Meeting documents

To consider a report by the Interim Director for Children’s Services.

(Cllrs Katharine Garcia and Andrew Parry declared personal interests in the minute below as Governors of the Atlantic Academy and Ferndown Upper School respectively.)

The Committee considered a report by the Interim Director for Children's Services on Dorset Education Performance - where we are now and the last level of results.

Members noted that in Dorset there was a mixed economy of academies and maintained schools.  The report showed Dorset's performance in terms of rankings for the 150 local authorities under the categories of attainment and disadvantaged gap.  Attention was drawn to areas where performance was less than the minimum standards, that Dorset Middle Schools made less progress and the impact this had on overall performance, the two new schools in Key Stage 4, concerns for schools within Weymouth and Portland and secondary school performance generally

The Chairman reminded officers that an inquiry day on education performance had been planned last year, but this had been delayed.   The Committee's previous report had identified issues and actions to be explored and the purpose of the current report was to provide an update on performance since then. Performance had not improved and no changes had been made as a result of the previous report.  The Committee's role was to identify any issues and scrutinise steps taken to address these and improve performance.

The Interim Director for Children' s Services explained how resources had been delegated to schools over a period of years which had resulted in maximum delegation to schools, making them all but autonomous, and reduced responsibilities for local authorities.  So any attempt to bring about improved performance would have to be at the strategic level where there were prescribed duties in law, or in partnership and co-operation with schools.  Of particular concern were schools in Weymouth and Portland and especially Portland where there were low levels of social mobility and education attainment.  Rapid improvement was needed and efforts would need to be focused to bring about change.

The pressure on schools and teachers by development and the delay in building new schools was highlighted.  It was explained that Dorset could respond well to demand.  Dorset schools had always performed well but schools in other areas were now outperforming them and even though the Ofsted regime raised performance, Dorset schools were no longer performing as well as they did.  With the maximisation of delegation to schools, the Council only ran central services where schools, through the Schools Forum, allowed it to retain funding.

In response to questions, members noted that figures only included learners in Dorset schools, children taught out of area would be included in figures for those areas, Dorset did provide education for children from other areas, performance of Dorset children placed out of county was not compared to children placed in Dorset by other local authorities but these were few in number, looked after children attainment was reported to the Corporate Parenting Board, and the authority needed to do all it could to close the gap between attainment of looked after children and their peers.

Resolved

That officers contact similar local authorities to establish how they managed school performance and relationships with schools and report their findings to the meeting on 10 October 2018.