Included in this update:

• Government consultation: Reforming how local authorities’ school improvement functions are funded
• Minister for Children and Families: Letter to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND 
• Revised Fair Access Protocol 2022 – Schools Consultation
• Consultation for own admission authority schools 2023/2024
• School Attendance training: Early Help and Legal Processes
• Update on Primary Surplus Places including proposals to reduce PAN for 2022 entry
• Developing Local Provision (DLP) pilot project
• Suspension of Metro services from 13 November 2021: Message from West Midlands Metro
• Birmingham 2022 Festival: GENERATIONS Photography Project
• Adderley Primary School Shakespeare Festival 2022: Wednesday 12th January 5pm-6pm
• Services for Education Training Courses

Government consultation: Reforming how local authorities’ school improvement functions are funded

The government is currently consulting on proposed changes to how local authorities’ school improvement activities are funded. The proposals are to:

• Remove the School Improvement Monitoring & Brokering Grant (‘the Grant’), which is currently allocated to local authorities to support school improvement activities; and
• Make provisions within the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations for the financial year (FY) 2022-23 to allow local authorities to fund all of their school improvement activity (including all core school improvement activities) via de-delegation from schools’ budget shares.

The consultation document is available at this link and responses can be provided at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-how-local-authority-school-improvement-functions-are-funded before the deadline of 11.45pm on 26th November. 

Letter to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND from Children and Families Minister Will Quince

Minister for Children and Families, Will Quince MP, has written to all parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities to talk about his ambitions for them and their children.

The letter can be accessed at this link.

Revised Fair Access Protocol 2022 – Schools Consultation

Schools will be aware that every local authority is required to have a Fair Access Protocol, which has been agreed by a majority of schools, and which ALL schools are subsequently required to adhere to.

In accordance with the School Admissions Code 2021, the purpose of the Fair Access Protocol is to ‘ensure that unplaced and vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible’, and that there is a fair distribution of Fair Access admissions across schools in the city.

The new School Admissions Code which came into effect on 1 September 2021, requires us to make several changes to the Fair Access Protocol, and a copy of the revised Fair Access Protocol is available on the council’s website at this link.
 
The main changes are:

• Allocating a school place within 20-days from the point it has been agreed that a child will be considered under the Fair Access Protocol (see Section 3 Scope of the Fair Access Protocol, page 5, paragraph 5).
• New criteria for referral in respect of a prescribed list of vulnerable and hard to place children (see table on page 15 – Section 3: Fair Access Criteria).
• Requirement to confirm the process for a review of the Fair Access Protocol if the majority of schools in an area can no longer support the principles and approach of their local Fair Access Protocol (see Section 1 Background, page 3, paragraph 7).

As part of the formal Fair Access Protocol consultation process, we should be extremely grateful if you would allocate some time to review the document and provide your comments and feedback to a few simple questions by completing a short survey here: Fair Access Protocol 2022. This will enable us to capture your views, and ensure a robust and balanced process moving forward.

We appreciate you will need time to discuss the matter with colleagues, but would ask you to complete the survey at your earliest convenience, and no later than Friday, 17 December 2021.

Once all feedback has been received and reviewed, a final version of the Fair Access Protocol will be forwarded to all schools for sign-off in January, with implementation planned from 1 March 2022.

We will also be taking the opportunity to explore potential improvements to the scoring grid used at both the Secondary and Primary City Panel meetings. This refers to the detail of individual decision-making processes and does not form part of the formal Fair Access Protocol consultation and sign-off process.  More information on this can be provided if required.

If you have any queries in the meantime, or would like any further information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch fairaccessprotocol2022@birmingham.gov.uk

Consultation for own admission authority schools 2023/2024

The consultation process for the proposed admission arrangements for the 2023/2024 academic year, for all own admission authority schools within the area of Birmingham City Council that have instructed the Council to support their consultation process starts on Monday 22 November 2021 and finishes on Monday 3 January 2022.

The schools proposed admissions arrangements can be viewed here: Proposed Admissions Arrangements 2023-2024.

