Workforce  

New development and support network for Pastoral/Wellbeing Leaders: Wellbeing for Education Return

Using funding from the Wellbeing for Education Return, we have set up free Reflective Practice sessions for Pastoral/Wellbeing Leaders in schools and colleges, which will be run half-termly. The first of these will focus on wellbeing, resilience and share a model that you can use to support both staff and students. We are acutely aware of the pressures on school staff now and so the reflective session will allow you to discuss key issues for your school and share ideas for ways forward.

Please book through WVES onto one of the below sessions, as they will all deliver the same content and include reflective practice sessions.

- Thursday 5^th November 3.30 – 5pm
- Tuesday 10^th November 1.30-3pm
- Wednesday 11^th November 3.30 – 5pm

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Elaine Perry
Senior Educational Psychologist
Elaine.perry@wolverhampton.gov.uk
07900708206

School Governance Training

Upcoming School Governance training

Tuesday 10 November - An Introduction to effective Governance at 10-12noon

Tuesday 17 November - Managing Complaints at 6-8pm

Tuesday 24 November at Safer Recruitment: The role of the Governing Board at 10-12noon

Tuesday 1 December - Understanding data at 6-8pm

To view training and to book onto courses, please follow the link to WVES website.

Bespoke training to meet the needs of your Governing Board can also be arranged. To discuss your requirements further, please contact Kay Mason.

Lead person(s) to contact in the LA:

Kay Mason
School Improvement Advisor
Kay.mason@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Sarah McElduff
School Governance Co-ordinator
Sarah.mcelduff@wolverhampton.gov.uk

DfE daily update

2 November – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers - click here or here (EY).

30 October – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers - click here or here (EY).

If you would like your Chair of Governors, SENDCo or DSL to receive this bulletin, please email Georgia.Smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk with their email address who will add them to the distribution list.

If you don't have a CloudW account and cannot access a document within this bulletin, please contact Georgia.Smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk who will send it to you.