Hello and welcome again to Heads Up. 

Three weeks into the new term and we are very conscious of all you have been dealing with already. We've been updating guidance to schools and other settings on responding to the impact of Covid-19 on staff and pupils. So far it appears that the steps being taken are contributing to a situation that is challenging, but is still enabling children to take part and benefit from all the education, learning, play and development that you offer. The announcements this week from national government give a broad indication of how things are going across the country, but it’s clear that we still face the challenges of working with Covid-19, despite measures being removed or relaxed.

The Schools Forum met last week and thanks to all colleagues who take the time to participate. A short update on the meeting is provided in this week's edition of Heads Up and you’ll see a range of important work continues to take place, with school leadership and colleagues from the council supporting the decision-making process. This has included an agreement on de-delegation from mainstream schools of the LAs Monitoring and Brokering Grant which funds school improvement work and was hot off the press as we received the government’s decision earlier in the week on this issue.

The Council's cabinet will meet next week to consider the Council Plan for 2022 onwards. This is a really important Plan that sets out the aspiration and key areas of focus for Warwickshire. The link to the Plan can be found here. The plan will go on to be discussed by all Councillors at the meeting of Council on 8 February. Children and young people and education are a priority and you can see from the plan the specific strategic areas we will work on with you and other partners.

Finally, Warwickshire's Written Statement of Action has been approved by Ofsted. There will be regular monitoring and review by the DfE. Thank you to everyone who has been involved. It was an area inspection and an area statement of action and it’s been impressive to see how everyone is motivated to use the inspection as a catalyst for improvement for children, young people and their families.

Best wishes and thanks

Chris