Agenda item

(To receive a report which invites the Committee to consider a report on Future Delivery of Lincolnshire's School Improvement Services which is due to be considered by the Executive on 5 May 2015)

Consideration was given to a report which invited the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee to consider a report on the Future Delivery of Lincolnshire's School Improvement Service which was due to be considered by the Executive on 5 May 2015.

Members were advised that the report recommended that the future commissioning arrangements for school improvement was focused on a school-led system, to establish a Lincolnshire Learning Partnership, which would deliver a tiered approach to school improvement based on peer review, quality assurance and appropriate governance arrangements to drive the strategic vision for education in Lincolnshire. 

It was reported that the Council had statutory duties to fulfil in relation to promoting high standards in schools and among other providers so that children and young people achieve well and fulfil their potential as defined by section 13A of the Education Act 1996.  Members were advised that the County Council had entered into an agreement in 2002 with CfBT Education Trust (CfBT) to deliver the School Improvement Service for a period of 10 years, commencing on 1 September 2002.  In 2010, this agreement was extended to 31^st January 2017 in line with the conditions of the contract.  With effect from 1 April 2015, the contract value was £2.15m per year, reducing by £0.5m with effect from 1 April 2016.

Members of the Committee were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained in the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Extremely positive feedback had been received from one of the Head Teachers that sat on the task and design group;

·         It was queried whether there were any schools which had chosen not to opt in to this.  Members were advised there were some schools who were not opting in and that many of these were part of a trust which already carried out peer reviews.  However, officers were having meetings with the trusts to discuss this;

·         There was a need for classroom teachers to be engaged with as well as head teachers;

·         In response to a query, members were advised that teaching schools were a category of schools which were rated as outstanding which had a headteacher who was a qualified National Leader of Education (NLE) and had been successful in a Teaching School application to support other schools;

·         There were training models that schools could buy into, and there would still be an option to buy in training for governors under a new contract – this would be explored through any new contract which would be put in place following the CfBT contract;

·         It was expected that maintained schools would be part of this, but academies would be able to opt out;

·         There were a number of budgets that supported school improvement for maintained schools;

·         The model would be kept under review, with proposed annual reviews;

·         The model had been built up by headteachers;

·         There had been firm support from CfBT to work with the authority on developing the new model, and contract negotiations were ongoing;

·         It was requested that an update on the work of the School Improvement Working Group should be brought back to a future meeting of this Committee.

RESOLVED

1.    That the Committee supports the recommendations to the Executive as set out in the report;

2.    That the following additional comments be passed to the Executive in relation to this item:

·         The Committee agreed that the School Improvement Working Group should continue to examine the existing model of school improvement, and seek reassurance that the Local Authority has arrangements in place to drive up school improvement and is taking appropriate steps to ensure the new sector led model is working alongside CfBT by the end of 2015, in preparation for the new model being implemented by the end of December 2016 at the latest. The Committee requested that the School Improvement Working Group reports back on progress to a future meeting.