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Agenda item

Education Achievement Service (EAS) - Value for Money 2020-21

Minutes:

Invitees:

Geraint Willington - Director – Resources, Business and Governance, EAS

Ed Pryce - Assistant Director Policy and Strategy, EAS

Sarah Morgan - Head of Education, Newport City Council

 

The EAS Director presented a brief overview to the Committee and highlighted they key areas for consideration. The report to the Committee assessing the performance of the EAS concluded that the EAS is providing good value for money in terms of those aspects that are within its control, notably: economy; efficiency; equity and; sustainability. However against the backdrop of a global pandemic; the approach has been rethought in vulnerable and disadvantaged wellbeing. The Director went through the report in detail for the Committee and highlighted that the focus is spending less and spending well, the external contender introduced equity of spending fairly and for the long term. They found effectiveness affects wellbeing and therefore assessed how the EAS mitigated the impact on those from poor backgrounds.

 

The officers covered the sustainability area of the report and went through the data on how to get a greater range of accountability about what was going on in schools rather than exam performance. As they did not have the exam grades due to the pandemic the team had to improvise their approach and also discussed the feedback from the schools on this. The officer noted it is about ensuring that the recommendations from the report have been implemented as part of the value for money and they continue to compare the outcomes outlined from the surveys.

 

The Committee asked the following:

 

·         A Committee Member noted the a third of the staff numbers being reduced. With that, will they still see a resilient service and what the differences will be? For instance would that be putting more on the head-teachers on providing a service more so than before?

 

The Assistant Director covered the headteacher element by stating that the majority of heads are improvement schools that they backfill and ensure that their funding they receive are able to other leaders to buy and supply and. Their partner school advisors report gained huge amount of support in another school; can learn a lot by providing the support back into the school.

 

The Director for Resources confirmed with the resilient point, they had to make major savings but the issue with grants has hit them hard as they had to reduce what was needed to be taken again and have had to re-structure. They assured Members they are mindful with the improvement service area, that it cannot go any lower. They are mindful of the support going to the staff; for instance they received the gold award while going through a re-structure.

 

·         The Member asked if the reduction in funding from Welsh Government was foreseen or unforeseen and in terms of risk balance; would there be a risk if there is further reduction; and if there is clarity between the Welsh Government and Council of this difficulty.

 

The EAS Director confirmed that the Joint Executive Group (JEG) is under a lot of pressure and that they are 50 percent funded via grants and due to the pandemic; funding was late coming through. They were unaware they had this until late January, but was already in communication with the Welsh Government. They were under the impression they had to make savings whilst being in touch with unions; as they did not know what the funding was going to be. Members were informed they had a meeting today to see what it is like as they are mindful they want to avoid a re-structure for stability.

 

·         A Member queried how EAS compares to other regional bodies.

 

In response, the Assistant Director stated they work collaboratively with other regions and are well established within the Cardiff/Bridgend area. The Director for EAS added that the pandemic has brought the bodies closer together because of the virtual environment which has helped with collaboration in leadership.

 

·         The Committee Member then queried in relation to the Welsh Government funding; would they have been able to foresee that the Government is funding less in order to encourage the bodies to merge.

 

The Assistant Director confirmed that they would not as they only know what each region is getting in terms of money and use that collaboratively.

 

·         A Committee Member queried whether head teachers will be prepared for more cuts and if they are in the know of these so they can work within the set budgets.

 

The Head of Education confirmed that with school individual budgets; the Committee are discussing a different topic but explained the EAS provide money to schools for school support. A fraction of the grants they have are their budgets; as public servants the Council has limited resources so potentially there could be reductions at any point but they do they very best with supporting the schools with financial training. The Council have to watch and wait in terms of Welsh Government settlements with grants but are prepared to manage money appropriately.

 

·         The Member then asked the officers to confirm what would be the lowest amount they can manage on, grants wise.

 

The EAS Director of Resources replied stating that the grants go to the local authorities and through the Head of Education, they commission the work. For instance they have £52 million coming in, and 44 grants within that total all trying to do something different. They try to simplify that for schools to give them more autonomy and use one grant to do one function.

 

·         A Committee Member referred to the recovery situation from covid-19 and queried the team on how they feel they have challenged themselves and how the Local Authority challenged them.

