Aberdeen City Council
May 2007
Contents
Page
Introduction
i
1.
The aims, nature and scope of the inspection
1
2.
What are the challenges for the Council?
1
3.
How good are attainment and achievement of children and young
people and how well are they supported?
3
4.
What impact has the authority had in meeting the needs of parents’
carers and families, staff and the wider community?
15
5.
How well is the authority led?
21
6.
What is the Council’s capacity for improvement
28
Appendices
Appendix 1 – Quality indicators – Core
32
Appendix 2 – Performance Information
33
Introduction
The education functions of each local authority in Scotland were inspected between
2000 and 2005. A second cycle of inspections began in 2006, taking a proportionate approach
using the findings of the original inspection and other information subsequently available.
Section 9 of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 charges HM Inspectorate of
Education (HMIE), on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, to provide an external evaluation of the
effectiveness of the local authority in its quality assurance of educational provision within the
Council and of its support to schools in improving quality. Inspections are conducted within a
published framework of quality indicators (Quality Management in Education 2) 1 which
embody the Government’s policy on Best Value.
Each inspection is planned and implemented in partnership with Audit Scotland on behalf of the
Accounts Commission for Scotland. Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000,
under the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. It provides services to the
Accounts Commission and the Auditor General for Scotland. Together they ensure that the
Scottish Executive and public sector bodies in Scotland are held to account for the proper,
efficient and effective use of public funds.
The inspection team also includes Associate Assessors who are senior members of staff
currently serving in other Scottish local authorities. These include Associate Assessors with
expertise in psychological services.
1
Quality Management in Education 2 (HM Inspectorate of Education 2006) is a framework of self-evaluation for Local
Authority Education Services.
i
1. The aims, nature and scope of the inspection
HMIE inspects the education functions of all 32 Councils within Scotland as part of its
commitment to inspect and report on the quality of education and to help secure
improvement. HMIE reported on the first inspection of Aberdeen City Council in
February 2004. In the period since the publication of this report HM Inspectors have worked
with senior officers of the Council to monitor progress on the main points for action arising
from the 2004 report. This report refers to the progress the Council had made on the main
points for action contained in the original inspection report.
During the inspection HM Inspectors visited the neighbourhoods of Torry and the West End
to sample the impact of the work of the authority. The inspection included the evaluation of
the quality of educational psychology provision in the City.
In agreement with the Chief Executive, the Best Value (BV) audit of the Council ran in
parallel with the HMIE inspection. The findings of the BV audit are reported in Aberdeen
City Council: the Audit of Best value and Community Planning.
2. What are the challenges for the Council?
Context
In economic terms, the City continues to have a strong energy industry and a buoyant
modern economy, reflected in low unemployment rates. However, there are wide
variations in standards of living, with areas of affluence sitting alongside areas of
significant disadvantage. Aberdeen is a City of cultural and ethnic diversity which is
experiencing significant inward migration. As well as the overall decline in the population
and in young people, Aberdeen City is also projected to have an increasingly ageing
population. These will place new pressures across services. The Council’s Education
Service faces a number of particular challenges including closing the attainment gap
between high and low achieving pupils and managing school capacities, particularly in the
primary sector. Elected members and staff in all services were addressing these through a
strong commitment to integrated working the development of neighbourhood networks of
service providers and a major review of school accommodation.
Aberdeen is the seventh largest council in Scotland with a population of 203,370 in 2005.
The population had decreased by 4.2% since 2000 and was projected to fall by around
another 6% in the period to 2014. The anticipated decline in the overall population and the
projected decrease of 23% in the number of young people below working age are greater
than the national average. This decline will affect the school population, particularly the
primary sector which accounts for over three-quarters of the overall expected decline. This
will place considerable pressures on the management of school capacities. The Council had
undertaken a review of school accommodation known as the Reorganise, Renovate and
Rebuild (3Rs) project. This project demonstrates the beginning of a more systematic
approach to managing the school estate.
1
Aberdeen has been the operational base of the North Sea oil and gas industry for the last
28 years. Other major employment sectors in the City are retailing, finance and business,
education, health and government services. The oil industry is expected to remain a major
sector within the City’s economy. Average earnings are 8% higher than those for Scotland
as a whole and Aberdeen’s unemployment rate of 1.9% has been below the national average
for many years. Across the City there are wide variations with unemployment rates in some
areas having more than three times the City average. Some electoral wards have more than
40% of children living in households dependent on income support. The neighbourhoods of
Torry and the West End differ markedly in terms of their social and economic advantages.
