Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation in relation to the work of the ERW (Education through Regional Working) Consortium during 2015/16 and its business plan for 2016-19. The presentation outlined ERW’s functions, the continuation of the statutory responsibilities within each local authority as well as the collaborative working across the region. The Committee noted the progress made during the past year and was also updated on the outcomes of the recent ESTYN inspection of the quality of the school improvement services provided by the ERW Consortium, in June 2016. ESTYN had rated four out of five aspects of ERW’s work as ‘Good’ with one listed as ‘Adequate’.

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the report and presentation:

Clarification was sought as to the arrangements for those local authority officers that were seconded to ERW. The Head of School Effectiveness informed the Committee that secondees were funded by ERW through reimbursement to the host local authority which in turn, enabled further commissioning of officers. The central ERW team budget paid for two members of full-time professional staff, including the Managing Director, as well as for four administrative officers. In addition, ERW commissioned and funded a small number of specific posts from Welsh Government grant funding on an annual basis.    

Reference was made to a recent report in the media suggesting that ESTYN would not be inspecting local authorities in future. The Head of School Effectiveness stated that there might have been some misunderstanding and that ESTYN would be following up on the recent inspection of the four Welsh school improvement consortia during the current academic year. ESTYN was also currently developing plans for a revised inspection model for local authorities and schools.

It was suggested that the school categorisation process was misunderstood by parents across the ERW region, having been discussed at the ERW Scrutiny Councillor Group in September. It was also suggested that the system needed to be effectively communicated to parents. The Head of School Effectiveness acknowledged members’ concerns and reminded the Committee that the categorisation process was about the level of support that an individual school received from ERW. There were a number of different factors that influenced what type of support a school might require. He assured the Committee that ERW did everything and anything possible to assist schools with specific difficulties (e.g. no permanent head teacher) and reminded members that for 2015/16, there was not one Carmarthenshire school in the red support category.

It was asked whether there was an alternative method of categorising schools, especially those smaller schools where a single child with special educational needs might significantly impact the overall performance / results of the school. The Head of School Effectiveness acknowledged the comments adding that he sympathised with schools in this situation based on his own experience as a head teacher. He informed the Committee that there was a means of over-riding the system when dealing with small schools in this situation (e.g. those schools with special units). Being able to demonstrate that a school was actually performing better than what its Standards judgement might suggest, was one of the most important discussions that the challenge advisors had with schools during the categorisation process.

In response to a question as to why there was not more pupil progress data available between the different key stages, the Head of School Effectiveness acknowledged that there wasn’t enough of this type of data available at present. 

In response to further comments regarding the current school categorisation process, the Director of Education & Children acknowledged that these were fundamental issues and that officers had been lobbying the Welsh Government for a very long time but to date, no changes had been forthcoming. He stated that the system of using teacher assessments as part of the process to determine school categorisation was fundamentally flawed and this gave a distorted view of performance to parents. However, officers hoped that as the Donaldson reforms took effect, a new monitoring system would be introduced.  

It was asked how exemplary cases of good practice found within Carmarthenshire’s schools were shared and promoted. The Head of School Effectiveness informed the Committee that examples of good practice were fully utilised and shared with schools across the region. One example was the ERW ‘Celebrating Schools Work’ event which allowed schools to share information with other schools, rather than through ERW’s officers.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the report be received.