Agenda Item Cardiff County Cyngor Caerdydd Children
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AGENDA ITEM CARDIFF COUNTY CYNGOR CAERDYDD CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE 16 th April 2013 ESTYN INSPECTION REPORT – POST INSPECTION ACTION PLAN UPDATE REPORT Purpose of the Report 1. The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with an overview of the progress being made by the Council in addressing the issues highlighted, and to review the Post Inspection Action Plan that was put in place following the inspection and subsequent re-inspection of Education Services in Cardiff. In addition the lead officers with responsibility for the implementation of the actions have also provided some additional information and have been invited to comment on their specific areas of responsibility. 2. Councillor Julia Magill (Cabinet Member, Education and Lifelong Learning - including Libraries), Nick Jarman (Corporate Director - People), and Robert Hopkins, (Head of the School Improvement Service - Central South) will make a presentation on the progress reports and will be available to answer any questions Members may have. Officers with lead responsibility for the implementation of specific action plan areas and the improvement of performance have been invited to present an update on their areas, namely: Mike Davies and Rachel Jones for Partnership / Performance issues; Nick Jarman and Robert Hopkins on School Performance; Sian Cadwalladr for Attendance; Phil Norton for Behaviour and Exclusions; Simon Morris on NEETs (people Not in Education Training or Employment); and Neil Hardee on SEN (pupils with Special Educational Needs). Background 3. ESTYN, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales, is responsible for inspecting the quality and standards in education and training in Wales. The inspectorate conducts a core inspection for all providers in each sector of education and training. The purposes of inspection are to: Provide accountability to the users of services and other stakeholders through its public reporting on providers; Promote improvement in education and training; and Inform the development of national policy by the Welsh Government. Cardiff’s 2011 ESTYN Inspection Report 4. The Previous Committee received the ESTYN Inspection report in July 2011. The report summarises ESTYN’s overall judgment for the Education Service as Adequate . The report also provides a judgement on the Authority’s capacity to improve. The inspector’s judgement is that it is Adequate , and the prospects for improvement were judged to be Adequate . 5. In response to the recommendations of the ESTYN Inspection Report, Education Services developed and published its statutory Action Plan, which was considered by the previous Committee at its meeting on 12 August 2011. The Post Inspection Action Plan (PIAP) identified four key objectives to help focus the actions to address all the issues covered in the recommendations, namely: i. OBJECTIVE 1 - To improve the strategic leadership of joint working between the authority and the Cardiff Integrated Partnership Board and to improve the effectiveness of partnership planning for outcomes in priority areas. ii. OBJECTIVE 2 -To improve performance management processes to ensure consistency of approach in meeting delivery of objectives and improve the scrutiny of partnership working. iii. OBJECTIVE 3 –To continue to raise standards at Key Stage 4, improve attendance, reduce exclusions and reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training. iv. OBJECTIVE 4 -To improve information, advice and support for all parents of learners requiring the statutory assessment of pupils’ special educational needs. Cardiff’s 2012 ESTYN Re-inspection 6. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the authority’s ESTYN Action Plan in addressing the issues highlighted in the Inspector’s report, a monitoring visit was undertaken by ESTYN in June 2012 to assess progress against the recommendations. The monitoring visit recognised progress in several areas but found that there is still more that the local authority needs to do to build on this work to ensure the original recommendations are met fully. It detailed in two recommendations that the authority should: Continue to address the recommendations from the 2011 inspection through the post-inspection action plan; and Make sure that the arrangements for delivering school improvement services challenge and support all schools effectively, in order to improve standards for learners in all key stages. 