In 2006, the overall free meal entitlement (FME) rate of 18.7% in primary schools was close
to the national average but below that of comparator authorities 2 . The rate of 11.3% in
secondary schools was below both the national average rate of 14.6% and that of comparator
authorities. Across the City, the FME figures ranged considerably.
The City has two universities and a further education college which attract a substantial
number of foreign students and their families. The wide range of nationalities and first
languages contributes to the diversity of the population. Over 65 different nationalities and
52 languages are found amongst pupils attending Aberdeen City schools.
Political and organisational structure
In 2001, the Council introduced an ambitious programme of reform to develop a culture
of customer-focused service delivery. This programme was allied to a commitment to
streamline services and create joined-up service delivery close to citizens in
neighbourhoods. A radical restructuring would see a reduction over time in the number
of departments and the integration of services at a neighbourhood level. Following the
local elections in 2003, the Council’s administration changed from a Labour
administration to a Liberal-Conservative coalition. In 2005, the Chief Executive and
elected members judged reform was not taking place quickly enough. Six new corporate
directors were appointed between August 2005 and February 2006. The inspection was
taking place at a key point in time during the Council’s change programme and there had
been a considerable number of new officer appointments at second and third tier level.
In 2001, the Council initiated a series of structural changes which were set out in the
community plan Aberdeenfutures. Major changes to the structure included reducing the
number of departments from the previous 14 to ten with a commitment to further rationalise
to six services. In August 2005, the decision was made to move to the six services as
envisaged in 2001. These six services were each to be headed by a corporate director and
comprised three services aligned to a designated area of the City and three services aligned to
the functions of Strategic Leadership, Continuous Improvement and Resources Management,
respectively. The three directors of neighbourhoods would each have operational
responsibility for one of the administrative areas known as North, South and Central. At the
time of the inspection the full Corporate Team was in post, but some had been only recently
appointed.
2
2
The term ‘comparator authorities’ refers to the group of education authorities which are comparative to each other in terms of
socio-economic and demographic factors.
Each neighbourhood director was supported by three Heads of Service, one of whom, the
Head of Culture and Learning was responsible for the operation of the Education Service in
his/her area.
In order to move services closer to the local community, the Council had created 37 local
neighbourhoods. Local people were consulted and engaged on what constituted a local
neighbourhood and each neighbourhood had been supported to develop a neighbourhood
community action plan (NCAP). These NCAPs contained the key issues that were important
to local communities and were envisaged as the building blocks for service delivery.
Educational establishments were not yet fully engaged in the neighbourhood community
action planning process and were unclear how their service improvement plans related to
NCAPs and how their associated school groups (ASGs) linked to the relevant local
neighbourhoods.
3. How good are attainment and achievement of children and young
people and how well are they supported?
Overall performance in this area showed strengths, which outweighed weaknesses. The
quality of outcomes achieved by learners in Aberdeen City and improvements in their
performance varied across, and within sectors, and was adequate overall. Performance on
some key indicators, such as the rates of exclusions and the percentage of leavers who
were cared for at home gaining basic qualifications, were weak. The impact of authority
work on the experiences of learners also varied and was adequate overall.
Pre-school
The education authority’s impact on pre-school provision and the outcomes achieved were
adequate overall. In most pre-school centres inspected over the last three years the
outcomes for children were good or very good in most centres. There was a poorer pattern
of provision in a number of key areas in 2005/2006. Across the sector, there was a strong
sense of joint working to support children and a shared commitment to very young
children and their families. The Aberdeen Childcare Partnership offered very clear
strategic direction and strong support for the development of early education and
childcare services in the voluntary and private sector. In contrast, local authority
providers received a low level of support and there were limited quality assurance
arrangements in place. This limited the evidence that was available to demonstrate impact
across the authority. The Council had recently approved a Strategy for Early Years and
brought together an integrated policy and planning team to bring coherence to the sector.
The Aberdeen Childcare Partnership had developed a range of services for children and their
families. The very successful and nationally recognised Family Information Services (FIS)
offered a comprehensive range of information for parents/carers and professionals looking
for childcare services. It included accessible and helpful information to support parents of
very young children, and family support arrangements for parents with more vulnerable
children with complex needs.