Any comments on their proposed admission arrangements can be made here at the Birmingham City Council consultation website: Birmingham BeHeard

School Attendance training: Early Help and Legal Processes

The Education Legal Intervention Team is now able to offer online training on Microsoft Teams in relation to pupil absence from school, covering ‘FAST-track to Attendance’ and the ‘Leave in Term Time (Legal) process’.  ‘School Attendance – Early Help and Legal Processes’ will cover early help, children with frequent illness absence and what to do next when all else has failed.

The first date is strictly limited to only one person per school but the second date is open to all.  To book your place please click on the links below

• School Attendance – Early Help and Legal Processes | Birmingham Education Support Services - 23rd November 2021, 9:30 – 12:30
• School Attendance – Early Help and Legal Processes | Birmingham Education Support Services - 1st December 2021, 9:30 – 12:30  

Further dates will be published in due course.

Update on Primary Surplus Places including proposals to reduce PAN for 2022 entry

Since the previous primary surplus places update in May 2021, we have been working with schools and admission authorities across the city where surplus places are prevalent.

We are awaiting the outcome of October 2021 census to validate our understanding of vacancies in schools this term. However, current indications are that surplus levels will be between 8-10% in the current Reception cohort. 

In order to address the sustained impact of surplus places and lower intakes on schools, we are proposing a variation to admissions arrangements for a number of schools to enable a reduction to PAN for 2022 entry. The business case will be evaluated and decided upon by the School Adjudicator in due course. We will publish the outcome of the decisions. We are currently seeking proposed PAN reductions at the following maintained schools:

DFE	School Name	Type	Planning Area	Original 2022 PAN	Proposed  2022 PAN	Variance
2087	Grendon Primary	Community	Billesley	60	30	-30
2296	Glenmead Primary	Community	Oscott	60	30	-30
2149	Paget Primary	Community	Tyburn	60	45	-15
3406	St Clare’s Catholic	Voluntary Aided	Lozells and East Handsworth	45	30	-15
3363	St Dunstan’s Catholic	Voluntary Aided	Moseley and Kings Heath	60	45	-15
3321	English Martyrs Catholic	Voluntary Aided	Springfield	60	45	-15
				345	225	-120

We are also now discussing reductions in PANs for Reception 2023 entry. These will be consulted as part of the 6-week consultation this December 2021 with a decision due in Spring 2022. If you would like to discuss this with us please get in touch.

For further information, please contact Education Infrastructure: edsi.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

Developing Local Provision (DLP) pilot project

The Post-16 Developing Local Provision (DLP) is a project being delivered on behalf of the Post-16 Forum, which is made up of representatives of the 150 post-16 providers across the city.

The aim of DLP is to build capacity within Post-16 provision to meet the needs of Special Educational Needs and or Difficulties/Disabilities (SEND) learners, whom/which are on the additional needs register.
 
The project aims to improve Post 16 transitions through the following outcomes which focus on two interrelated areas of improvement. 1. Improvement of in-setting provision of career education for young people with SEND. 2. The creation of supported pathways into employment for young people with SEND through expanded and supported relationships with training providers and employers.

In addition, the project seeks to improve academic support to SEND/vulnerable learners through an improved curriculum offer, mentoring and support for level 2 English and mathematics.There are 7 key targets over the length of the pilot. One target is to gather information and feedback from parents of the young people whom have just transitioned from Year 11 into Year 12 and understanding how that experience was for all parties concerned.

In order to capture parental feedback, we are requesting that all Post 16 providers circulate the below link to parents via their appropriate channels to obtain this information. Please see link to the Parental Questionnaire attached for completion by Monday 29th November 2021.

If you have any queries, please forward them to your school/college in the first instance, or with exception to 14-19@birmingham.gov.uk - Please note that the questionnaire responses will be shared with Birmingham Education Partnership (BEP) / Careers Enterprise Company (CEC) as they devised the document.

Suspension of Metro services from 13 November 2021: Message from West Midlands Metro

Earlier this year a repair programme was implemented to address cracks identified on several of trams. As part of this work it has become necessary for additional repairs to be carried out with effect from Saturday 13 November 2021.  

Our passengers are always our priority and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) want everyone to travel around easily and safely when they go to and from schools and education sites. 

In order to do this, we are making people aware of the closure and where they can go for journey information.  