7. As a result of the re-inspection, the authority remains in the follow-up category of ESTYN monitoring and a team of inspectors will return in not less than six months to monitor the further progress made. A copy of the ESTYN Inspection report and re-inspection letter to the Chief Executive, resulting from the monitoring visit, have been made available to Members at a previous Committee meetings, and are available upon request. ESTYN Action Plan Progress Report 8. The Post Inspection Action Plan Progress Report outlines the Key Actions taken by the Authority to achieve the objectives and recommendations stated earlier in this report. It goes on to provide information on the impact of these actions, gives evidence to support the impact, and outlines what remains to be improved further. A copy of the January 2013 Progress Report is attached at Appendix A. Members may wish to note the areas that the Council has identified as requiring further improvement. Objective Areas for Progress report page improvement numbers 1 - Strategic leadership 9 Pages 8 - 9 2 - Performance 12 Pages 17 - 18 management / partnership 3 - Raise standards at KS4 7 Pages 23 - 24 3 - School Improvement 11 Pages 29 - 30 Service 3 - Improve attendance 10 Pages 35 - 36 3 – Reduce exclusions 9 Page 43 3 - NEETS 8 Pages 50 - 51 4 – Special Educational 5 Page 56 Needs ESTYN Action Plan Update Report 9. The Post Inspection Action Plan Update Report outlines the key actions taken by the authority to achieve the objectives and recommendations stated earlier in this report. Each section starts with an overall summary of performance for the area, detailed performance information, comparative information and trend data. This information is followed by the key performance targets and outcome measures against which progress is measured, and finally a progress update table. A copy of the January 2013 Action Plan Update Report is attached at Appendix B. 10. The progress update tables detail for each of the actions, their implementation date, responsible officer, progress update and its status under the RAG status (Red, Amber, Green). Analysis of the “red” status actions shows the following: Area Number of “Red” status actions Schools attainment 0 Attendance 0 Behaviour 5 NEETs 2 SEN 0 Partnership / performance 2 management 11. Officers have also provided additional information on progress and impact following from the implementation of specific action which include: A summary of responses to outcomes of the ESTYN monitoring visit at Appendix C; A briefing for the Implementation Board on human resources support for schools at Appendix D; A briefing on Cardiff Community Learning Network at Appendix E; and A summary of the impact of actions on Behaviour in Cardiff’s Schools at Appendix F . Impact on Scrutiny 12. Members will remember that Objective 2 (which is linked to Recommendation 3 “improve the scrutiny of partnership working”) relates to this Scrutiny Committee and the scrutiny of partnership working across the Council. The monitoring visit undertaken in June 2012 commented that “this recommendation has been partially met”. A multi-agency Scrutiny Panel has been established to improve the scrutiny of partnership working via the Cardiff Partnership Board (CPB). This Panel has now held five meetings covering: Agreed terms of reference and future work programme, The extent, quality and consistency of service user engagement across Partnership programmes The use of business intelligence across the Partnership, focussing in particular on the Healthy Living Programme; Actions taken to identify and reduce geographical inequality across Cardiff; and A review of its first year’s work programme and planning for 2013/14. The Panel has ensured that the Partnership is signed up to the National Principles of Engagement for all CPB work streams and sought to improve the CPB’s data sharing arrangements. Legal Implications 13. The Scrutiny Committee is empowered to enquire, consider, review and recommend but not to make policy decisions. As the recommendations in this report are to consider and review matters there are no direct legal implications. However, legal implications may arise if and when the matters under review are implemented with or without any modifications. Any report with recommendations for decision that goes to Cabinet will set out any legal implications arising from those recommendations. All decisions taken by or on behalf the Council must (a) be within the legal powers of the Council; (b) comply with any procedural requirement imposed by law; (c) be within the powers of the body or person exercising powers of behalf of the Council; (d) be undertaken in accordance with the procedural requirements imposed by the Council e.g. Scrutiny Procedure Rules; (e) be fully and properly informed; (f) be properly motivated; (g) be taken having regard to the Council's fiduciary duty to its taxpayers; and (h) be reasonable and proper in all the circumstances. Financial Implications 14. The Scrutiny Committee is empowered to enquire, consider, review and recommend