Issue - meetings

That the Committee express its dissatisfaction with the progress made by GwE.

The Director of Lifelong Learning introduced a report to provide an update on developments with school improvement services and the new National Model for Regional Working on School Improvement.

The Director provided background information and advised that the Model agreed between Welsh Local Government and the Welsh Government outlined a consistent approach to school improvement activities, such as school-to-school support. The Model aimed to encourage schools to take more responsibility for their own improvement and sought to clarify what activities should be undertaken at local authority level and what was best addressed regionally or nationally. 

Councillor Nigel Steele-Mortimer expressed a number of concerns in relation to the Regional School Effectiveness and Improvement Service (GwE) and commented that schools in Flintshire had previously been able to use the services of specialist advisors for “free” but were now required to pay for the service under the new scheme. 

Councillor Stella Jones raised concerns around the opportunity for scrutiny to be undertaken.  In his response the Director advised that the responsibility for securing school improvement lay with individual local authorities, but that new arrangements had been based on less funding being retained by local authorities.  He explained that the Model suggested that service governance was best placed in a Joint Committee whose members would be appointed by the constituent local authorities. However, the service is also subject to scrutiny in the individual authorities.

The Director reported that a common business plan template was required to enable consortia to clearly identify their key priorities for the year and the expected outcomes.  The Minister for Education and Skills would use the plans as the basis of an outcome agreement with consortia and would formally accept or reject the plans on an annual basis. 

The Housing and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Facilitator informed Members that Mr. Huw Foster Evans, Managing Director of the Regional School Effectiveness and Improvement Service (GwE), had agreed to attend the next meeting of the Lifelong Learning Overview & Scrutiny Committee to provide details of the performance of GwE in its first year.    

Councillors Carolyn Thomas and Dave Mackie referred to difficulties experienced by schools with the new service.  Councillor Thomas  also commented on the need for training for school governors.  She raised the issue of how local authorities ensured that specific grants were deployed to benefit local learners in the collaborative arrangements. 

The Director, Cabinet Member for Education, and Secondary Phase Officer responded to the matters raised.  In response to a request from Mrs. Rebecca Stark the Director agreed to distribute a copy of the new 2014/15 business plan for GwE to members for information prior to the next meeting of the Committee.

Councillor Nigel Steele Mortimer proposed that the Committee  express its dissatisfaction with the progress made by GwE.  This proposal was supported by the Committee.  

RESOLVED:

That the Committee express its dissatisfaction with the progress made by GwE.