James Backhouse, Assistant Director for Education introduced the report of the Director for Children, Families and Education which presented to the Committee the School Improvement Strategy 2021-24, which set out the Council’s vision and ambition around school improvement. It forms part of a wider multi-factorial Education Strategy which will provide a new transformational and holistic approach to education across all areas, including early years, social care, early help and beyond. The report detailed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to schools and education in Wirral, and the importance of working collaboratively with schools to support children and improve attainment in response to Covid-19 was outlined to the Committee. The strategy focused on five key themes, namely:

·  Leadership and Governance

·  High Support, High Challenge

·  Self-improving School System

·  Learning and Innovation

·  School Improvement Wirral

It was anticipated that the strategy would take three years to deliver and to allow for new systems and activity to be embedded. To support this, it was reported that the capacity in the School Improvement Service had been increased.

Members welcomed the aspiration of school improvement but sought further detail on how this would be achieved and whether resources would be required to fully recover from Covid. It was reported that significant work had been undertaken with headteachers in Wirral to capture the main challenges and to adopt the quality assurance process detailed within the strategy, but that there was still further work to be done to develop those documents that sit within the strategy which would be reported back to members. Following further comments, officers undertook to report back on performance measurements and benchmarking.

It was moved by Councillor Wendy Clements, seconded by Councillor Steve Williams, that officer recommendation 3 be changed from 12 months to 6 months.

It was then moved by Councillor David Brennan, seconded by Councillor Chris Carubia, that –

“the School Improvement Strategy is identified in the Council’s Corporate Risk Register as the mitigation of educational under attainment caused by the pandemic, the Committee therefore agrees that alongside the three year strategy, it is necessary to develop an 18-month Covid-19 Education Catch Up Plan, to identify key actions, resources, target groups and key performance indicators to ensure that the adverse impact on our children’s life chances that may be caused by the pandemic are minimised, with the plan being reviewed by this Committee in 2022.”

In response, officers undertook to bring the plan for review in January 2022.

The motion, with the additional recommendation from Councillor David Brennan was then put and agreed by assent. It was therefore –

Resolved – That

1)  the School Improvement Strategy 2021-2024 be endorsed.

2)  the approach taken and ongoing support given to the school system by Wirral Council be noted.

3)  an update on progress towards implementation of the strategy be reported back to the Children, Young People and Education Committee in 6 months.

4)  the School Improvement Strategy is identified in the Council’s Corporate Risk Register as the mitigation of educational under attainment caused  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24