Local Government is committed to working with the new Welsh Government to achieve:
- The implementation of regional school improvement services through the four regional education consortia;
- Continued political support for school reorganisation and tackling surplus places;
- Continued partnership in delivering the 21st Century Schools Programme;
- The engagement of families and communities in education and lifelong learning through retaining the education responsibilities of the existing local authorities; and
- Continued funding of education through the RSG and a further reduction in the number of specific grants.
Background:
Local government has consistently been committed to improving education and lifelong learning so as to enable people to fulfil their potential as individuals, to equip them to contribute meaningfully and effectively to sustainable communities and to help create a vibrant and prosperous society. If Wales is to emerge successfully from its current economic malaise and is to compete with other countries in any future improvement in the global economy, then the education system must deliver better outcomes for learners and equip them with the necessary skills to compete more effectively.
Whilst education standards have been continuously improving, it remains the case that the education system as a whole is underperforming. It is unacceptable that far too many young people are not achieving their potential and that the stark inequalities relating to social class and geography remains. PISA shows that children in Wales are falling further behind their counterparts in the UK and other comparator countries in literacy, numeracy and science. The clear message from the PISA Study 2010 is that while performance is improving, and although funding and socio-economic factors are significant, the education system in Wales is underperforming and attainment levels are unsatisfactory. This position is simply unacceptable and things must change.
Local government leaders accept that they have a significant responsibility for education performance within their authorities and have expressed their determination to act immediately to achieve improvement to address this systemic failure. Local government has embraced fully the Welsh Government’s focus on literacy, numeracy and child poverty and has committed itself to working with the Education Minister in taking forward his 20 actions.
Children and young people in Wales deserve and have a right to expect a better education service and the 22 leaders have resolved to make education their number one priority in the coming months and years. It is recognised also that we need to focus more on teaching and learning, on improving literacy and numeracy, rather than getting caught in distractions and bogged down in endless discussions around funding and structures. This means using mechanisms like the School Effectiveness Framework to drive improvement more effectively while recognising also that we need to be more rigorous in measuring performance, managing data and strengthening responsibility and accountability within the system.
Education improvement requires that citizens, families, communities are engaged with local schools and share responsibility for the learning process. It is for this reason that local government continues to believe that education should be a responsibility of local authorities that is rooted in local communities. Nevertheless we are committed to taking urgent action so that by 2012 the local authorities will have vested in their four education consortia all the resource necessary to create regional school improvement services. There is also a commitment to increase delegation rates to schools from 75%, initially to 80% and then to 85% but there is much more that can be done.
The proposed cuts in capital funding over the next few years and the consequences for the 21st Century Schools Programme make school reorganisation and reducing surplus places even more challenging. Nevertheless if we are to perform better we need to continue to drive out the inefficiency which results from continued surplus places. Local government will need the political support of the Assembly and Assembly Members to engage with citizens to make change happen.
The WLGA has long held the view that the education system as a whole needs simplifying through a rationalisation of process, fewer initiatives, better guidance and a sharper focus on outcomes. There needs to be greater clarity and more consistency in the governance arrangements for local schools. There is a greater role to be played by local authorities and their consortia in managing the performance of schools and in managing resources across schools. School structures need to be more easily changed and, to this end, there is a case for new legislation which would allow a local authority to redeploy staff from one school to another.
Education is a responsibility shared between families, communities, schools, local authorities, the Welsh Government and other stakeholders. If our profound problems are to be resolved, such as the growing issue of young people in NEETS, then we need an air of urgency, honesty and openness as we move forward. We cannot rest in this endeavour until we have the best performing education system in the UK and one of the highest levels of attainment within the PISA community.