Oral - Proposed National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Education) Order 2010

It is a pleasure to lay before the National Assembly the Proposed National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Education) Order on school governance. Today is the first opportunity for Assembly Members to discuss and scrutinise our proposed Order, which will add a further matter to field 5 of Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 in relation to the governance of maintained schools. The current law, mainly set out in the Education Act 2002, requires every maintained school in Wales to have its own governing body that is responsible for the local management of that school.

The debate in Plenary on 30 September 2009 gave Members an opportunity to discuss the Enterprise and Learning Committee’s report, ‘The Role of School Governors’, which was published in July this year. That report, while highlighting the excellent work already undertaken by governing bodies, highlighted some areas in which improvements are possible. These included support and advice for governors, governor training, the role of the clerk, communications and knowledge of the policy context within which governors work, and the relationship between governors’ effectiveness and school performance.

As Members will have gathered from my written response to the report, the Welsh Assembly Government recognises that the governance of maintained schools underpins, supports and is intrinsically linked to how schools operate in Wales. The Assembly Government welcomes the hard work that has been undertaken by the more than 23,000 governors of schools in Wales and, because we recognise that good governance is important to our schools, it is right that the National Assembly for Wales should be able to pass Measures that will support and improve governance arrangements as a part of our commitment to ensuring the highest possible standards in our schools.

This proposed LCO will provide the National Assembly for Wales with the competence to do just that. It will take the Welsh Assembly Government a step further to ensure that school governors and school governing bodies are equipped to provide an even higher quality of service, together with greater support to the schools and pupils of Wales. Parallel work is being undertaken in relation to governance in the further education institution setting. There are already devolved powers in relation to further education, and it is important that we have comparable competence in relation to schools.

Our policy priorities in education, such as the 14-19 learning pathways, the school effectiveness framework, and the transformation agenda all rely on maximising the opportunities for schools and further education institutions to work together more collaboratively for the benefits of learners. We already have examples of schools working collaboratively by way of agreement. For example, there is clear commitment in Ynys Môn and Gwynedd for schools and colleges to collaborate and work together. This has resulted in the development and expansion of general and vocational course options at pre- and post-16 level to deliver greater choice and flexibility for learners.

By way of illustration, Coleg Menai and all secondary schools in Môn are working together collaboratively to deliver a BTEC first certificate in engineering at level 2. There are also examples of best practice from our primary schools. Dewi Sant, Croesatti, Llanfairpwll, Penybryn and Cae Top are a cluster of primary schools working in a collaborative way through the medium of Welsh, with a particular focus on the development of the pupil voice.

We have these excellent examples, but we want to do more for the children of Wales and for the future of education in Wales. This proposed Order, if approved, would provide the competence to legislate on the conduct and governance of schools maintained by local education authorities. The acquisition of this competence would provide the opportunities to legislate on the constitution and membership of governing bodies, their ability to collaborate, and their training. Our purpose in introducing any future Measure would be to improve the structures and quality of decision making with the underlying principle of improving overall educational effectiveness.

To outline the technical aspects, the proposed Order proposes that three new matters be inserted to field 5, education and training, of Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006. First, matter 5.2A would provide the Assembly with the competence to legislate on the conduct and governance of schools maintained by local education authorities. It would also allow us to legislate on the constitution and membership of governing bodies, on the training of governors, and on the creation or abolition of, and allocation of functions among, bodies responsible for school governance.

Secondly, matter 5.2B would provide the Assembly with the competence to legislate on securing collaboration between persons or bodies with functions in relation to schools maintained by a local education authority. The Assembly already has the competence to secure collaboration between a further education institution and a school, under matter 5.13.

Thirdly, matter 5.2C would provide competence for the Assembly to legislate on conferring authority to establish an education body to carry out activities relating to education and training, for example, to provide services to schools and further education institutions. The matter would also allow a body so established to exercise functions on behalf of local education authorities.

I look forward to working with you to transfer the power to propose legislation on school governance from the UK Government to the Welsh Assembly Government. I emphasise that the proposed LCO will add significantly to the Assembly Government’s existing competence in the field of education and training. It plugs an important gap in competence and will allow us to work on a coherent and consistent basis across education providers in Wales in a way that mirrors the level of reform that we have placed at the heart of our school improvement agenda. The proposed legislative competence Order is an important step on a wider constitutional journey for education and for the Assembly. I hope that it will be welcomed by all parties here.