[Daddo]

Hi All,

Do any of you undertake specific scrutiny of schools? If so how do you do it and what do your schools think of this?

Thanks

Neil

[Guy Fiegehen]

The education scrutiny reviews I've managed have been about general issues across the authority e.g. exam performance, need for free schools, budget efficiency, maths teaching, teenage pregnancy. I've worked with education officers and directly with individual schools. Heads are keen to come along if the review topic suits their interest, helps them advance their cause etc, but otherwise not.

Heads see it that they are accountable to the governors in the first place, and scrutiny panels need to show they can add value rather than duplicate that. Governing boards will become more significant with the move to academies.

I suppose your question could beg another: do your scrutiny Members have concerns about specific schools, and how severe are they? Ofsted also has a role here, of course.

Guy

PS Declaration: I'm a Chair of Governors myself, at Acton High School

(25-04-2012 02:12 PM)Daddo Wrote:  Hi All,

Do any of you undertake specific scrutiny of schools? If so how do you do it and what do your schools think of this?

Thanks

Neil

[Ed Hammond]

Not aware of any places that carry out specific schools scrutiny of maintained schools or indeed of academies.

It reflects the position in England whereby direct oversight over schools has been spun off from the council since 2005ish, so schools won't take this kind of thing especially well I expect.

It might be that some councils take things like council-wide SATs and GCSE results and other metrics to certain meetings, I'll see if I can find out.

EDIT: What Guy said

[Earl Piggott-Smith]

(25-04-2012 02:12 PM)Daddo Wrote:  Hi All,

Do any of you undertake specific scrutiny of schools? If so how do you do it and what do your schools think of this?

Thanks

Neil

hi, OFSTED are currently reviewing their arrangements for inspecting acadamies - which you might find helpful.


regards[/php]

[Roy Eaton]

(25-04-2012 02:12 PM)Daddo Wrote:  Hi All,

Do any of you undertake specific scrutiny of schools? If so how do you do it and what do your schools think of this?

Thanks

Neil

I'm not aware of Solihull having undertaken reviews of specific schools. We have had a mixed experience of school/ headteacher engagement when reviewing matters of a more general nature. I think it boils down to the attitude of the individuals concerned and also possibily whether the school itself has anything to gain from it (i.e. bolstering the schools reputation).

The CfPS's document "Accoutability in Education" makes an interesting read and I would ask what others think of the Scrutiny function using community wellbeing powers and principal of general powers of competence in getting school governing bodies and headteachers to the table?

Thanks

Roy

[Paul Dean]

The idea of "scrutinising schools" per se is so problematic in my mind; schools do not respond well to the idea of being scrutinised. But good scrutiny is about targeting an issue, not an organisation. And that simplifies the problem, possibly ...

... so for example, we are currently scrutinising the issue of school exclusions (because we seem to have significantly more than the national average). Individual scrutiny Members have successfully gained appointments to meet some head teachers to discuss their schools' exclusion policies and the wdier possible causes of the problem. This informal, individual approach has worked remarkably well as an evidence gathering mechanism, and has so far exceeded our expectations; heads have been very welcoming and open. The approach might even work with academies we are thinking.

Things which we find less effective include:

* questionnaires to schools
* inviting a group of head teachers to a scrutiny discussion forum
* a whole committee/ scrutiny officer visit to a school

Unless of course others' experience is to the contrary ..

Good luck

Paul

[Laura Latham]

Hi,

Prior to 2010 Blackpool's Children's Services OSC used to scrutinise some of the work of schools.

This was mainly via Ofsted reports (to which the Head Teacher and Chairman of Governors were invited to the meeting to present the report) and via monitoring of exam results etc

Scrutinising Ofsted Reports did take up a large part of the meeting on some occasions but Members did feel it gave them the opportunity to build relationships with the schools.

Where reports showed poor performance, headteachers were invited back 6 months later to talk about improvements and as a spin off, the committee requested further information on support for schools needing improvements etc and related action plans etc

Definitely positive for scrutiny and engagement with schools although not necessarily effective in terms of time management of meetings and prioritising items on agendas.

Thanks

Laura Latham

[Sarah Garner]

(02-05-2012 07:48 AM)Laura Latham Wrote:  Hi,

Prior to 2010 Blackpool's Children's Services OSC used to scrutinise some of the work of schools.

This was mainly via Ofsted reports (to which the Head Teacher and Chairman of Governors were invited to the meeting to present the report) and via monitoring of exam results etc

Scrutinising Ofsted Reports did take up a large part of the meeting on some occasions but Members did feel it gave them the opportunity to build relationships with the schools.

Where reports showed poor performance, headteachers were invited back 6 months later to talk about improvements and as a spin off, the committee requested further information on support for schools needing improvements etc and related action plans etc

Definitely positive for scrutiny and engagement with schools although not necessarily effective in terms of time management of meetings and prioritising items on agendas.

Thanks

Laura Latham

---

I am interested to know if anyone is doing any thinking/work about the relationship between academies (and other non-maintained schools) and local Members / Scrutiny, thanks. Sarah.

[Ed Hammond]

We put out some research on this at the end of last year:

http://www.cfps.org.uk/publications?item...ter=policy briefings&filterfrom=issue_name&match_all=true&offset=0

We are also doing a more detailed piece of research which will focus on free schools, and their possible relationship (in governance terms) with local councillors and local communities. Out a little later this month.

[tim gilling]

(03-09-2012 02:45 PM)Ed Hammond Wrote:  We put out some research on this at the end of last year:

http://www.cfps.org.uk/publications?item...ter=policy briefings&filterfrom=issue_name&match_all=true&offset=0

We are also doing a more detailed piece of research which will focus on free schools, and their possible relationship (in governance terms) with local councillors and local communities. Out a little later this month.

We are also doing some background work looking to develop an approach to accountability of academies and universities. Hopefully we'll have something to report later in the autumn.