Agenda item

Maintained school perspective

The Committee welcomed Simon Hawley, Headteacher for Colham Manor Primary School to the meeting, to provide his view on the Local Authority's relationship with maintained/academy/free schools. He referred the Committee to a handout sheet he had produced.

The following points were made by Simon Hawley during his presentation and in response to questions from Committee Members:

·         There were a majority of services that Colham Manor Primary relied on, provided by the Local Authority as either services of a statutory duty or service level agreement. There was a variation in quality between these services.

·         It was important that schools were supported and it was difficult to know the points of contact within the Local Authority. It was suggested that a contact register/directory would be useful to ascertain contact details for the responsible officer within the Local Authority. 

·         The proposed changes in the Children Centre could have been delivered better if Local Authorities had enlisted the support of headteachers in redesigning services that would have also delivered savings. This would have avoided a "done to" approach that many of those involved felt.

·         The Hillingdon School Improvement Plan was an excellent piece of strategic work, and it is important that there is a focus on clarifying a longer term plan for this work.

·         Headteachers meet and share ideas and feedback in the Primary Forum Executive. The fortnightly briefings produced by the Local Authority are good and provide useful updates for headteachers.

·         Local leader groups provide headteachers with good quality CPD.

·         Sometimes headteachers feel frustrated by 'peripheral' issues that can prove to be a distraction from teaching and learning and school improvement.  For example buildings, car parking etc.

·         The way to hold schools to account is through effective partnerships and by building trust between schools and the Local Authority so that difficult discussions can be had.

·         Issues which cause headteachers concern include the constant pressure about results; adequacy of inspections; dealing with challenging pupils and parents; teacher recruitment in suburban London and finances. Colham Manor Primary benefits from pupil premium grants but not all schools are this fortunate.  Many schools benefit from the expertise of skilled business managers to assist with the financial aspect of the school running.

·         The interest of maintained headteachers in conversion to academy status varies and many head teachers feel nervous about losing control of their own school. In Hillingdon most maintained schools headteachers have considerable autonomy already and if they did decide to convert there is the chance that their Ofsted history could be deleted.

·         Additional services which would be useful to schools  included teams going beyond statutory duties - particularly around vulnerable pupils ; a specialist knowledge team focussing on pupils at risk of exclusion and a key Local Authority contact point which addressed issues such as legal and Health & Safety concerns.

Academy/free school perspective

The Committee welcomed Colin Tucker, Headteacher for Ryefield Primary School to the meeting, to provide his view on the Local Authority's relationship with maintained/ academy/ free schools.

The following points were made by Colin Tucker during his presentation and in response to questions from Committee Members:

·         The deciding factor for procuring services was the quality and value for money of the services.

·         Financial pressures could affect schools buying into Local Authority services.

·         The risks both maintained schools and free schools encountered was "isolationism".

·         Generally academies opted to buy into Local Authority services if they provided a benefit to the pupils.

·         There was an element of competition between schools which was demonstrated through league tables. There was a need for mutual cooperation between all schools irrespective of status which in turn would produce positive outcomes, putting Hillingdon in a good place nationally.

·         Multi Academy Trusts tended to grow and grow which resulted in them having their own form of Local Authority providing services.

·         Issues which caused headteachers concern included the vulnerability of children and wanting to do the best for their pupils. 

·         Services areas outsourced within Ryefield included the legal team, admin team and finance although some of these services were shared.

·         Attending the Primary Forum Executive meeting, the Local Authority's fortnightly briefings and conferences and the scheme of mentors for new headteachers provided good support to all headteachers.

·         There is a perception that there is a churn of services in the council. Ryefield could be described as a being a "holding school" as pupils left during the course of the academic year due to various reasons. One of the reasons could be due to the fact that there were a number of other schools nearby with capacity. This affected the ability to demonstrate outcomes as high mobility can make it difficult to meet targets.

Headteacher surveys

The Committee was concerned about the late notification of responses from the headteachers surveys. The Committee was informed that there was a delay in sending the survey out to headteachers and that there was initially a limited response. The number of responses increased after a reminder was sent out by officers.

The Committee proposed meeting outside of the POC meeting to discuss the responses of the survey. The Committee decided that the survey would remain open to seek more responses.

RESOLVED -

1.  That the witnesses be thanked for the information they had presented and the evidence be used as part of the review.

2.  That the responses from the surveys be discussed outside the POC meeting and the survey remain open for further responses.