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Regular Blog from the Director of Schools and Employability

Dear colleagues

As we near the end of the first half term of 2025, I thought it would be useful to give an overview of some of the things that have been developing (or concluding) just before many of you will hopefully be taking some kind of break.

It’s been a very busy start to the year, and I try to remind colleagues who are sending emails very late, or very early or working out of hours more often than not, self-care is not a luxury. I fully appreciate the demands of the job at times and the conflicting demands that we all must wrestle with. However, one of the things we all need to be mindful of is trying to look after each other. Wherever you work and whoever you are, we’re all just human. So, if you are fortunate enough to have an opportunity for any rest over half term, please try to ensure you take it.

So, here is just a flavour of some of the things that have been happening that you might find to be of use or interest. It’s not an exhaustive list of everything that is happening and if there is anything, or anyone, you think would be worth highlighting in future blogs – just get in touch and always happy to chat.

Out and About

I’ve been out and about visiting schools and colleges during this half-term, and it’s been lovely to meet with Headteachers, teachers and chat with lots of children and young people too.

I visited Harpinder at Queensbridge school and spent a couple of hours with him talking about his school, some challenges and ideas. It was good to be able to discuss importance of understanding and meeting needs effectively at school, district and city level and the role that we could and should play in that.

There was some excellent use of space right across the school, ensuring that young people are able to connect, decompress and learn. Real consideration has been given to this and pupil feedback is demonstrating that this is working for them.

It was great to meet with so many staff and my favourite part was having a school lunch in the dining hall with Harpinder and around 150 pupils. I came away with a list of jobs and some opportunities to take some of the issues we discussed forward to various meetings across the city.

I met with Headteacher, Phil Hynan recently when I visited St Michaels Primary. It was great to hear about the local community in Handsworth and the journey of the school over the last few years. I was so impressed with the ethos of this school and their commitment to inclusion. It was a genuine pleasure to find out about their approach to curriculum, pupil and family support and some of the innovative ways they ensure children thrive. It was no surprise to me that Ofsted viewed this school to be outstanding. I loved the Yurt in the playground, which Phil had managed to source and which will become a library. A massive feather in the cap for BDMAT and a good news story for the city. 

I went to visit the ‘outstanding’ Hive College, where I was able to meet with staff and pupils and discuss their experiences of college. It was so inspiring to hear about the opportunities young adults with SEND have at the College and the relationship that has been built with local employers.

The success rate of young people entering further learning, volunteering or the labour market is extremely high after the programmes. Sadly, this is not the case for many young people with SEND nationally, or in the city as often their barriers to further earning or learning opportunities can make this difficult to navigate. It was inspiring to see this happening and to discuss opportunities expanding this practice.

MAT CEO’s – Trust Leaders

I met with MAT CEO and Trust leaders this week at the King Edward VI Headquarters, where we had a series of conversations about some of the challenges and opportunities in the city.

There was an honest focus on the collective challenges that the SEND system brings and importantly, what can we individually and collectively do to move forward.

We also explored school improvement and what that could and should look like in the city. We have arranged a focused discussion and planning session with the DfE, Birmingham Education Partnership, Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Education Exchange and the Teaching and Research Schools to explore opportunities and next steps.

Despite some frustrations about the system in which we operate, it was an important and authentic conversation with some key system leaders, all seeking to collaborate and make things better for children and young people in the city.

Birmingham Careers Service

Careers Guidance is a profession that has not been served well nationally for some time and yet, it is so fundamentally important. It is a highly valued professional area of expertise.

This service has been under a period of review, which has been going on for some time. I spent an afternoon with colleagues from this service last week, where we talked through strengths, areas for development and opportunities.

Sandra Bebb and Sian Powell led the session and had, with colleagues, set out a presentation to support dialogue. It was amazing. Massive shout out to all involved.

I have not enjoyed an afternoon at work so much for a while. What a fabulous group of people who were full of challenge, frustration, ideas and proposals for taking he service forward. I loved it.

We were able to create a plan together for how we will move forward and how, together we can better meet the needs of young people in the city. We talked structures, governance, data and the importance of understanding lived experience.

There’s much more to come from this service in the city, but in the meantime, check them out here:

Inspiring Futures Event

I attended the Inspiring Futures event at Aston University, invited by the Rigby Foundation who Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Combined Authority have been working with. A fabulous organisation, who started their first business in the city 50 years ago and are seeking to contribute and give back in order to support their local communities.