Pre-school services were included in a number of authority-led initiatives such as race
equality, health promoting schools, arts in education and physical activity programmes.
3
Family learning initiatives such as Challenge Dad, run through community learning and
development (CLD), helped parents to better support their children’s learning. The Parents
as Early Educators Project (PEEP) promoted parents’ awareness of children’s very early
learning and development and supported them in developing children’s self-confidence and
self-esteem.
There were some examples of positive links with social work, health professionals and
educational psychologists. Children with additional support needs were identified early and
supported by specialist staff. Inspections of pre-school centres in the previous three years
indicated that provision for pupils with additional support needs was good or very good in
most centres. Children’s success and confidence in learning were benefiting from planned
inputs from staff leading physical activity and arts initiatives. However, there were no
City-wide early literacy or early numeracy programmes at this stage. As a result, there was
no consistency of curriculum provision and limited quality assurance mechanisms for the
authority to evaluate areas where they were adding value.
In the period from February 2004 to November 2006, inspections of pre-school centres
showed that they generally performed well. Children were found to be making good or very
good progress in key areas of development and learning in most centres inspected.
Leadership was similarly evaluated as good or very good. The quality of children’s progress
in physical development and movement was a notable strength. The pattern of provision was
considerably weaker in 2005/2006. The quality of leadership was weak in almost a third of
centres. Other aspects identified as weak in almost a quarter of centres were the quality of
children’s progress in developing communication and language, expressive and aesthetic
development, meeting children’s needs, assessment and record keeping and recording.
The authority had very recently established a new post of Strategist within an Early Years
Service structure, which aimed to bring together a range of services for young children and
their families. It was too early to assess the impact of these arrangements. A revised Early
Years Admissions Policy had been implemented in the current year to support vulnerable
children and their families through new arrangements for full day care. This had not been
fully costed and the Council was anticipating revisions to the policy.
4
Features of good practice: Family Information Service
Aberdeen’s Family Information Services (FIS) was run by the Childcare Partnership. It
offered a comprehensive range of information for parents/carers and professionals
looking for childcare services, pre-school information and advice to support more
vulnerable children with complex needs. A dedicated support team kept the information
relevant and up to date and inspired confidence in those who accessed the service. FIS
provided electronic access to information about children’s services for both parents/carers
and professionals which helped to raise awareness about the range and availability of
locally-based provision. The information available included family support, advocacy
and services for children with additional support needs. The service was flexible and not
only provided web-based information but could be accessed through the telephone
helpline and by satellite sites in family centres. The resource had been very well used
and monitored. Seventy percent of enquiries were from parents/carers and 40% of all
enquiries were for advice and support. Aberdeen City had seen annual increases in the
number of families accessing childcare services and pre-school places. FIS was awarded
the National Association of Information Services Quality Award in 2006 for the second
year, the only information service in Scotland to have been given such an award.
More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk.
Primary schools
The authority’s work was having a broadly positive impact on learners in primary schools.
Provision was adequate overall. It included a range of activities to promote pupils’ health
and fitness and develop their involvement in dance and musical activities. Most pupils
were achieving national levels of attainment in reading and mathematics and the majority
were achieving these in writing. There had been a small improvement in pupils’
attainment in mathematics, but no trend of improvement in reading and writing. The
authority had not met its own targets for improving attainment in mathematics, reading
and writing. Evidence from school inspections showed that most schools were achieving
good standards of attainment in English language and mathematics. In almost all schools
inspected, the quality of teaching was good or better. In just under half of the schools, the
quality of self-evaluation was weak. The number of days lost due to exclusions was well
above national averages.
The authority had developed a number of effective initiatives to promote pupils’ wider
achievements in primary schools, in line with the four capacities outlined in Curriculum for
Excellence 3 . These initiatives included the University for Children and Communities. This
project engaged over 200 primary pupils who took part in a wide range of learning, cultural
and sporting activities. There was a strong emphasis within the project on developing
pupils’ confidence and self-esteem, and on the promotion of skills for lifelong learning. A
promising initiative, The Reading Bus was designed to improve pupils’ enthusiasm for
reading. It was still at an early stage of development and had yet to have significant impact.
A helpful Family Learning Initiative in eight primary schools involved parents, home school
teachers and family workers collaborating. The authority’s evaluation of the project found
3
The Curriculum for Excellence programme outlines the purposes and principles of the curriculum 3-18 to provide a framework within
which improvements to Scottish education can and should be made.
