7 January 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Happy New Year. I hope you had a relaxing Christmas break.

As we start the new year and look forward with new plans it is a good opportunity to look back and summarise what was achieved in 2015.

We set very challenging and ambitious improvement targets in 2014 -15 and there were a number of positive outcomes which indicate that we continue to make good progress. In summary these were:

• In the Early Years Foundation Stage, 73% of children achieved a Good Level of Development (GLD). This is a 4% increase compared to 2014 and is well ahead of the 66% national average.

• At Key Stage 1 standards at Level 2B and Level 3 improved by an average of 2.5% compared with 2014 and are in line with or above the national averages for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. The FSM gaps continue to narrow in all areas at Key Stage 1.

• At Key Stage 2 we continued to see improvement for pupils’ attainment at Level 4 and above in Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined. Kent achieved 80%, which is a 1% improvement compared to 2014, and in line with the national average.  207 Primary schools improved their results, compared to 283 in 2014. The free school meal achievement gap narrowed very slightly for the third successive year to 17.6% from 17.8% in 2014.

• At Key Stage 4, the GCSE result at 56.6% was a slight drop of 1.4% from the First result in 2014.  The national figure has also dropped by 0.6% for the same period. Kent remains above the national average by 3.8%.

• Provisional expected rates of progress at Key Stage 4 (three levels of progress between Key Stages 2 and 4) declined in English to 71.9% from 74.3% in 2014. Kent however remained above the national average of 70%. Progress in Mathematics declined slightly from 66.8% of pupils achieving the expected rate of progress in 2014 to 66.2% in 2015. The national figure improved from 65.5% in 2014 to 66.6% in 2015, which means that Kent remained broadly in line with the national average for this measure.

• The provisional result for average GCSE A*-C grades in English was 69.7% and for Mathematics it was 66.3%. Both of these figures were above the national averages, which were 64.7% for English and 65.1% for Mathematics. Again for English, both Kent and the national figures dropped in 2015.  However, for Mathematics the national figure increased and the Kent outcome declined.

• The provisional performance at post 16 showed a mixed and overall declining trend at A’ level over three years. The percentage of students achieving three or more A Level passes in Kent LA schools and colleges declined from 76.5% in 2013, 73.3% in 2014 to 72.4% in 2015. The national average was 76.5%. The percentage of students achieving AAB grades (in at least 2 facilitating subjects) also declined from 13.9% in 2014 to 12.5% in 2015. There was also a decline in the percentage of students achieving two or more passes at grades A* - E, which was 87.8% compared with 88.4% in 2014 and 89.6% in 2013.

• The 2015 results (Kent LA schools and colleges) showed a reduction in the academic Average Point Score per entry (APE) to 212.3, compared to 212.8 in 2014 and 216.1 in 2013.  The trend over 3 years was one of slight decline.

• The academic Average Point Score per student (APS) in 2015 for Kent LA schools and colleges declined to 811.3 from 827.9 in 2014 and 844.8 in 2013. However Kent remained in the top national quartile for this measure, well above the national average of 761.6.

• Average Point Scores per student for vocational qualifications in Kent LA schools and colleges improved in 2015. Kent’s provisional figures showed a county wide increase of 13.6 points to 568.0 from 554.4 in 2014, with an average grade of Distinction.

• We continued to make progress in increasing the number of good and outstanding schools inspected by Ofsted. At the end of the last school year, July 2015, 82% of schools were good and outstanding compared to 75% at the same time in 2014 and 70% in the previous year. In 2011-2012 only 59% of schools were judged good or better. The national average in summer 2015 was then 82%.

• The latest Ofsted figure for Kent (December 2015) is 84% good and outstanding schools. The national average is now 84%. This includes 83% of Secondary schools, 84% of Primary schools, 91% of Special schools and 86% of PRUs in Kent, judged to be good or outstanding. Also, 88% of Early Years settings are good or outstanding.

• Currently, 83% of pupils attend a good or outstanding school. This includes 83% of Primary pupils, 83% of Secondary pupils, 95% of pupils attending Special schools and 97% of pupils attending a PRU. This equates to 15,420 more children and young people receiving a better education compared with last year. In 2013, 70% of pupils in Kent attended a good or outstanding school and this increased to 75% in 2014.

