Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Young People’s Service on the progress made in developing the Leicestershire Education Excellence Partnership (LEEP) which had been approved by the Cabinet on 9 July 2013 as the agreed policy for securing educational excellence in Leicestershire’s maintained schools and academies.   The report also clarified the process for the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee to provide assurance that the LEEP was enabling the local authority to discharge is statutory duties.  A copy of the report is filed with these minutes.

The Committee noted that the Church of England Diocese had been represented on the Working Group referred to in paragraph 8 and in the foot note on page 12 of the report.

The following points arose from discussion:

      i.        This was a new and very different system from what had operated previously and, as the Authority ceased to have any direct control over a school once it became an academy, partnership working would be increasingly important.  The County Council had strong links with schools and well established practices for collaborative working.  Its focus in the new school environment had therefore been to build on these existing relationships;

    ii.        Schools were themselves best placed to support other schools.  However, the County Council continued to have an important role as champion for children.  It therefore needed to work closely with all schools to enable it to satisfy its obligations;

   iii.        Ofsted would inspect all local authority’s arrangements for supporting school improvement strategies.  To date, positive feedback had been received on the LEEP strategy; 

   iv.        It was suggested that there was a lack of clarity between the views of Ofsted and those of the Secretary of State and it would be important to ensure Ofsted took on board any concerns raised by the County Council if an academy did not co-operate, making it difficult for it to fulfil its legal obligations, even when a school was deemed to be otherwise performing well.  It would be necessary for a wider view to be taken of the impact this had on overall performance of schools in the County.  The Lead Member undertook to raise the Committee’s concerns about this issue at the LGA Children and Young People’s Board;

    v.        The Committee suggested that consideration should be given to the timescale for the submission of information on the outcome of future Ofsted reports of schools, as it would be important to ensure these were directed to members as quickly as possible;

   vi.        £350,000 had been allocated on a recurring basis in the Medium Term Financial Strategy agreed in February 2013 to support the new approach.  However, as demands in future years increased, going forward there would need to be discussions on how to get the best capacity out of existing funding;

  vii.        Members questioned what action the Children and Young People's Service could take if an academy ceased to act co-operatively through the new partnership arrangement.  The Committee noted the following:
 

·         The Children and Young People’s Service had and would continue to work to influence and encourage schools to co-operate.  The Committee would also play a critical role in monitoring the performance of the Partnership to ensure the County Council’s obligations continued to be met through the new structure.  Areas of concern which might be identified by the Committee going forward, could feed into future improvements.  The new system would evolve as it bedded in over time.

·         It would be necessary over the long term to provide evidence of positive outcomes resulting from the new partnership arrangement.  This would ensure all partners continued to support this approach.

·         It was thought that to ‘name and shame’ schools which were not operating co-operatively would not be helpful in the new environment.  Schools were important to the children who attended them, parents and local residents, as well as to the County Council.  The priority would therefore be to work closely with those schools in making improvements.  Failure to work together and provide such support would have implications for all partners and there was therefore strong support from schools at the present time to ensure the new approach worked. 

·         Steps had been taken early on in the process to ensure head teachers of both maintained schools and academies had taken a leading role in shaping the Partnership, making sure that issues identified by the Working Group were taken back to their peers for wider discussion and feedback. Briefings had also been held with head teachers and governors to ensure the right partners were fully involved in the process and kept informed of the proposals throughout. 

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)  That the role of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee in undertaking a quality assurance role in respect of the LEEP, as outlined in paragraphs 25 to 27 of the report, be noted;

(c)  That, in the light of the comments now made, the Director of Children and Young People’s Service be requested to consider the timescale for reporting to the Committee on the outcome of future Ofsted reports of schools to ensure these are directed to Committee members in a timely way.