The programme pairs ten schools and colleges from the city with ten leading charities who will provide support with activities like Maths and English attainment, mental health, debating skills and preparing for employment.

Steve Rigby, Chair of The Rigby Foundation: “In keeping with Richard Parker’s West Midlands Youth Employment Plan, we are focused on nurturing and supporting our region’s young people into work. That starts with a good education and we hope by bringing together schools, colleges and charities, we can raise the aspirations of our city’s students.”

The commitment aims to help more than 1,000 pupils per year to achieve goals and aspirations that otherwise could not be attained. The charities involved are Action Tutoring, Ahead Partnership, Debate Mate, Envision, Get Further, IntoUniversity, Place2Be, Skills Builder, Sutton Trust and Zero Gravity.

‘Inspiring Futures’ is solely focused on low-income communities which have high levels of deprivation and multiple challenges. The ten school partners are Ark Boulton, Ark St Albans, CORE City Academy, CORE Jewellery Quarter, Grace Academy, John Henry Newman Catholic College, King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy, Small Heath Academy, St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School and South and City College.

This is a really exciting programme of work and I was moved by the stories of challenge and hope from the schools and inspired by the approach. It’s going to be great to see how this develops over the next few years.

Local Ed 2025 Conference, LGA

I was fortunate to be able to represent Birmingham City Council recently alongside colleagues in Rochdale and wider national colleagues, by speaking at the Local Government Association in London, at a recent conference which forms part of the Local Ed 2025 project.

We had been examining work on vulnerability in education across the country and in specific LA areas and across Greater Manchester. This focused on severe absence as a lens to understand the needs of vulnerable children, by taking a granular approach to looking at specific cohorts of children who are severely absent and how this work has helped individual young people and shaped practice across the local system.

We are examining this approach in Birmingham and have begun to create an approach to enable this to happen. The learning from this work will be invaluable to us in terms of developing our understanding and, in the development of local area partnerships.

Professor Toby Greany and Dr Susan Cousin from the University of Nottingham launched their research and evaluation of the work, which is worth reading. It absolutely aligns with some of the challenges we are grappling with in the city and our ambitions. It can be found here:

Birmingham Children’s Trust

As a leadership team, we work closely with colleagues in Birmingham Children’s Trust and have joint leadership meetings. This month, we had focused discussions on attendance, exclusions and part-time tables, quality assurance, key change programmes and SEND among other things.

The challenges come thick and fast, and the environment is not always easy.

The Trust is a fabulous organisation which continues to seek to collaborate, align, challenge and improve work with children, young people and families in the city.

Youth Review

The Youth Service review concluded this half term, which has seen the service move to a position of sustainability and growth.

It was good to meet with colleagues to talk through the final structure and highlight areas for revised work and strengthened focus. This included for example further investment in voice and influence work, with several posts for young people, including SEND Ambassadors, care experienced young people and a focus on youth digital, with a related apprenticeship post.

We will also see four area-based teams, for work in districts and a focus on Health and Equality.

The next steps are to work through the community asset transfer process for some buildings, where we will be working in partnership to ensure continued delivery of provision for young people, in addition to buildings which have been retained.

Youth Strategy

Following on from the youth review, as the largest Local Authority in Europe and one of the youngest cities, we have embarked on the development of a Youth Strategy for the city.

This is to ensure that we are able to focus and align, where possible and appropriate, resources to support and enable young people, based upon identified needs and lived experiences.

This is about the city and its young people, and we want to seek to connect wherever possible and ensure that BCC plays an important role in the much bigger jigsaw of provision for the city’s young people.

Jo Tonkin (Interim Director of Public Health) and I met with the National Youth Agency recently to talk through the ambition for the city and to explore further opportunities for us to connect to promote progress.

Finally…

Just to say a massive thank you to everyone in the city for being so welcoming and committed to positive change, whomever I have met, either online, in person or even in the corridors at the Council House.

The city is often in the news at present and most often this does not represent the city we all experience. It is a place of hard-working people, all wanting to do what will move things forward. As I say often, more reasons to be cheerful than not, more good people than not and a massive culture of wanting to what is right for children, young people and families.

Hope to see you soon!

Steve

Steve Kay - Director of Schools and Employability