Written - Education in Denbighshire

In November 2007 I issued a statement about my decision to intervene in the Denbighshire education service following Estyn’s inspection of the authority in July 2007. I am now able to update Members on the current position.

Since I established the Independent Education Recovery Board, chaired by Roy James the Board has met on eight occasions. I have received regular advice, including report from the Board’s Chairs, on the authority’s progress in improving the education service. A report of each meeting has been published on the Welsh Assembly Government website.

In addition Estyn has undertaken three monitoring visits to the authority to assess progress since the inspection. Estyn confirm that Denbighshire Local Authority is making progress in addressing the areas of shortcomings. There has been improvement in key areas such as overall attendance across the authority and a reduction in permanent and fixed term exclusions. 

However, work remains to be done to ensure that strategies and planning are clearly linked to actions which will result in services that are of a consistently good quality.

Denbighshire has made some key senior appointments. This includes the Corporate Director for Education who took up his post on 23 March 2009, and the Head of School Improvement who has been in post now for several months. However, the appointment of a new Chief Executive is yet to be made.

It is clear that progress is still at an early stage and I want to be confident that improvements are embedded and being sustained before I remove my intervention in education in the authority. I want to pay tribute to the way in which the recovery board, under the chairmanship of Roy James has undertaken its duties in a professional manner. The work of the Board has already brought benefits to the authority and I believe that it continues to have an important part to play in enabling Denbighshire to once again play a key role in providing high quality leadership and services for the benefit of all children and young people in the authority, so that they receive the very best education and wider services possible.  With this in mind I have invited the Board to continue for a further period of 12 months.

I have communicated my decision to continue with the recovery board to the leader of the authority.

Estyn has recently completed a full re-inspection of Denbighshire Authority including Youth Support services and I expect to receive their advice on the outcome of this in July.