Invitees

Cllr Huw David, Cabinet Member Children & Young People

Colin Turner, Head of Safeguarding and Family Support

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report outlining a revised plan for the Member School Engagement Panel which included information on the new National Schools Categorisation System which would incorporate the principles of the Secondary School Banding.   

The Corporate Director – Children advised that until now there had been no categorisation of Primary Schools by WG.  The Secondary Schools had been banded from 1, being the best, to 5, and the Borough currently had one school in Band 5, Coleg y Dderwen.  She explained that the national categorisation being introduced in January 2015 would make the system more robust and include Primary Schools.  There were three steps for categorisation:

·         Analysing data in relation to performance;

·         Looking at ability and capacity of a school to improve

·         Categories are colour coded to red, amber, yellow or green.

She advised that the Authority’s own consortium had for the past 18 months been using the categorisation of the letters A, B, C and D in order to work out how much support schools need.  It had been refined this year and she was confident that the Authority’s own categorisation system was similar to the National Schools Categorisation System, using the same metrics as the Welsh Government.  She was therefore aware of which schools in the Borough were in the red category and the decision made collectively with the other Directors across the consortium was that all schools in the red category would be treated the same in terms of Statutory powers of intervention.  She reported that during the past academic year she had used the statutory powers available to intervene three times in different schools, which showed that the Authority was taking a harder line.

The Committee asked whether local government support would be disseminated and work undertaken by consortia, and if so, whether a parent who had concerns about a particular school would turn to the consortia or the local authority concerned for support.

The Corporate Director – Children explained that the Welsh Government brought out the national model for regional working which clearly set out the role of consortia, and the role of the LA, and the rationale being consistent in terms of functions across all local authorities in Wales; each being allocated the same amount of funding.  Within the national model a number of areas currently sit outside and are delivered by the Authority, including Governor Support Services, Learning Pathways 14-19 and HR for schools.  Councils had until April 2015 to determine how those functions would be transferred to the consortium.   She explained that each Local Authority within the Consortia led on a particular area and hers was the 14-19 work.  In terms of the Governor Support services, she advised that it would make sense to centralise some work, such as training and stated that she was fighting to retain some local provision so that parents are able to contact local Officers with their concerns.  She advised that she would be in a position to report to Cabinet around February/March on the implications for the Authority.

In response to a question from Members, she explained that Wales Audit Office was embarking on a review of best value across all consortia..

Conclusions:             

1.         The Committee agreed to re-establish the Member and School Engagement Panel with a new approach and criteria as set out in the report including the incorporation of Primary Schools as well as Secondary schools.

2.        Members also requested to receive a report in the New Year on any changes to the Consortia, detailing what services are being transferred to them, as well as Estyn’s report on the Consortium when it is published.