Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Education (copy attached) on the progress made in addressing the recommendations in the 2018 Estyn inspection report of Denbighshire County Council education services.

10.15am – 10.45am

In the absence of the Lead Member for Education, Children and Young People the Head of Education introduced  the report (previously circulated) which updated the Committee on the actions taken following the Estyn Inspection of 2018.  He explained that ideally the Service would have presented this type of closure report far earlier, however the finalisation of actions to address the report’s recommendations had been delayed and had required to be adapted due to pressures following the pandemic. This particular inspection had was a very positive inspection report and had three key areas that Estyn focused on in 2018; Outcomes, Quality of Education services and Leadership and Management.

The recommendations from the inspection were to reduce the variability in outcomes in secondary schools, and secondly to ensure that the evaluation of services for pupils educated out-of-county and in resourced-based settings focused clearly on measuring the outcomes that children and young people achieved through those services.

The Head of Service explained under recommendation one, to reduce the variability in outcomes, that the Welsh Government (WG) directive that local authorities and schools should not publish comparative data showing year to year, school versus school performance, as all schools were different and should not be used as a like for like comparison tool, made it more difficult to illustrate how variances between schools had been narrowed.

The schools and local authorities still held the data but strictly were not permitted to publish it. The data could still be viewed by the public using the WG’s My Local School website . The data should be used to drive decisions for improvement within each school.

The Service was intending to bring a report to the Committee to detail how Denbighshire schools were performing against national performance targets, which would examine the outcomes in Denbighshire against outcomes nationally, just not against schools within Denbighshire.

Under recommendation two the Head of Service advised that with respect of out of county placements that there has been a lot of steps taken to address this aspect, including a panel that met on a fortnightly basis to discuss individual learners’ progress, regular visits from the Service officers to the schools, and where appropriate joint working between social care and education as well as Health Service personnel with a view to monitoring, supporting and securing continued improvement in the pupil’s attainment.  Following on from the inspection, the Service was confident that it had a well-informed hold on all out of county placements.

The Chair then opened the discussion out for questions.  Responding to members’ questions the Head of Service advised:

• that the advice given to families moving into the area on how best to determine which school would be most appropriate for their child was to use the data available on the My Local School website for each school under consideration for their child and then to follow that up with a visit to the school(s) and meet the Headteacher(s).
• that data sets for school were generally updated on an annual basis whilst  attendance data was updated monthly
• that whilst there had been a number of changes in personnel within the Service since the inspection, education and the world in general had also changed dramatically since the pandemic, with all services now attempting to meet increasing demands with finite financial resources.  However, the Service had built outstanding relationships with headteachers and understood the priorities they were focusing on.  Weekly open briefing sessions were held with schools at which all were encouraged to share any worries or queries with the Service with a view to seeking resolutions and answers. The Service was also required to meet other priorities which arose from WG and Estyn and the Service constantly attempted to balance these in order to use limited resources effectively.  The Service currently had a ‘good’ Estyn profile.
• that Dragon Sports initiative nor the 5 x 60 programme no longer existed.  Denbighshire Leisure Limited (DLL) had a strong community offer for schools and sport formed a statutory part of the new Curriculum for Wales, with its holistic focus on physical and mental wellbeing.
• that with respect of GWE the former Minister for Education and Welsh Language had announced Phase 2 of a middle tier review of GWE, which could ultimately lead to the regional working element coming to an end, with more of a focus on local schools and collaboration with other neighbouring local authorities, this phase of the review was due to be completed by the end of August 2024.  No decisions had yet been made in respect of long-term support.  For the forthcoming twelve months GwE would continue to support schools.  It was anticipated that changes would be made to services commissioned from GwE from April 2025 but the statutory work they provided for Denbighshire County Council would continue. The commissioned services were likely to be tailored to individual school needs post April 2025; and
• that, with respect to when the next inspection of the Council’s Education Service was likely, Estyn inspections ran in six-year cycles.  As all 22 local authorities had now been inspected, in theory the Council could be inspected anytime from September 2024 onwards when the new Framework for Inspection came into force.  All inspections were undertaken with limited notification being provided to the Authority or when it was likely to take place.

At the conclusion of a comprehensive discussion the Committee:

Resolved:  that, subject to the observations provided and considering the current position following the Pandemic, it was satisfied that all possible actions to address the recommendations in the Estyn Inspection Report of 2018 had been completed.