10.30
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 (RSC) for South Central England and North-West London, had been invited to attend the Meeting to discuss how the Council could work with the RSC to ensure the best educational outcomes for all the children in Oxfordshire. It would also provide a chance to raise awareness of the key challenges faced by the Council in the provision of Education and improvement of educational standards across the County.
During questions and discussion the following points were made, with Martin Post responding to questions:
General
· The RSC had around 50 staff and covered 28 local authorities and 8 dioceses. Greater capacity had been added under the Regional Team Review and the commissioner now had 2 Deputy Regional Commissioners to support him with the upcoming Workload. Three Sub-Regional Board to provide a forum for the RSC, Local Authorities and Diocese to identify and coordinate the meeting of academies support needs were being established.
· The Commissioner confirmed that the demand on officers and resources was kept under review but that he was satisfied that he had enough staff to cover what he was obliged to do. He agreed that soft intelligence from local Authorities needed to be protected. ~There was also a need to sharpen up access to parents to flag up issues.
· The RSC confirmed that although geographically all authorities were different, he had a good working relationship with all the authorities and that he held regular meetings with officers.
Monitoring Schools
· The RSC reported that he worked closely with the academies; particularly if they were underperforming and that he maintained regular contact with the Multi academy trusts in the area. Currently, the Commissioner was closely monitoring around 12 schools with Oxon. The Commissioner was considering introducing further monitoring around pupils or performance around governance to ensure rapid improvement. It was the job of the RSC to ensure the trust was operating properly. It was however the Trust’s responsibility to ensure school performance through the school improvement plan.
· The RSC reported that they were dealing with the schools that they were particularly concerned about; but that he had seen improvement and that he was confident that Ofsted would show an improvement. The Annual report was due next term. Close working with the Local Authority enabled the RSC to gather soft information such as losing students in Year 8 or multiple complaints, allowing the Department to monitor situations closely. He also expected Good and Outstanding schools to continually strive to improve.
· The RSC worked closely with the EFA as financial information could tell a lot about the school. Operations Boar5ds had been set up with the EFA, Free Schools Group, Academies Group and the RSC and met every 6 weeks.
· There were new powers to intervene and challenge schools that appeared to be coasting (coasting definition with results for 2016). If schools fall into category under that definition, the RSC will work with them to develop a plan to get out of that category by the next time. In response to Members concerns over small schools that would appear to be coasting but were not, the RSC confirmed that it was their job to get behind the statistics which is why they use statistics from 3 years. If they could see schools were improving under its own steam they just gave support.
Recruitment and Retention
· Recruitment and Retention (R&R) remained a challenge right across the Region. The RSC did not have direct responsibility for the departmental strategy on R&R, however, one benefit he had seen was that the size of multi-academy trusts were making R&R easier and that there were a number of benefits of being able to offer career paths within the trusts. Secondary schools teachers did remain a concern, but large multi academy trusts were creating alternative opportunities for teachers to move into specialist roles within their areas rather than moving into leadership roles. The RSC took every opportunity possible to engage people in the school system, A ‘level students, employers, governors, but further strong advocates for the profession were needed.
DFE Consultations
· The RSC emphasised that it was important that academies responded to consultations. The RSC was a Civil Servant and therefore wouldn’t make a response. The department was looking at responses though.
Oversight of Operation Difficulties
· The specific incident of schools not paying staff on time was a software problem. The Trust was the employer and therefore had oversight of the payroll and HR functions. If the trusts were not discharging their functions properly, they would be in breach of their funding agreements and the RSC may intervene. The EFA would take responsibility on intervening in the first place.
Growth of local MATs
· In terms of encouraging the growth of local MATs, The RSC was looking at good and outstanding schools that were not in a trust to encourage them to join and was working actively to develop multi-academy trusts across the Region. The RSC agreed that local MATs were the best thing and that 70% had converted to local MATs, co-creating local solutions. Local MATs know the area best and were very much school lead. There would be many benefits to Local MATs collaborating with each other such as joint recruitment ability.
· The RSC confirmed that processes were in place to try and ensure that academies and MATs did not become financially unviable. Annual Audits and monitoring meant that the RSC should be able to flag up problems before crisis occurred. It would be essential that the RSC guard the continuation of education for those children and that was his role, together with the Local Authority. We would need to transfer to another sponsor. This would not happen overnight but our top priority would be to ensure continuation of education of those children. In some case the school closure had been extended by a year to achieve this.
· In relation to whether there was an agreement with the EFA for a deadline that schools would not be able to fail after, the RSC confirmed that no school would be able to close after Easter for that year.
Sponsors working effectively and ensuring school to school support
· In the case of Kidlington, the RSC explained that the school was given a directive academy order which was required under legislation. The RSC wanted to achieve improvement quickly. They contacted the sponsor who made it clear that they did not take on all schools, as they did not take on schools where they could improve quickly. The aim of the trust was to develop a hub to benefit that school and schools in the area.
Encouraging MATs to take on less attractive schools
· Asked about how to encourage MATs to take on some schools within the area that were in financial difficulty or had buildings in a bad state of repair or needed a great deal of involvement, the RSC explained that he was looking at ways to work creatively to find a solution for schools in financial difficulty, such as using the free school programme to attract strong outside providers where no local solution can be found.
Parents Complaints
· In relation to mechanisms for addressing parent’s complaints, the RSC commented that Ofsted shared complaints with the RSC and then the EFA investigated complaints with the trust. On occasion the RSC would get involved to safeguard work with the trust and the Local Authority. There was a need for local authorities to forward complaints to him.
Powers to require a Sponsor
· The RSC had no powers to compel a sponsor to take on a maintained school. The white paper however would set out a number of incentives, including money for the development of the MAT. The Sponsor Capital Grant meant that they could give a useful amount of money to schools.
Seeking appropriate Sponsors
· The Commissioner gave an assurance that he would continue to seek the views of the local Authority to identify the most appropriate Sponsor as working with the LA achieved a proper measure of what capacity there was locally.
· He also gave an undertaking to name sponsors promptly to ensure rapid improvement of school as soon as possible.
Acquisition or Disposal of Land
· The Commissioner explained that when a school converted to become an academy, it was required to register its land with the Land Registry. The Department published a list of all land to be disposed of and was considering what information it required to strengthen the process. When land was sold by schools extensive permission was needed from the Secretary of State and sport England, the EFA also had an involvement. Members expressed concern that not all land was registered and the RSC undertook to look into the matter.
RSC responsibility in relation to achieving Government goal of every school being an academy by 2022
· The Commissioner concurred that it was his duty to achieve this Goal and that the PR side of his Job was extremely important to get knowledge of the new system out there. He indicated that he would be more than happy to speak to groups of head teachers and governors.
What redress was there for academies not providing figures on attendance
· The Local authority has responsibility for all students within their area. If Mr Leach provided him with a list of schools who were not complying he would take it up.
Following the question and answer session, the Chairman thanked the commissioner for a positive discussion and AGREED that he be invited to attend again in a year.