Summary of the Key Issues

The Oxfordshire Context: . The county average is good but there are marked differences across the county. West Oxfordshire, Vale and South Oxfordshire score in the top ten per cent of all districts nationally while Cherwell occupies a middle-ranking position and Oxford City is in the bottom third of districts.

. There are ten small areas roughly within the bottom ten per cent of all areas in England with high child poverty. Nine of these are in Oxford City: Barton and Sandhills OO5A, Cowley Marsh O13B, Northfield Brook O18C, St Mary’s O11F, Rose Hill and Iffley O16E, Churchill O1OC, St Clement’s O11A. Blackbird Leys O18A and Northfield Brook O18B. One is in Banbury: Banbury Grimsbury and Castle OO4B.

. Rural deprivation is masked due to the relatively small population numbers. According to the Department for Work and Pensions 2007 statistics, 11.3% of children in Oxfordshire are living in poverty (2007). There are two rural wards with a child poverty rate above the Oxfordshire average.

. Inequalities can be identified in terms of location, ethnicity, income and gender, which are then repeated in other aspects of children’s lives.

. The ethnic breakdown of the population is changing. The number of Other White increased by 36.9% from 2001 to 2007. This is reflected in the school populations, with a substantial increase in the number of Polish pupils. All other ethnic groups have also increased over this period, with several groups doubling or more than doubling in size (Asian or Asian British: Indian and also Other Asian; Black or Black British: African).

Be Healthy:

Page 1 of 4 . The health of people in Oxfordshire is generally better than England and regional averages. Children's health is better than the England average. However, more than 13,025 children are living in poverty and we know from data on deprivation that there are significant inequalities within Oxfordshire by location, gender, income and ethnicity which impact on health.

. Under-18 conceptions have increased across the county and Oxfordshire is not on course for the target trajectory to reduce conceptions by 45% by 2010. There are particular concentrations in Banbury and Oxford City.

. Evidence indicates that teenage parents are more likely to want to leave school as soon as possible and that approximately 80% of them are likely not to be in employment, education and training.

. By the time that children reach Year 6, 15.4% of them have been measured as obese. (Figures for 2008-09). This compares to just 7% of children in reception measured in the same year.

. Immunisation rates need to be maintained and the Director of Public Health has highlighted the need to check the immunisation history of people moving into the area and offering them immunisation to fill any gaps.

Stay Safe: . Most of the 600 children who have had common assessments completed are white British, the majority age group is 5-11 and more are boys. A large proportion have a disability.

. The Young Carers Strategy 2008-13, estimates that there are 11,000 young carers in Oxfordshire. 750-800 young carers are connected to services within the county. The majority are between eight and 15 years old. There are no specialist services for under eights and over 15s.

. In Oxfordshire, there were 1411 admissions to hospital for injury in 2008- 09, equivalent to 106.5 per 10,000 population aged under-18.

. A number of themes have emerged from Serious Case Reviews which highlight the need for improvements in multi-agency working in particular in the review and management of cases of neglect. . Serious case review analysis has introduced evidence that identifies domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health as the ‘toxic three’ associated with death or serious injury to children.

. Our progress measures show that we need to continue to improve our per- formance when assessing and reviewing the needs of children within our care: . The volume and timeliness of initial assessments undertaken by social workers fell between 2007-08 and 2008 -09, from 74.7% to 60.8%. . The timeliness of the reviews of children and young people looked after by the council has improved over the last three years from 81.3% to 89.7% in 2008-09. Whilst on a par with similar authorities (88%) it is below the national average (90%) as recorded in 2007-08. Page 2 of 4 Enjoy and Achieve: . For all key stages, Oxfordshire performs in line or above the national averages but towards the lower end of the statistical neighbours groups.

. In Key Stage 1 Oxfordshire was below all statistical neighbours in all areas of reading, writing and maths. There is a marked gender split particularly in writing where girls outperform boys by 13%.

. In Key Stage 2 results are towards the lower half of the statistical neighbours group, particularly in English where Oxfordshire ranks 9th. This is reflected in minority groups such as Asian and Black ethnic groups and also those young people in receipt of free school meals.

. The percentage of students at Key Stage 4 who achieve five or more A*-C GCSEs is improving gradually, but Oxfordshire does not perform well enough against similar authorities. In summer 2008, Oxfordshire achieved 50.5% compared to the average of its statistical neighbours (53.7%). It was second to last out of the group of 11 statistical neighbours.

. Between 2004 and 2009, the performance of looked after children at Key Stage 4 has been below target and below national average with only 8% achieving five GCSEs A*-C grades including English and maths in 2009.

. Overall children from Black or Asian backgrounds and White Romany / Irish Travellers perform less well than the overall cohort at all key stages and less well than the national averages for those groups.

. Analysis of performance through from Early Years Foundation Stage Profile to Key Stage 4 shows that those gaps, which exist at Foundation Stage in attainment between more vulnerable groups and the rest still exist at Key Stage 4 and in many cases the gap is wider.

. 91 schools were inspected by Ofsted during 2008/09. 12% of schools were rated as outstanding 59% of these schools were rated ‘Good or better’. 4% schools were rated as inadequate.

Make a Positive Contribution: . Evidence from the Childwise Survey would suggest that bullying is an issue which affects all young people. Minority groups in Oxfordshire are particularly affected. Girls are twice as likely to have been the target of cyber bullying than boys. Young people have told us that they have less confidence in the options to deal with it as they get older and progress into secondary school.

. Evidence from the Childwise Survey shows that disabled children are highly vulnerable to bullying and are socially isolated; findings from the Childwise survey suggest that they are four times less likely than their peers to go out or go to see friends.

Page 3 of 4 . Over the last 12 months there has been a gradual increase in custodial sentences within Oxfordshire rising from an average of 4.3% for the year 2008-09 to 8.1% by June 2009.

. Hot-spots of youth crime Hot-spots of youth crime have been identified as Barton in the Central area, Didcot in the Southern area and Ruscote and Bretch Hill in the Northern area.

. Young people with special educational needs account for 20% of the secondary roll yet they account for 80% of young people permanently excluded. Many of these young people have Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD).

Achieve Economic Well-being: . The percentage of young people achieving Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications is not in line with similar council areas. In 2007-08, 75% of young people aged 19 achieved Level 2 in Oxfordshire, compared to the highest performing Buckinghamshire (81%). In 2007-08, 54% of young people aged 19 achieved Level 2 in Oxfordshire, compared to the highest performing Buckinghamshire (64%).

. The gap in attainment of Level 3 at age 19 between those young people who were in receipt of free school meals at age 15 and those who were not, is greater than that in similar councils and the national figure. The 2007-08 figure for Oxfordshire is 31.7 percentage points, which is not as good as statistical neighbours (31 percentage points) and does not meet the target of 29 percentage points.

. There is an increasing percentage of young people not in education, employment or training. By June 2009, the county figure had increased to 6.7%. Banbury, Oxford and Oxford South East have the highest rates. Vulnerable groups most affected are teenage parents, young offenders and care leavers – less than 35% of all these groups are in employment, education or training. . Evidence from the Childwise Survey shows that some groups of young people do not feel that they have the right amount of time and support at school to discuss what they want to achieve e.g. teenage parents, who have specific vulnerabilities and needs.

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