Council calls ‘extraordinary meeting’ to address damning schools inspection

Emily Price 

A council leader has called an emergency meeting after a damning report into the local authority’s education services revealed “significant” areas of concern.

On on Monday (March 31), Leader of Powys County Council, James Gibson-Watt, announced that an “Extraordinary Meeting of Council” would be scheduled to address urgent questions from opposition leaders.

Cllr Gibson-Watt said: “Given the clear recommendations and narrative in the report and the need for strong, co-ordinated action to address those concerns, which cut across the work of many portfolio holders, I thought it essential that Council Members and the public hear first-hand about the actions that Cabinet Portfolio Holders and the council’s Corporate Leadership Team will be taking to build on the recent progress identified and address those areas where urgent progress is required.

“A full meeting of Council will allow members to understand and discuss these matters thoroughly in an open and transparent way. The meeting will take place as soon as possible at a date yet to be confirmed.”

Brecon and Radnorshire MS James Evans has called for the council leader to resign.

He said: “The political leadership of the council has failed children and young people across Powys.

“The Liberal Democrat’s have their head in the sand as Powys children suffer.

“The Leader and the Portfolio Holder must take responsibility for this and resign or I will be calling on the Welsh Government to intervene to ensure Powys children are not let down by a failing Lib Dem administration.”

Findings

Wales’ education and training inspectorate – Estyn – inspected the Liberal Democrat and Labour run council’s education services in February and published their findings last week.

It revealed a number of concerns including underperformance and school site security issues.

Inspectors said that recent changes in leadership had had a “limited impact” on securing important improvements in education services or in improving outcomes for children.

Estyn inspectors stated: “There are a few examples where school improvement support is effective but, overall, school improvement processes and their impact are underdeveloped.

“This is because too often officers focus too heavily on school improvement paperwork at the expense of working with schools to support the most pressing improvement priorities.

“There are also examples of additional learning needs officers providing helpful support to schools, pupils and their families.

“Despite this, the strategic leadership of ALN is not effective enough and has not ensured that support strategies have been reviewed or evaluated to ensure that all schools get access to high quality and consistent support.”

Progress

Estyn has made a series of recommendations including a call to strengthen political leadership at all levels.

Powys council says although “disappointed” with the overall findings of the inspection, it has accepted all of the recommendations.

The inspectorate will now review the council’s progress through a series of monitoring visits.

A spokesperson for the local authority said the Extraordinary Meeting of Council will take place “as soon as possible”.