Hampshire County Council
	Education Policy Review Committee		Item 9
	25 March 2003
	Covering Report to the Options Report of the Education Welfare Service Best Value Review
	Report of the Chief Executive

Contact: Sue Sylvester, Policy and Performance Officer, ext 7493

1 Purpose of the Service

1.1 The core function of the Education Welfare Service is to help promote the regular and punctual school attendance of pupils. Regular attendance and punctuality will help pupils fulfil their educational potential and increase their opportunity to contribute fully to an inclusive society.

1.2 The County Council has a number of statutory responsibilities in respect of school attendance - chiefly under the Education Act 1996 and the Crime & Disorder Act 1998.

2 Performance of the Service

2.1 The OFSTED inspection of the Education Welfare Service in 2001 had reported that whilst attendance levels were high, support for attendance had been unsatisfactory in the context of these high attendance levels. The OFSTED inspectors also commented that the service had suffered from high staff turnover and weaknesses in planning. The LEA has since undertaken a number of initiatives to address these concerns, including a re-structuring of the service.

2.2 The consultation and comparison exercises undertaken in this phase of the review showed high levels of satisfaction with services provided by the Education Welfare Service and that the service compares favourably with that of other Local Authorities in terms of the cost of the service. A number of areas for development were identified.

3 Outcomes sought

3.1 The attached report describes service delivery options and service improvements to address the following issues:-

· OFSTED recommendations in respect of improving attendance in the context of high attendance levels

· Efficacy of the response to the difficulties highlighted by OFSTED in relation to the high turnover of staff and weaknesses in planning.

· Scope for the devolvement of the funding of the Education Welfare Service to schools

· Consideration of issues for Looked After Children

· Issues arising from the `Visioning Exercise'

3.2 Of the four options for service delivery identified (see paragraph 9.3 of the attached report) option 4 is the preferred option of the review team because it has many of the benefits of delegation and devolution in terms of closeness to the customer and improved communication whilst retaining the advantages of a centrally managed and funded service. It is anticipated that the cost of implementing option 4 would be met from within existing resources.

3.3 A number of service improvements have been identified to address the issues listed in paragraph 3.1 above (see paragraph 10.1 of the attached report) that will be relevant if central control of the service is retained (ie option 3 or 4 is the preferred option of members). It is anticipated that the cost of these improvements can be met within existing resources.

4 Member involvement

4.1 The following members have participated in this phase of the review:

· Cllr B Dash

· Cllr A McNair Scott

· Cllr P West

· Cllr D Wright

5 The Review detail

5.1 The direct costs of the review, for activities such as visits to other local authorities and the cost of the telephone and postal surveys have so far amounted to £300 compared to an original estimate of £5,000. (The direct costs were low as all the questionnaires were developed, distributed, collated and analysed by in-house staff).

5.2 The total officer time for the review to date is estimated to be 66.5 days in comparison with the original estimate for the review of 50 officer days, as two additional review team meetings were held, visits to Bedfordshire County Council and West Sussex County Council were not accounted for in the original estimate and - as indicated in paragraph 5.1 - the work relating to questionnaires was undertaken by in-house staff. Members have asked that these indirect costs are converted to a financial value. A mid-level salary rate would be £220 per day (allowing for basic on-costs) resulting in total estimated staff costs of £14,630.

Recommendations:

1 It is recommended that the Best Value Review Team develops an improvement plan based on:

· Option 4 - retaining a centrally funded and managed service, but undertaking a pilot study locating Education Welfare Officers in schools.

· the service improvements listed in paragraphs 10.1 of the attached report.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

File	Location
Records of the Education Welfare Service best value review team meetings and working papers of the best value review.	Held by the Review Team Leader.