 

The Assistant Director stated that schools have adapted and where schools have not responded for strategies; this has been addressed collaboratively with schools to get the right provisions in place for pupils to be supported appropriately. They have been listening to school leadership. From the EAS perspective; for quality assurances there has been good attendance between Local Authority officers and Principal Officers with a lot of dialogue on individual schools on a monthly basis.

The Head of Education concluded that they have regular dialogue in terms of experience through quality assurances. Over the pandemic, the JEG group monitored the performance of the EAS; nothing stopped during the pandemic but noted they found school partners have been receptive to change with professional learning to keep teachers teaching through blended learning. The officer was pleased with the performance of EAS for what they have done for the school improvement partners is valued.

 

·         The Member asked if the officers foresee any future challenges or can comment on the past challenges, and if any Local Authorities ventured off from what Newport are trying to achieve.

 

The Assistant Director confirmed they work very close with Managing Director Debbie Harteveld and look at priorities with similar in terms of equity. The Head of Education highlighted an example of the Local Authority request would be the ESTYN recommendations from the services within their Local Authority annex of the action plan; within that are specific actions bespoke to Newport.

 

·         How does the partnership try to maintain innovation and new ways of working?

 

The Assistant Director confirmed in terms of innovation this is ongoing but is slow as the engagement with teachers because the schools struggle with staffing in terms of Covid. There has been a range of work with workshops working with school leaders, selective groups and governors for reflection. With curriculum reform, they are constantly challenging thoughts and have had external advisers who are highly experienced, joining them on virtual engagement activities to challenge the leaders.

 

·         The Committee mentioned that with failures; usually leadership comes down to being one of them. Is there work being done to ensure leadership?

 

The Head of Education asserted that categorisation is not part of it anymore, so there would be no ‘Red’ areas. There is a professional learning menu that goes on all different levels including middle leadership with those considering going into deputy headship with professional courses available. In addition to new leadership courses; they have been responsive to the pandemic by focusing on agile leadership.

The Assistant Director complimented this by explaining that now categorisation has gone; there has been dialogue with local authorities with schools on their concerns. Funding is linked to that model and up to 25 days of support; this offers far more flexibility to support the mentioned programmes.

 

·         Members referred to the tables with coloured feedback and queried what type of work and actions are being discussed. It was observed there were a lot within the ‘agreed’ section. How would officers get those to be move to the ‘strongly agreed’ section?

 

The Assistant Director confirmed that it is a small part of a large bit of qualitative feedback. That was not shared in the report from Rod Alcott; it is a ‘you said, we did’ style of table. The columns form the approach for the business plan for their data which will include quantitative and qualitative feedback.

 

·         The Chair recognised that the pandemic has been tough but through the report and presentation, it seems to have developed stronger relationships; the chair asked the officers if this is something they agree with.

 

The Head of Education agreed and that is important to feedback they talk directly to the school and the authority is direct with EAS. They have all had to think quickly on their feet to be innovative through the pandemic. They have developed helpful relationships to ensure they are listening and responding. The Assistant Director also agreed that the accessibility has been important for colleagues in schools and LEA interfacing.

 

The Chair and Committee thanked the Officers for their time and asked them to express their thanks to their colleagues as they recognise that they have moved forward over the past 18 months.

 

Conclusions:

The Committee noted the Education Achievement Service Value for Money Financial Year 2018-19 report and agreed to forward the Minute to the Education Achievement Service and the Cabinet Member as a summary of the issues raised and in particular, the following comments:

 

-       The Committee were satisfied with the report concluding overall value for money and commended the evidence of constructive relationships between the EAS and the Local Authority; the programme of robust support (tools) available, and; the mutual professional respect to challenge and develop the support provided, especially during the pandemic. The Committee also wished to thank the partners and all their staff for all of their hard throughout the pandemic, and continued high quality of service.

 

-       The Committee expressed concern at the unknown Welsh Government funding position for the Education Achievement Service for next year. Concerns were also expressed at the reduction of third of the workforce over a period of five years. Even though EAS are doing well currently with the number of staff and resources available, Members raised the concern of future staffing problems.

 

-       The Committee felt that the partnership had conducted themselves well, which was evident in the report. It was also felt that they risk assessed each other well, were not afraid of innovation and could sense the strong, positive relationship between the consortium. It was hoped that this will continue.

 

Supporting documents: