Agenda Item 5
Mr Paul Matthews Chief Executive Monmouthshire County Council The Rhadyr Usk March 2015 Dear Mr Matthews, Estyn Monitoring Visit 2 -5 March 2015 Following Estyn’s inspection of education services for children and young people in November 2012, the authority was identified as requiring special measures. A monitoring plan was subsequently agreed with your Estyn link inspectors and the third of a series of four scheduled monitoring visits took place in March 2015. This letter records the outcomes of that visit. In March 2015, Clive Phillips HMI led a team of three inspectors to review the progress made by the authority against one of the recommendations arising from the November 2012 inspection. The team held discussions with the leader of the council, elected members, the chief executive, senior officers, the cabinet member and other relevant officers. Inspectors scrutinised documentation, including evidence on the progress made on the recommendation in the context of additional learning needs, inclusion and youth support services. At the end of the monitoring visit, the team reported their findings to you, as chief executive, and to the leader of the council, the relevant cabinet member, the chair of the chidren and young people select committee and senior officers. A representative of the Welsh Government observed the feedback. Outcome of the monitoring visit Recommendation 6: Ensure that performance management is effective and robust and allows elected members and senior officers to identify and address underperformance
Agenda Item 5
In our inspection of children and young people’s education services in 2012, we noted that performance management processes were not consistently implemented within the education directorate and that leaders and managers were not always able to direct staff effectively or hold them to account well enough for their work. The education directorate’s performance management systems lacked coherence and were not sufficiently linked to strategic corporate priorities. During the last 12 months, the local authority has developed a new corporate performance assessment process, which is providing a more robust system to manage performance. The process is ensuring that the children and young people (CYP) directorate’s priorities appropriately reflect the corporate priorities. This is assisting individuals and teams within the CYP directorate to have a better understanding of their roles and how their work contributes to that of the directorate and wider corporate priorities. The local authority’s processes for managing performance are now more consistent, more transparent and better understood by staff in the CYP directorate, although it is too early to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy and procedures in improving performance. The CYP’s service improvement plans align well with the key corporate themes within the single integrated plan. The service improvement plans identify broadly the priorities for improvement appropriately. However, it is not always obvious in the service improvement plan what actions the local authority is taking to address the areas for improvement. The CYP’s directorate has a more effective system for reporting on the progress against the actions in the service improvement plans and on the achievement of performance indicators to senior officers and elected members. Staff at all levels are beginning to be held to account more rigorously for their areas of responsibility. The CYP directorate’s use of performance data has improved, for example in identifying progress of vulnerable groups and pupils with additional learning needs. The authority has also improved the range of data in the youth service, which means that the authority and its partners have a better understanding of how the provision helps learners to progress and achieve. However, the access that schools have to management information systems is still too inconsistent. The information and analysis provided in the managers’ reports are not always helpful enough to ensure that messages are identified accurately. In addition, teams do not always give enough attention to detail when reviewing their performance. As a result, areas for improvement are not picked up well enough. The regional school improvement commissioned services are providing better quality information to the local authority on standards and leadership in schools, which in turn enables the local authority to identify underperformance and to use its statutory powers where necessary. As a result, the local authority is intervening more
Agenda Item 5
appropriately in underperforming schools. Headteachers from underperforming schools have been invited to attend scrutiny meeting to account for the performance in their schools. School leaders now have a better appreciation of their lines of accountability, and this is beginning to impact well on the outcomes achieved by their pupils. There is also an increasing rigour and better clarity to the process of setting school attainment targets and this is helping to promote more appropriate expectations for improvement in the local authority’s schools. The authority has appropriate arrangements to scrutinise aspects of the education department’s work. The arrangements align well with the monitoring of the post inspection action plan and the priorities of the education department. Next steps The authority should continue to address all the recommendations from the 2012 inspection. The final visit in the autumn 2015 will evaluate progress against all of the recommendations. Your link inspectors will continue their work with the authority. They will confirm arrangements for the final visit with you in due course. I am copying this letter to the Welsh Government and the Wales Audit Office for information.
Yours sincerely Clive Phillips Assistant Director cc: Welsh Government Wales Audit Office