• There was an increase in the number of permanent exclusions, up to 106 in 2014-15 from 88 the previous year.  This was disappointing and reflects an increase in Primary exclusions, which was not mirrored in Secondary schools where exclusions continue to decline.

• School absence rates increased slightly compared to 2014.  Overall the percentage of total absences in Kent was 4.8% compared to 4.5% nationally. For Secondary schools the figures were 5.6% compared to 5.2% nationally, and for Primary the percentage was 4.2% compared to 4.0% nationally. In every case there was a higher level of authorised, unauthorised, persistent and total absence in Kent, compared to the national averages.
• The percentage of pupils who missed 38 or more sessions (persistent absence) was 4.5% in Kent compared to 3.9% nationally.  For Secondary schools this figure was 6.5% compared to 5.5% nationally and for Primary schools it was 3.1% compared to 2.7% nationally. The previous persistent absence figure for Secondary schools was 6.1%, and for Primary schools it was 2.8%. These figures increased in the past year, and they continue to be worse than the national figures, which is a concern.

• Kent continued to perform well in increasing apprenticeships.  The number of 16-18 year old apprenticeships increased by 7% since 2014.  Performance was better than our statistical neighbours.

• The Kent County Council Employment Programme exceeded the target of 800 apprenticeships for 16 – 24 year olds who were unemployed for more than 3 months. The final out-turn was 930.

• The percentage of schools offering apprenticeships was 53%with a target of 45% in 2014-15. Currently, 271 schools are employing apprentices with 376 starts to date. This work continues to engage more schools with a target to increase the number of higher and advanced apprenticeships.

• The NEET figure for January 2015 was 4.7% which was an improvement on the January 2014 figure (5.9%) but below our target for 2015 of 4%.  A new NEET Strategy is now in place which will help bring the NEET figure down in 2016 to 3.5% and 1% by January 2017.

• Youth unemployment for 18 to 24 year olds continued to fall.  In August 2015 unemployment for this age group was 2.5%, compared to 3.35% in 2014. There was also a significant decrease in the five youth unemployment zones, with Dover at 3.7%, Gravesham at 3.7%, Shepway at 3.4%, Swale at 3.8% and Thanet at 5.6%. The comparable figures for 2014 were Dover (4.8%), Gravesham (4.3%), Shepway (5.1%), Swale (5.2%) and Thanet at (7.8%). These figures are all below the national average of 6.1%.

• KCC made good progress in improving performance in completing SEN statutory assessments in 26 weeks, reaching 92% in Kent compared to 82% nationally in 2013-14. However from September 2014, the new assessment process has required completion in 20 weeks and it is evident from data published by the DfE in May 2015 that the impact of dual systems and preparation for the statutory changes in the Children and families Act has reduced performance nationally.  Current performance in Kent is 78%.

• In 2014-15, KCC delivered all of the additional new school places needed for September 2015. The majority of these new school places were within the Primary sector. We expanded 24 Primary schools, including 19 new forms of entry added to schools for Reception year classes and 300 temporary Reception places that will not be needed in the long term.  In addition, we opened seven new Primary schools. A small number of places were also added to Secondary schools. In total, over the last year, more than 2,500 places were added to Primary schools in Kent.

• We commissioned 350 additional places in maintained Special schools during the course of the year and 125 places have been commissioned in Specialist Resource Base Provisions in mainstream schools.

• In Early Help, support was provided in a more timely way to 5500 children and young people, and their families, including 1076 cases with an Early Help plan. Just over 80% of cases were closed with a positive outcome for children and the family.  22% of the cases closed by Specialist Children’s Services were stepped down to Early Help for on-going support and around 8% of cases closed to Early Help were stepped up to Social Care because children’s needs and the risks to them increased.

Overall the achievements were positive and heading in the right direction for further improvement. However our biggest challenges remain the need to narrow achievement gaps, which hardly improved in 2015; to reduce the NEET figures and improve participation; to continue to reduce exclusions and school absence which are above average; and to improve outcomes for all vulnerable groups including children and young people supported by Early Help services.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director for Education and Young People's Services