10.05
Martin Post, Regional Schools Commissioner for South-Central England and North-West London will attend for a discussion with the Committee.
Minutes:
Martin Post, Regional Schools Commissioner for South-Central England and North-West London, gave an overview of his role and the work of the Head Teachers Board.
During questions and discussion the following points were made:
1) The elected members of the Head Teachers Board, made up of 4 elected and 2 appointed members, were elected by Heads and governors of academies.
2) If an academy school needed support their role was to challenge the Governors and sponsors to get the best support they can, wherever that support came from including local authorities, learning and teaching schools or local schools. However it was for the governors and sponsors to seek that support.
3) If a local authority had concerns about an academy school then they should be shared with him and his office. He would follow up any concerns raised with him. The relationship with local authorities was crucial to carrying out the job.
4) Asked about performance monitoring in the context of the coasting schools agenda Mr Post detailed how schools are monitored. He agreed that the same standards should apply to academy schools as maintained schools and in noting that schools were responsible for their improvement detailed some of the measures open to himself. Working with local authorities was an important aspect of the process.
5) He commented that he did have access to some of the ‘soft’ information on academies and that sharing that with local authorities was part of the reciprocal arrangement of working well together. If he was asked for such information he would be happy to let local authorities know if he could make it available or not.
6) Currently the definition of free school did not include UTCs and studio schools and decisions on these remained with the Minister.
7) Asked about pupil place planning and transport costs Mr Post replied that when looking at commissioning free schools need was an important factor and the Head Teachers Board considered need and the impact on other schools going forward. It was his duty to promote free schools so long as they met educational need. Mr Post indicated that there was severe basic need in his region. When looking at projects it was important to ensure that local information was considered and they did take into account the views of local schools and local authorities.
8) Mr Post undertook to take comments back on the difficulty of developers being reluctant to provide S106 money for schools as they argued that there would be free schools with other funding provided. He would be happy to receive information on actual examples of this happening.
9) In response to a question about multi academy trusts Mr Post commented that it was not his place to push such trust but it was important that schools not be isolated and needed to improve with the school improvement programme.
10) There was some discussion on the issue of children not in education, employment or training (NEETs). Mr Post accepted that post 16 education was a difficult issue but that there was some innovative work with UTCs, studio and free schools. He agreed that currently there was no overall framework to support NEETs.
11) With regard to multi academy trusts based outside the County area and how the Council could get warning of difficulties that may result in schools closing, Mr Post stated that each Regional Commissioner was responsible for specific academy trusts. He was responsible for ARC. Commissioners met with these chains and would hopefully get early warning. Where a school within a multi academy trust, but outside the county failed, it would not necessarily impact on any school within the County area. Cases would be discussed on an individual basis.
12) He was looking at ways to encourage more local multi academy trusts that could have benefits around recruitment and retention of staff and transition between phases of education.
The Chairman thanked Mr Post and Ms Fuller for their attendance and openness and stressed that the Committee was keen to ensure a good working relationship between the County Council and the Commissioner’s Office.