8/11/2024

Since April 2014, Cardiff Council has worked alongside its four neighbouring local authority partners to implement Welsh Government's current National Model for Regional Working.

Welsh Government has recently reviewed the roles and responsibilities of education partners in Wales and the delivery of school improvement arrangements, known as the ‘Middle Tier review'.

The primary aim of the review was ‘to improve educational outcomes through stretching our learners and reducing the equity gap.'The Review concluded that School Improvement Services should be developed so that:

• School leaders have an opportunity to lead on school improvement matters through a greater focus on local collaboration and partnership working between school leaders and their local authority.
• Partnerships developed between more than one local authority to support wider collaboration.
• There is stronger national leadership with clearer national priorities for schools and a simplification of the national funding mechanisms with as much resource as possible going directly to schools or supporting groups of schools to work together.

Welsh Government has publisheddraft guidance to inform transition to new School Improvement arrangements andbased on the feedback from headteachers, and a wider exploration of school-to-school working, Cardiff Council is seeking Cabinet Approval for the proposed future direction for School Improvement Services.

Cardiff's key principles are:

• School Improvement should be underpinned by collective responsibility and all future approaches seen as a collective effort
• Delivery of school improvement functions should be undertaken by individual local authorities and ‘Collaborative Learning Partnerships' established with headteachers. 
• The role of Improvement Partners will be revised to reflect the role/responsibilities of Collaborative Learning Partnerships and to provide more explicit recognition of the role of local authorities and their statutory responsibilities.
• Improvement Partners working with English medium primary and secondary schools will be employed by local authorities and will have accountability and a reporting line to their respective Director of Education.

Improvement partners working with Welsh-medium and special schools to work within a sub-regional footprint (that is, the Health Board footprints), recognising the specialist nature of this resource and the benefits for Welsh-medium and special schools to form partnerships across local authority boundaries to enable greater depth and breadth of experience to draw from.

• All Improvement Partners are to be part of a regional network to provide professional development and protect against ‘insularity' while also enabling the brokering of school-to-school support across LAs where this could be advantageous.

A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: "The outcome of the review has helped to identify areas that are working well and highlights the success of schools working togetherto support the development of the new curriculum, self-evaluation, improvement planning and professional learning.

"Cardiff's key principles continue to place a focus onCollaborative Learning Partnershipsallowing schoolsto share good practice and professional development opportunities, providing support to Headteachers and Leaders and have a positive impact on pupil outcomes. 

"Whilst empoweringschools to take greater collective responsibility for their own improvement, plans for Cardiffwill continue consider the city's distinctive educational landscape, including cultural diversity, racial equity and inclusion and the disparities between communities.

A spokesperson added: "School improvement plans in Cardiff would look tomaximise the benefits of Cardiff's achievements to date such as Cardiff's recognition as theUK's first UNICEF Child Friendly City and the significant efforts to provide schools, teachers, and children with the authentic knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to deliver the Curriculum for Wales.

"We are committed to inspiring pupils to develop the aspirations and ambitions needed to acquire the skills for tomorrow's jobs and through initiatives like the Cardiff Commitment our aim is to empower children and young people to further benefit from and contribute to key Strategic priorities in the city, as outlined in Cardiff's ‘Stronger, Fairer, Greener' Strategy."

Cardiff Council's Cabinet will meet on Thursday 21^stNovember 2024 to consider the recommendations contained in the report, and a webcast of that meeting will be available to watch on the dayAgenda for Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, 12th November, 2024, 4.30 pm : Cardiff Council

Prior to the Cabinet meeting, the report with be scrutinised by The Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee when it meets on Tuesday 12^thNovember from 4.30pm. A recording of that meeting will be available to view hereAgenda for Cabinet on Thursday, 21st November, 2024, 2.00 pm : Cardiff Council