We would appreciate your support in communicating this information to your students and staff as a matter of urgency. For information on the alternatives available for travel please visit disruptions.tfwm.org.uk 

More information is available at https://westmidlandsmetro.com/using-the-metro/service-status/

We have tried to ensure that the current short notice arrangements allow most customers to complete their usual journeys, however we are working hard to give more options to keep everyone moving.

We have provided some useful text below to help you promote the current situation out to students, staff and parents.  

• Text message for students  

All Metro services suspended from Saturday 13 November 2021. Use no 74, 79, 16 & 101 bus or all train services between Wolverhampton & Birmingham as an alternative disruptions.tfwm.org.uk 

• Copy for Student Newsletters & College/School Webpage  

There are no metro services operating from Saturday 13 November 2021. Ticket acceptance is in place on bus services 74/79/16/101 and local rail services. disruptions.tfwm.org.uk

For shorter journeys consider walking or cycling.  

Thank you in advance for cascading this message to as many people as possible.

If you have any questions please get in touch with Travelchoices@tfwm.org.uk  

Please take care and we will stay in touch with you as the situation progresses and more travel options become available for those who usually use the tram for their journeys. 

Birmingham 2022 Festival: GENERATIONS Photography Project

Birmingham 2022 Festival, working with GRAIN Projects and Multistory, presents GENERATIONS, taking place in Birmingham and the Black Country, in celebration of the city and region’s communities during the time of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.    

The first project of its kind in Birmingham and the Black Country invites four and five generation families  to take part and be photographed for exhibition during the Birmingham 2022 Festival, a six month celebration which will spotlight creativity and culture in the West Midlands as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

GENERATIONS celebrates families, individuals, diversity and the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands in large-scale photographic portraiture.  Based on the format of the family portrait the artist will use a large format camera to work collaboratively with families of four and five generations from across the region.    The photographs will be displayed largescale, will capture details and provoke questions about our life and times.

Artist Julian Germain is seeking to work with four and five generation families from across Birmingham and the Black Country.  If you are interested in your family taking part and being photographed for GENERATIONS contact the team at hello@grainphotographyhub.co.uk   

The group portraits present people at different stages of life; new-borns, infants, children, teens and their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great great-grandparents. Fundamental questions are raised that relate to us all; life, death, time and the effects of time, where do we come from and where will we go? 

The project will be exhibited largescale in prominent spaces in the public realm, including on billboards, poster and exhibition sites in the region throughout the Birmingham 2022 Festival.

Running from March to September 2022 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Birmingham 2022 Festival will feature hundreds of creative commissions across the region including art, photography, dance, theatre, digital art and more. Find out more and register for the latest updates at birmingham2022.com/festival.

GENERATIONS is generously supported by Arts Council England and National Heritage Lottery Fund.

Adderley Primary School Shakespeare Festival 2022: Wednesday 12th January 5pm-6pm 

Come and join Adderley's free Shakespeare Festival and receive free Professional Development. Choose one of his plays and perform it to a live audience from children across Birmingham at the school.

• The school performance is on Wednesday 6th July
• The CPD event is on Wednesday 12th January

For more information please contact Caroline Clarkson AHT Creative Arts Adderley Primary School (c.clarkson@adderley.bham.sch.uk or 0121  464 1500)

Services for Education Training Courses

Greater Depth Writing for Year 6 Teachers: 10th January 2022 1pm - 4pm

A half-day course for teachers in Year 6 which explores the characteristics and needs of the able writer in KS2, looking specifically at working at greater depth within the age-related standard. More information is available at this link. 

Primary PSHE Subject Leaders’ Network Meeting: 6th December 2021, 1st March 2022, 10th June 2022

This half-day session will provide an opportunity for PSHE subject leaders to keep up to date with current thinking about the development of PSHE and to network, discuss central themes and share good practice. More information is available at this link. 

Greater Depth Writing for Year 2 Teachers: 11th January 2022 9am - 12pm

A half-day course for teachers in Year 2 which explores the characteristics and needs of the able writer in KS1, looking specifically at working at greater depth within the age-related standard. More information is available at this link. 

EYFS reforms – Understanding the new Early Learning Goals: 12th January 2022 and 9th February 2022

These two half day online sessions will explore the changes to the Early Learning Goals within the learning and development requirements in the revised EYFS framework.
Day 1: 9am – 12pm - Day 2: 9am – 12pm

More information is available at this link.