Agenda

Including any notices of motion and any other items of business submitted as urgent for consideration at the meeting.

Members should declare any financial and non-financial interests they have in the items of business for consideration, identifying the relevant agenda item and the nature of their interest.

If any

Minute of the Education, Children and Families Committee of 23 January 2024- submitted for approval as a correct record

Work Programme

Rolling Actions Log

Internal Audit Open and Overdue Internal Audit Actions - Performance Dashboard as at 29 January 2024 - Referral from the Governance, Risk and Best Value Committee

None.

Congratulatory Motion by Councillor Griffiths - Canal View Primary Becomes First Edinburgh School to Receive Reading School Accreditation

“Committee:

1)         Congratulates Canal View Primary in Wester Hailes in becoming the first Edinburgh school to be given the Reading School accreditation by Scottish Book Trust;

2)         Understands this prestigious programme from Scotland’s national reading charity helps schools to build reading cultures for their learners and communities;

3)         Acknowledges Canal View Primary is the 501st school in Scotland to have been accredited through the programme, and having achieved the first level, the school is now working towards progressing to silver status;

4)         Wishes Canal View Primary all the best working towards achieving silver status;

5)         Thanks all staff and pupils for their hard work and enthusiasm.”

Motion by Councillor Kumar - Pipe Band Drumming

“Committee

1.    Notes that in January 2023, The Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT) offered City of Edinburgh Council sum of up to £120,000 over a period of three years to help towards the costs of drumming and piping tuition.

2.    Notes that this funding was previously based on a council advertisement to recruit a full-time piping tutor in December 2022.

3.    Regrets that this generous offer has not been taken forward and acknowledges that there has been little to no communication between officers and SSPDT to progress this.

4.    Agrees that the Council can benefit from this valuable grant and that piping and drumming would benefit pupils especially in areas of high socio-economic deprivation where uptake is low.

5.    Notes that despite delays in correspondence, SSPDT is willing to engage with Council to extend this offer until end of April.

6.    Agrees for council officers to engage with SSPDT as a matter of urgency to request that the deadline is extended to end of June (or another date as negotiated) to allow officers time to explore feasibility of uptake and report to committee.

7.    Requests a report at the next ECF Committee for consideration and decision by elected members.”

Motion by Councillor Young - Food Waste in Schools

“Committee notes:

1.    The importance of providing school meals to children and that for many families this is a vital service in supporting health and wellbeing, and ensuring children receive a healthy and filling meal during times of financial difficulty.

2.    That while the healthy balance of the school lunch menu planning in primary schools is essential, the most important consideration is ensuring that children enjoy their meal and therefore leave a clean plate.

3.    The presentations made by pupils in late 2023 highlighted the potential scale of food waste and some of the influencing reasons for this; and how some schools are tackling the challenge to reduce food going to waste.

4.    That pupils and school catering staff are best placed to provide insight into what works well (both in terms of food item choices but also in how food is cooked) and that simple steps could be taken to address issues highlighted such as the examples given in those presentations.

5.    Uneaten school meals are not only a waste of food itself but is bad for the environment and inefficient for education budgets at a time of financial challenge for the Council.

6.    That while food waste is also an issue for secondary schools, the ‘menu planning’ approach in primary schools means it is appropriate to look at improvements with these schools as a first step.

Committee therefore:

a.    Asks education and catering officers to set up a consultee forum to help influence future menu planning and food selection, with members to include pupils and catering staff, and that this should be representative of different schools sizes, catering provisions, and age/gender for pupils. That this forum should meet in a way to make participation as accessible as possible.

b.    Instructs education officers to contact all primary school head teachers:

                        i.         Requesting information on average volume of food waste being generated daily/weekly

                       ii.         Enquiring if catering staff can share insight into what meals routinely generate more waste.

                      iii.         Asking if pupils (potentially through the pupil councils) can share their views on what works and doesn’t work in their school meals

                     iv.         Inviting a representative from their pupil council to be nominated as a potential member of the new forum (with final members being selected from those nominated and schools changing on an annual basis)

c.     Requests a report back to the June committee with the results from head teacher engagement and providing details on the proposed plans for holding regular meetings of the new forum from the start of the next academic year, and how these will be able influence menu planning.”

Motion by Councillor Davidson - Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Schools

“Committee notes:

1.    The recent research conducted in February 2024 by Hope Not Hate

2.    That this research stated that one in five teachers are seeing a negative impact on pupil wellbeing arising from issues related to the conflict in Israel-Palestine, including a significant increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents.

3.    That Edinburgh Council has a duty of care to pupils and to support teachers in dealing with such incidents.

Committee therefore requests:

a)    that education officers contact all primary and secondary headteachers in our school estate to determine:

·   The frequency of observed/reported incidents

·   how Edinburgh’s schools are managing discussions around the conflict

·  Whether any additional support or resources are required

b)    That an update (report or business bulletin) be provided to the June meeting of the Education, Children & Families Committee.”

Motion by Councillor Jones – Devolved School Management Review

“Committee notes:

1.    At the January Committee, officers proposed several options to reduce Devolved School Management Budgets (DSM) by £8.2 million across Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Special Sectors.

2.    That none of these proposals were taken forward because one off funding was arranged to cover pressures for one year.

3.    The January Report also identified a requirement for budget cuts across other areas of the Education Budget for 25/26 and 26/27.

4.    Scottish Government underfunding of City of Edinburgh Council by Block Grant has been commonplace over the years and is likely to continue.

5.    Better understanding of the DSM funding allocations will help schools, Officers and Elected Members prepare for future funding discussions.

Committee therefore requests:

     6.   A Report within 1 cycle setting out a full audit of the DSM budgets for all Early Years, Primary, Secondary, and Special school settings for each of the last 3 years to include: 

6.1      Total DSM allocation for each setting. 

6.2      A breakdown of how each setting spent their allocation. 

6.3      Total DSM allocation for each setting not spent and why, including any carry over from year to year. 

6.4      Any overspend of DSM budget for each setting, why it happened and what it was spent on.”