Education Bulletin - 17 June 2022

Updated 17 June 2022

From Ming Zhang
Service Director of Education, Participation and Skills

Dear colleagues,

This week while we welcome our new Director of Children's Services Sharon Muldoon, we have had a busy week with several education and skills activities taking place in the city.

On Monday the City held MediFest showcasing excellent employment and training opportunities in the city. On Tuesday, another beautiful day in Plymouth, the City's Skills and Post 16 Service and our partner Barclays Bank hosted the visit of Mims Davies, Minister for Employment to our Skills Youth Hub of the Skills Launchpad Programme. It was an opportunity for the Minister to see for herself the innovative skills programme that we run in the city to narrow the skills gap and to prepare children and young people for high income employment.

These exciting events were followed by a successful gathering of parents, carers and the support agencies on Wednesday's Parents and Carers Conference, in which I met many parents and SEND partners to hear many positive messages and the suggestions, which will definitely serve as a catalyst of our successful approach of SEND co-production with children, young people, parents and partners.

Ministerial Visit to Skills Youth Hub

The Minister for Employment was in Plymouth to find out more about the work the city-wide partnership is doing to support residents into work, training and education through Skills Launchpad Plymouth.

Led by Plymouth City Council, in collaboration with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Skills Launchpad Plymouth is a city wide partnership supporting those who are facing redundancy, job seeking or changing careers through the Adult Hub and offering targeted support for young people aged 16 to 24 years through the Youth Hub.

Skills Launchpad Plymouth is supported by Barclays Plymouth at their Armada Way branch, delivering face-to-face coordinated services for young people and adults, along with a range of engagement activities on site and out in the community.

Since opening, between February 2021 and February 2022, Youth Hub Plymouth supported 299 young people, 239 of whom have since transitioned into employment, education and/or training. A number of young people have also taken steps towards these key transitions by engaging in various employability, mental health and claimant support interventions.

Since March 2022, a further 87 young people have been supported with individual skills action plans and continue to receive ongoing help from the Youth Hub team.

The Minister ended her visit with a praise of Plymouth's skills project and the positive impacts it has made.

As I mentioned in a previous bulletin, one of the key next step actions that the Skills4Plymouth has is to make a greater link with what schools and education settings do. We therefore would like to have representatives from Early Years, Primary, Special and Secondary schools to sit on the Skills and Employment Board.

For further details, please contact Emma Hewitt at emma.hewitt@plymouth.gov.uk MediFest 2022 at Plymouth Guildhall.

This event showcased the amazing career and training opportunities in Plymouth and nearly 800 local students and their teachers took part on the day meeting inspiring role models from a variety of Health and Care sectors as well as the opportunity to take part in interactive experiments and demonstrations.

The Guildhall was packed, and was supported by the following organisations and their professionals:

• Becton and Dickson
• City College Plymouth
• Devon Air Ambulance
• South West Blood Bikes
• Scott Medical and Healthcare College
• Scientrific
• OCSW
• PCC/Skills Launchpad Plymouth
• UTC Plymouth
• Kidney Research UK
• Clean our Patch
• Career South West (CSW)
• Marjon University
• University of Plymouth with various faculties including Nursing and Midwifery, Biomedical, Dental

We also secured Nick Arnold, author of Horrible Science who ran a number of shows throughout the day. The event was hugely successful and we have received really positive feedback from the schools, students and exhibitors.

My thanks to the schools and other education settings that took part and we would welcome more to join us in next year's event.

Infectious Diseases Webinar

As many of you are aware, UKHSA have been running regular free webinars for early years and education providers focused on COVID-19. Now, following changes to guidance as well as feedback from those who attended previous sessions, the webinar has been refreshed and updated to give schools and providers the opportunity to hear about wider childhood infections and diseases, with a particular focus on infection prevention and control and outbreak management.

The last webinar for this academic year will take place on 23rd June 2022 at 4pm.

Sign up via www.eventbrite.co.uk

Letter from Cabinet Member

Cllr Charlotte Carlyle, the City Council's new Cabinet Member for Education and Children's Services today wrote to schools and other education settings to introduce herself. I have attached her full letter in today's Bulletin.

Best regards.

Ming

Education updates

Government policy, legislative announcements and news - w/c 06 June 2022

A new system for bringing best international teachers to England launched

A new, fairer system for bringing the best international teachers to England will be launched alongside support to help overseas teachers integrate into teaching. International teachers wanting to teach in English schools will need to meet a new set of consistent standards, rather than their eligibility being determined by the country they qualified in.

More school and sixth form places to be created

Thousands of new school places will be created, including for those who are living in disadvantaged areas, have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), or require alternative provision. The government's 55 Education Investment Areas will be prioritised for up to 15 new mainstream free schools. This will include a targeted number of high-quality, standalone sixth forms, designed to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds fulfil their potential. The first of the new wave of up to 60 special and alternative provision free schools will begin opening from September 2025, creating approximately 4,500 new places, and boosting choice for parents.