Agenda item

The council’s role with maintained , academy and free schools - exploring what the Local Authority governance and influencing levers are in a changing context,  and how the council can promote good performance, and tackle poor performance. Report enclosed.

8.1  The chair reported that both the Local Government Information Unit (LiGU) and the Local Government Association were doing work looking at this area.

8.2  Merril Haeusler, Deputy Director for Children’s Service – Education, commented that the majority of the council’s relationships with schools are very good and they are keen to work with the council She explained that they provide information when requested and are interested in work experience and providing pathways into training and employment. She reported that fewer primaries want to become academies, and went on to report that a recent meeting between the Council Leader and head teachers was positive.

8.3  The chair enquired how the council can influence those schools that are not doing so well and the Deputy Director remarked that those schools in an academy chain are less open to influence as the chains have their own ethos. She noted that academies are purposely set up not to be influenced by local authorities.

8.4  The chair noted that the council has the power to issues a warning notice to maintained schools,  and then asked if the council made a suggestion, and it was not adhered to,  would this action be taken. The Deputy Director said this had not been done.  She went on to explain that the departments mantra is: support, challenge, intervention. A member asked is the Deputy Director had an open door policy and the officer confirmed that the department does.

8.5  An education representative commented that at one point the council had difficulty obtaining information on exclusions. The Deputy Director said that the information is available on exclusions and the Cabinet Member for Children’s Service commented that it did take a while to obtain the data. A member commented that her understanding was that Harris Academy took some time to supply this information and their exclusion rates were some of the highest.

8.6  A member asked how a complaint would be dealt with by the local authority and the Deputy Director explained that if a parent wanted to complain about a school then they could write to the Secretary of State, or they could approach the council who would pass the information onto the Secretary of State.

8.7  A member reported that the Local Government Information Unit (LiGU) has recently produced a report called ‘Should we shed the middle tier” about the diminishing role of local authorities.

RESOLVED

Circulate the LiGU report ‘Should we shed the middle tier?’