Decision details

Jonathan Hewitt, Head of Service School Improvement provided a verbal report to the Committee on the guidance for local authorities and Regional Schools Commissioners (RSC) on 'schools causing concern' (a copy of which has been attached to these minutes).

Jonathan advised the Committee that there are eight RSCs in England.  Vicky Beer covers Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire and all are supported by the Headteacher Board.  Previously the remit of the RSC was to challenge, improve and establish free schools and academies.  They will now be involved in challenging maintained schools.

Jonathan outlined the guidance description of the three groups of schools which would be eligible for intervention:

·  Schools judged inadequate by Ofsted- The RSC, on behalf of the Secretary of State, would take on the powers of intervention in maintained schools.  They would issue an academy order for all maintained schools that have been judged inadequate by Ofsted, requiring them to become sponsored academies.

·  Schools that are low performing/attaining - Local authorities to work together with the RSC to consider if intervention is required where they have concerns about unacceptable performance.  The RSC can chose to override the local authority and intervene directly if deemed necessary.

·  Coasting schools (new category) – The RSC would be able to take formal action in schools which fall within the definition of coasting. Identification of those schools within this category would take place in spring 2017 as the data to be used to identify those schools would not be published until December 2016 for primary schools and January 2017 for secondary schools.

The white paper set out strategies, outlined the key role of the RSC and identified that the local authority role in school improvement would diminish and then cease. The RSC would take on the role of overseeing quality in schools.  Jonathan reported that the guidance outlined the role of the local authority which included the responsibilities for place planning, SEN and hard to place children and safeguarding.  It was also confirmed there would be no requirement upon schools to have parent governors. 

The Committee requested information on the definition of a coasting school.  Jonathan advised that this is a new group of schools and they are identified using performance data which shows that year on year they are failing to ensure pupils reach their potential.Coasting schools would be identified for the first time once the performance tables containing final 2016 results for key stage 2 and key stage 4 had been published using performance data for 2014, 2015 and 2016. He confirmed that there was already an awareness of schools who would currently fall into this category

Jonathan highlighted to the Committee that intervention in Lancashire schools would very small as over 90% schools are good or better with 100% of nurseries.  Lancashire schools exceeded the national average.  In addition, for this strategy to work, there would be a need for a sufficient amount of schools to take on the role of leading other schools though a multi academy trusts (MATS) model. 

Resolved that:

1. Officers be thanked for the report and their attendance at the meeting
2. A further report to come back to the next meeting of the Committee following the outcome of the consultation
3. Suggested bite sized briefings on the white paper, schools funding and formula funding be considered
4. Bob Stott to keep the Committee informed of updates in-between meetings