Education and Children's Services Committee January round-up
Chair of the Education and Children’s Services Committee welcomed members to the meeting and began by highlighting that just before Christmas, Aberdeenshire Council received updated guidance from the Scottish Government on the closure or temporary closure of schools.
Cllr Keating said the council’s own protocol is being developed to comply with the guidance by the legal and education teams, and it is anticipated that the protocol will be considered in March.
The chair then spoke about a letter that had been sent to all parents and carers around interactions with teachers.
He said: “I think it’s important because not everyone necessarily knows the standards - I'd like to think I adhere to them, but I didn't know them.
"It's good to remind everyone to be aware of the risk of tipping over to unreasonable behaviour when you're passionate and concerned about your child.
"Teachers deserve respect and our parents need to be aware of our zero tolerance policy. In my experience, teachers as far as possible work hard to address any issues that are raised by parents.”
Cllr Keating concluded by thanking staff for their efforts during the recent snow to, as far as possible, ensure young people were not disadvantaged by the interruption to their studies.
The meeting can be viewed back and all reports viewed by clicking here.
Education & Children's Services Financial Performance 2025-26
Education and Children’s Services is forecasting its revenue budget expenditure to be £5.2m over budget as at November 30. This is a reduction of £0.136m since reported at quarter two.
Director of Education Laurence Findlay told committee that the most recent quarter three monitoring projects an overspend of £3.5 million - a further reduction of £1.8 million.
Discussion included devolved school management, efficiencies, transformation savings, National Insurance increases, teacher numbers, and inflation.
Committee was presented with a report allowing members to review progress against strategic priorities across the directorate.
Members were told that data on exclusions which saw a reduction of 33% in incidents and 31% in number of young people excluded.
Adoptions received gradings of very good and excellent and was the only Scottish authority with consistent grade sixes since 2021.
Special diets provided by catering also demonstrates how the service continues to evolve and respond to changing customer need and priority. In 2008, there was a need for five special diets – with that number now at 1,350.
The report also reaffirmed the Directorate's focus on delivering improved outcomes for children, young people, families and communities, whilst navigating increasing complexity of need and significant resource and workforce pressures.
Discussion included Foundation Apprenticeships, inspection reports, free school meals, P1 and P2 enhanced provision roll out, the instrumental music service, and the janitorial review.
Policy Register Annual Review 2025 - Education & Children's Services Committee
The report before committee provides an annual update on the nine policies that are delegated to the Education and Children's Services Committee.
The overview ensures that policies remain current, effective and aligned with the council's strategic priorities.
The policies are graded under the 'Red Amber Green Status' (RAGS) assessment, with two of the policies are categorised as red - Early Learning and Childcare Admissions Policy and Out-of-zone Placing Request Policy, and both are being reviewed and will come to committee later this year.
Five are at amber – which requires monitoring - and two are at green.
Committee acknowledged the policies and the proposed plans for reviewing policies that have expired or are approaching their review date.
Aberdeenshire Anti-Bullying Policy
Following an update in the national guidance around promoting positive behaviour and anti-bullying, work has been carried out to update Aberdeenshire Council’s own policy.
There was a wide-ranging discussion around the issue.
Transport Transformation Update Report
The Safer Routes to School project focuses on increasing active travel opportunities for pupils currently receiving free School Transport on safety grounds despite living within statutory walking distances.
These are defined by Scottish Government as being less than two miles (for under eight year olds) or less than three miles (for over eight year olds) and implemented by Aberdeenshire Council based on Primary School (two miles) and Secondary School (three miles) attendance.
Consultation details are due to be announced next week. Members noted the report and noted that formal decision-making on school transport matters will continue to be brought to Education and Children’s Services Committee.
Members also agreed that the Sandhaven route be deferred for a further cycle and that the other two proposed routes should continue to be progressed.
The two proposed routes for consultation are Checkbar to Portlethen Academy and Ury Estate to Mackie Academy.
Fintry School and King Edward School
Members were informed of the proposed merger of Fintry and King Edward schools. Both schools are one-class schools with declining roles and as part of the school estate review, officers began engaging with the staff and parents regarding a merger.
Since August last year, Fintry School has been mothballed, with the majority of the pupils moved to King Edward's School.
The increased role has allowed King Edward to operate as a two-class school, providing pupils with the educational and social aspects of a larger peer group. Parents have been supportive of this merger, as are the pupils.
An option appraisal has been carried out. However, it did not identify a preferred site as both options received comparable scores. The statutory consultation will determine not only if a merger should go ahead, but also which building should be retained, and which one should permanently close.
The consultation launches on February 16 and runs until March 27.
A public meeting will be held on March 4 at Turriff Primary School.
Committee will receive the outcome of the consultation in August.
The report before committee related to a recent internal audit of secure care in Aberdeenshire and the level of risk that was identified from the audit was major with the assessment of the level of assurance being deemed as limited.
Children's services accepted all of the recommendations within the report, and compiled an action plan to address all of the areas identified as requiring remedy.
The report was presented to the Audit Committee on December 11 and the decision of the committee was that they were not assured at that time and decided to refer to the Education and Children Service’s Committee for scrutiny.
The audit identified concerns in areas such as payment controls, written procedures and training, procurement and implementation and review.
Head of Children’s Services Andrew Dick told committee: “We take very seriously the areas that were identified as being of concern and actions identified have included strengthening invoice checking processes, utilisation of digital tools to create a new flow system which will further enhance checks that are made prior to payments being carried out.
“Review of guidance for practitioners and managers and ensuring that prepayments are not made for services. Five of the 12 actions which have already been signed off by internal audit in line with the timescales that were set for completion.
“Use of secure care is a really complex area of practice and it's used as an absolute last resort to ensure the safety of young people by restricting their liberty. In children's services, we're absolutely committed to ensuring that our both our payment controls and our processes in place for young people being in secure care are robust and are followed at all times.
“This audit has afforded us the opportunity to understand areas of vulnerability in terms of our processes and to be able to strengthen these.”
The Committee agreed to conduct the Committee Review Process in respect of all recommendations within the Internal Audit Report; instruct the Head of Children’s Services to report to Committee with the Stage 1 Report on March 26; and instruct the Head of Children’s Services to report to Audit Committee on April 15 with the Education & Children’s Services Committee’s decision.