Agenda item

A report is attached presenting the conclusions and recommendations of the Schools and the Local Authority Task Group for endorsement.

Cllr Phillip Whalley, Chairman of the task group, will provide a verbal introduction.

The Chairman reminded Members that in December 2013 the Committee discussed its work priorities for 2013-17 and agreed that schools should remain a key part of the forward work programme.  It was agreed that the Coalition Government’s reforms to the education system in recent years, particularly the academies programme, had significantly changed the relationship between local authorities and schools and that Wiltshire’s response to this was an important area for investigation.

Following a scoping exercise with the executive and officers, the Task Group concluded that Wiltshire’s schools were the primary route through which the Council could influence the attainment of Wiltshire children on a daily basis. It was therefore agreed that the Task Group should investigate how the Council should continue to provide the most appropriate services and support to Wiltshire schools in order to promote excellence and fulfil its statutory duties.

Cllr Philip Whalley, as Chairman of the Task Group, introduced his report and presented the conclusions and recommendations of the Task Group for endorsement.  He explained that the Task Group’s terms of reference were as follows:-

(1)          To explore how the Council promotes excellence and fulfils its statutory duties to children and young people in Wiltshire’s schools.

(2)          To explore whether the education services offered by the Council meet the needs of schools and students, and if not, how they could be developed to help improve outcomes. 

Cllr Whalley went on to inform the Committee that the majority of Wiltshire’s secondary schools (20 out of 29) were academies and the number of primary academies was growing; overall 22% of Wiltshire schools were academies. The Task Group had commissioned an online survey of all Wiltshire schools of which 68 had responded, which represented 28.9% of all Wiltshire schools.

The results of the survey showed that there was a good take up of services offered by the Council to academies but there was a need for a customer contact management system to ensure that schools received a good customer experience.  There had been some dissatisfaction from some schools regarding the level of customer support they received, the issues relating to:-

·         response time to enquiries,

·         inconsistent advice or information being given, and

·         a lack of clarity over which team or officer was the appropriate contact.   

The Task Group concluded that action was required to:-

a)            ensure there was complete clarity around who in the Council was doing what in relation to schools, and

b)            enable strategic oversight of the Council’s services to, and relationship with, schools, regardless of which directorate they sat within.

During the ensuing debate, Members expressed their general support for the recommendations of the Task Group but expressed disappointment that the on-line questionnaire and summary of responses had not been made available to the Committee.

Resolved:

(1)       To endorse the Task Group’s final report and refer it to the Cabinet Member for response at the next meeting of this Committee.

(2)       To request that copies of the on-line questionnaire and summary of responses be attached to the minutes of this meeting as an appendix.

(3)       To thank the Task Group for their thorough and detailed work and also to the Senior Scrutiny Officer for his excellent support throughout the process.