Agenda item

John Edwards, Regional Schools Commissioner for East Midlands and Humber thanked the Committee for the invitation to attend the meeting and to discuss his role. He outlined the following points:

(a)  The formal roles of the Regional Schools Commissioner are delegated from the Secretary of State and include:

·  Where academies and schools are underperforming working with the trusts to ensure appropriate action is taken to improve performance

·  Tackling underperformance in maintained schools

·  Conversion of maintained schools to academies

·  Approval of sponsors and multi academy trusts

·  Deciding on making significant changes to academies and free schools

·  Advising on proposals for new free schools, and whether to cancel, defer or enter into funding agreements with free school projects.

(b)  Each Commissioner is supported by a Head Teachers Board made up of academy head teachers and sector leaders who provide advice and challenge on decisions the Commission makes;

(c)  The main objective for the Commissioner is to ensure that schools are good quality and deliver great outcomes for students;

(d)  There are a range of ways a Commissioner can work towards these outcomes:

·  Direct work with academy trusts, education advisors and specialists to provide assessment of a school at its present stage and predictions of where it is heading

·  Warnings issued to academy trusts to improve performance and, ultimately, termination of a trust’s responsibility for a school if performance does not improve

·  Transfer of responsibility for a school from one trust to another either voluntarily or enforced

·  Advise Trusts around time to expand or time to wait, improving capacity for support and performance improvement

(e)  When a maintained school converts to an academy the Board of Head Teachers will advise on the decision making process. Considerations will be:

·  Current and projected performance of the school

·  Current performance of the trust it will be joining or proposals for the trust it will form

·  Whether the school has capacity to improve or will require significant support to do so

·  Whether a strong leadership team is in place or will be appointed

·  Financial implications for the School/Trust/Sponsor

Following questions from the Committee and discussion the following points were made:

(f)  Permanent exclusion figures have risen sharply since the start of academisation, both in Nottingham City and nationally. Policy rests with  head teachers and trusts working in partnership, however pupil needs are also recognised;

(g)  When schools have a history of challenging behaviour, reflected in Ofsted reports there is often a spike in permanent exclusion numbers at the start of academisation which is a recognised early stage of addressing challenging behaviour in order to effect change. Work continues around permanent exclusions to understand trends and patterns;

(h)  Nottingham City’s GCSE results remain less favourable than expected as a Core City and it is recognised that the City’s performance is not where it should be. The key to tackling this is strong action taken against underperforming trusts, work to continue to build capacity for improvement, strong stable trusts, and focused partnership work and collaboration;

(i)  Work is taking place to understand how to prevent sustained underperformance and the pathway to recovery. Some schools are bucking the trend and in the majority of those cases they are schools with the support of strong multi-academy trusts. It is important to spot decline when it is happening, and it is the Trust’s responsibility to do that and to take action to turn the school around.

(j)  it remains confusing for parents about who holds responsibility for the schools and how they can address issues should they arise. In the first instance parents should address issues directly with the school. Responsibility for improving educational attainment of children is the focus of Corporate Director of Children and Adults and any strategic concerns can be raised with the Office of the Regional Schools Commissioner.

RESOLVED to thank John Edwards for his attendance at the meeting