Agenda item

To consider a report by the School Effectiveness Performance Officer: Secondary (copy enclosed) which details the findings of the Estyn Inspection of the Conwy and Denbighshire Adult Community Education Partnership and seeks the Committee’s observations on the Inspectors’ recommendations.

9.45 a.m.

A copy of a report by the School Effectiveness Performance Officer:  Secondary had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

The School Effectiveness Performance Officer:  Secondary provided a summary of the report which detailed the findings of the Estyn Inspection of the Conwy and Denbighshire Adult Community Education Partnership (Cyswllt Dysgu).  The salient points outlined in the report included:-

·        Estyn had aimed to answer the three following key questions through an analysis of self-evaluation, performance data, lesson observations and meetings with stakeholders:

                (i)     How good are the outcomes

                (ii)    How good is provision

                (iii)   How good are leadership and management

·        Judgement on all three questions had been good.  An overall judgement on the partnership’s current performance had been considered to be good with the prospects for improvement being excellent.

·        The Estyn Inspection report had highlighted the levels of ability achieved from learners from different backgrounds and age groups.

·        Not enough Welsh speaking learners had utilised their Welsh language skills well enough as a medium for learning or for assessing their progress.

·        Most learners improved their confidence through learning and as a result were better able to manage their lives and support their children.

·        Teaching had been good or better in most of the sessions observed by the inspection team.

The Partnership’s Leadership had provided good leadership with Leaders collaborating well with a broad range of other key Groups.  The partnership had good arrangements for self-assessment, with clear objectives and timescales and Estyn had considered that partnership working had been excellent with improved standards being achieved by learners, an improvement in the quality of teaching and in assessment.

The Committee noted Estyn’s recommendations that, in order to further improve the partnership would need to:-

(i)           increase the number of classes and learning activities in which learners achieve excellent standards in their work.

(ii)            increase the amount of excellent teaching and assessment.

(iii)          promote a common approach to safeguarding to raise the standard of all partnership members’ policies and procedures, and

(iv)           promote and improve the use of Welsh as a medium of communication for learning.

In reply to a question from Ms G. Greenland regarding the monitoring of the collaboration process between Authorities, the School Effectiveness Performance Officer: Secondary explained that the Partnership’s Executive Group would receive reports from the Sub-Groups.  The Local Authority would monitor progress, the quality of courses and student numbers through Services Level Agreements and Service Groups based at the Colleges.

Councillor W. Mullen-James referred to paragraph 4.6 of the reportwhich highlighted that not enough Welsh speaking learners use their Welsh language skills well enough as a medium for learning or assessing their progress.  The School Effectiveness Performance Officer: Secondary expressed the view that there was a need to offer more Welsh medium courses across the Partnership.  He also explained that in many cases there was a confidence issue with many students choosing to learn through the medium of English.  In reply to a question from Councillor H.O. Williams, it was explained that it would be difficult to monitor the number of Welsh speaking students attending University outside the locality.

Councillor J.M. Davies referred to Estyn’s expectations that the outcomes from the report, which were good, should be transformed into being excellent and questioned how this could be achieved.  The School Effectiveness Performance Officer: Secondary explained that Estyn only provide a judgement and would not offer guidance or direction with regard to achieving further improvement.  It would be up to the Partnership itself to determine how it would strive to improve further.

The School Effectiveness Performance Officer: Secondary responded to a question from Councillor T.R. Hughes and explained that the merging of Llysfasi Agricultural College and Deeside College had enabled the provision of a wider range of courses    available to the public.  The Corporate Director:  Customers referred to the strategic alliance between Llysfasi, Deeside College and Coleg Llandrillo which had improved the level of service provision in Denbighshire. 

The Chair suggested that, in order to progress the improvements already attained, it would be useful if scrutiny saw the action plan detailing the measures and timescales to achieve the improvement from good to excellent.  Following further discussion, it was:-

RESOLVED – that the Communities Scrutiny Committee receive the report and note Members comments.

At this juncture as the meeting was progressing ahead of schedule the Chair, with the Committee’s consent, varied the order of business.