Invitees:

Cllr Huw David, Leader

Deborah McMillan, Corporate Director – Education and Transformation

Nicola Echanis, Head of Strategy Commissioning and Partnerships

Hannah Woodhouse, Managing Director – Central South Consortium

The Chairperson welcomed the Invitees to the meeting.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium presented this item, the purpose of which was to share with Members the findings of the Estyn Report on the Central South Consortium (CSC).

She gave some background information on the report confirming that Estyn had inspected the CSC in March 2016 and that this was the first Consortium to be inspected under a new Consortia Inspection Framework. All four Consortia had been inspected, and key outcomes regarding these inspections were outlined in Appendix A to the report.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium, advised that the Inspection was supported by the Wales Audit Office and that a number of different components were examined as a result of this Inspection, including surveys received from Head teachers, Business Plan(s), performance levels, and the likes of feedback following the interview of teachers, governors, Council Leaders and Cabinet Members, and the senior team of the Consortium amongst others.

The Report as published, entitled ‘Quality of the School Improvement services provided by the Central South Consortium’ was attached at Appendix B to the report, and it was expected that all consortia would be revisited to measure progress against their recommendations from the autumn of 2017 onwards.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium added that as Members would note from the paper tabled at the meeting, the report was overall positive and that the CSC were the fastest improving region in Wales currently and possible even in the UK.

The Report included some recommendations made as a result of the inspection, and she gave a summary of each of these for the benefit of Members. Page 3 of the tabled paper also gave some comparable information with other authorities, which confirmed that Bridgend were performing well in terms of its Key Stage 4/Level 2 Regional Performance, including in English/Welsh or Mathematics.

Other main headlines from the inspection had also been positive she advised, and these included the Consortia’s vision, strategy and investment in its schools.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium confirmed that the Judgements made from the inspection in respect of the various key category areas reflected that 3 Judgements had been deemed at Good, with 2 being classed as Adequate. The two main issues highlighted as Adequate were in the categories of Support for School Improvement and Resource Management.

Paragraph 4.3 of the main report highlighted a number of areas of strength in the way that the Consortium operated and delivers impact and these were listed in this section of the report.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium confirmed that the Consortium had reviewed action plans against the recommendations and added to them where necessary. Appendix C to the report detailed a summary of each of the recommendations with actions and impact against them.

A Member noted from the report and supporting information that there were mixed feelings and reviews portrayed in relation to the support at schools of Challenge Advisors. He was aware that on occasion there was a quick turnover of these in some places of education. He felt that Challenge Advisors within schools needed to share consistent ideas as well as setting both similar and a high level of standards.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium stated that there was a quick turnover of Challenge Advisors at some schools, however, this was not necessarily a negative thing. She confirmed that back in 2013 some research had been carried out in order to establish the quality of support being provided by Challenge Advisors, and some of the Challenge Advisors at this time left as a result of this. It was generally considered at present that most if not all Challenge Advisors had previous experience working in a Senior Management team at a school, and that there had been a number of cases whereby Head teachers had requested and been granted secondment for a specific period to take up a role of Challenge Advisor on a temporary basis. This helped develop a consistent approach with Challenge Advisors working across different regions and take good practice from one school to another.

A generally positive issue was that when a Challenge Advisor left a school, it was normally custom and practice for them to right a report on the school in readiness for the incoming Challenge Advisor, who would then take this up further through the Central South Consortium.

A Member voiced some disappointment with the Judgement of Adequate in respect of the area of Support for School Improvement. She asked if this applied to just schools in Bridgend or on a wider basis.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium confirmed that the Inspection covered a regional rather than a more localised area, so this applied to all 5 Authorities involved in the Consortia, as opposed to only the Bridgend area. She added that she was hopeful of a positive progress report in this and other areas next summer.

A Member noted from the four recommendations in respect of the areas where improvement could be made, that these were primarily interlinked. He asked if there was any evidence to suggest that if Challenge Advisors improved in terms of their performance, then this would also lead to improvement in the above areas.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium advised that a good Challenge Advisor normally made for a positive school in terms of its performance. She added that only in a minority of schools it had been revealed that Challenge Advisors were not fully accountable in terms of the role they were fulfilling at that particular school. It had been established as a result of the Inspection that 3 secondary schools had been under performing at level Key Stage 4, and the reasons for this were being investigated.

The Chairperson asked if Schools Challenge Cymru were soon to terminate in terms of a supporting role.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium advised that information was still being awaited regarding this. However, should School Challenge Cymru remain in being in the future, there would definitely be a reduction in funding and support to schools from this body.

A Member advised that in all the schools he had previously had an involvement with, there had been a considerable turnover in Challenge Advisors, though he did also consider that this now seemed to be an improving picture. He asked the Invitees if the local authority asked schools what they considered of the support services provided to them by bodies such as the Education Department, the South Wales Consortium and Schools Challenge Cymru. In terms of Estyn Inspections etc, such as that of schools periodically and the Consortia, he wanted an assurance that anything negative arising from these inspections was not down purely to the fact that schools and their supporting bodies were not linking in cohesively enough, in order to achieve effective performance, outcomes and results for pupils.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium felt that this was not the case, though she was unable to categorically confirm that.

A Member referred to page 65 of the report and the point made that there was a need to strengthen leadership succession planning and future leadership capacity, as well as recruitment of core subject (particularly mathematics) teachers in the region. He felt that there was a need to recruit and retain good mathematics teachers as the retention of both these and good quality English teachers was particularly important for Key Stage 2 pupils.

The Managing Director – Central South Consortium confirmed that the Consortia were working with the Institute of Education and certain universities in order to look to improve and broaden the availability of

Teaching opportunities in both these subject areas, and this was something that was being advocated on a national basis. There was a problem in that word often got around as to the schools that employed good quality mathematics teachers and other schools would then employ tactics to look at ways by to entice these teachers to leave that school in favour of their own. Schools would often look to provide extra enhancements to assist in retaining these teaching staff. The Consortia also encouraged teachers to take up Subject Enhancement programmes to encourage teachers to teach mathematics as opposed to other subjects in order to increase expertise in this important area of learning.

She also added that there was a Teachers First Programme specifically designed for teaching staff in the subjects of Science, Mathematics and English. This was an initiative that was supported by Welsh Government to encourage staff to teach in these important subjects, however, it was a worry knowing that they intended to cut the funding in future.

The Chairperson felt that it was very important to ensure that there is succession planning in terms of the recruitment of teaching staff at Bridgend schools, and the Managing Director – Central South Consortium confirmed that she agreed with this, and that steps were being taken to ensure that this would be achieved wherever possible in the future.

As this concluded debate on this item, the Chairperson thanked the Invitees for attending and providing their input at the meeting, following which they retired from the meeting.

Conclusions:

1.    The Committee commented on the lack of a communication between Educational Leaders, the Consortium and FE Leaders and expressed concern over educational public services not integrating and working together effectively.  Members recommended that a greater link is made between the FE Sector and Local Authority Education, including the Consortium.

2.    The Committee expressed concern over Estyn’s ‘Adequate’ judgement for ‘Support for School Improvement’ given that this was the key role of the Consortium.  Members commented that the lack of consistency of Challenge Advisers in schools due to a high staff turnover in the Consortium could potentially have a significant impact on support for schools.  The Committee asked for further information on the turnover of Challenge Advisers in schools to consider how substantial an issue this is. 

3.    The Committee asked that Officers ensure that any future school performance information presented to the Committee includes comparative data with other Local Authorities in order to understand where Bridgend stands in the bigger national picture.

The Committee requested that they receive the survey data from the survey carried out with School Governors on the role of the Consortium.