5
evidence that pupils involved had improved their reading skills by the end of P1. However,
progress had not been sustained at the end of P3. Most pupils achieved appropriate national
levels of attainment in reading and mathematics and the majority achieved these levels in
writing. The authority had not met its own targets to improve pupils’ performance in these
key areas. Pupils’ attainment in mathematics had risen slightly from 77% to 80% in the
period from June 2003 to June 2006. There had been no trend of improvement in the
attainment of primary pupils in reading and writing.
Inspections of primary schools in the period October 2003 to November 2006 showed a
number of strengths. The quality of the teaching process was good or better in almost all
schools. Climate and relationships, expectations and promoting achievement, equality and
fairness, and partnership with parents were strengths across schools. Pupils’ attainment in
English language and mathematics was good or very good in most schools. There were a
number of weaknesses identified. In just over a third of schools, pupils’ needs were not met
effectively. In just under half of the primary schools inspected, arrangements for
self-evaluation were weak.
The authority had worked effectively with staff in primary schools to bring about
improvements in response to the main points for action identified within inspection reports.
In all follow-through visits to primary schools, HM Inspectors found progress overall to be
good or very good. Attendance levels remained consistently in line with those for
comparator authorities and nationally. The authority had not been successful in lowering the
number of exclusions of pupils from primary schools. The rate of exclusions had almost
doubled from 19 pupils per 1,000 in 2004 to 31 pupils per 1,000 in 2006. These rates were
significantly higher than those of comparator authorities and nationally.
Staff within the authority offered pupils in primary schools effective opportunities to fulfil
their potential in a range of areas. Pupils across the City were successfully involved in
enterprise activities and health promotion to improve their creativity and fitness and
wellbeing respectively. At one primary and secondary school, pupils were offered the
opportunity to learn through the medium of Gaelic. The authority effectively promoted
pupils’ involvement in cultural activities including music tuition, story telling and traditional
dance. These were impacting positively on pupils’ awareness of Scottish culture.
6
Features of good practice: An integrated approach to physical activity and
sport
Aberdeen City was committed to keeping children and young people active and healthy
and to encourage engagement in physical activity and sport. This commitment had been
taken forward successfully by key groups within the City working together. These
included the sports development team, health and active school coordinators, physical
education staff, the outdoor education team and volunteers. Children and young people
had access to a wide range of free sporting activities through after-school and holiday
programmes. Uptake had been strong and children had been actively engaged in
purposeful activity in their holiday time. Talented performers were directed by the sports
development team into local clubs and some, to support through the Grampian Institute
of Sport. Aberdeen City Council was the first council in Scotland to pilot the Young
Sports Leader award in St Machar associated school group (ASG). Over 300 primary
pupils achieved this award which prepared them to lead playground games at lunchtimes
with younger pupils. Sixty secondary aged pupils achieved different levels of Community
Sports Leadership Awards in 2005/2006, including the advanced award. The awards
enabled pupils to lead coaching sessions in the community under supervision and
encouraged volunteering in sport. An impressive number of learners across the sectors
benefited from well-planned and valued opportunities in a range of outdoor education
activities which helped to develop respect, challenge, responsibility and teamwork. Other
benefits to children and young people included increased levels of fitness, performance
and motivation as well as a practical understanding of learning in cooperative and
competitive settings.
More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk.
Secondary schools
The authority’s impact on and outcomes for learners in secondary schools was good
overall. By the end of S6, schools were performing slightly above the national average
and the average for comparator authorities at Level 6 4 . They were clearly above these
levels for basic awards in English and mathematics and one or more award at Level 7.
Performance was less strong at S1/S2. Inspections of secondary schools over the past
three years up to January 2007 identified consistent strengths in a number of areas
including climate and relationships. Leadership was good in all schools inspected but
learning and meeting pupils’ needs were more mixed. The overall quality of attainment at
all stages varied across schools and self-evaluation was generally weak. The rate of pupil
exclusions from secondary schools had increased significantly and the rate of teenage
pregnancies had also increased and was well above the national average. The promotion
of wider achievement in the arts and sports, as well as enterprise in education and health
promotion had met with high levels of success.
4
Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Levels:
7: Advanced Higher at A-C/CSYS at A-C
6: Higher at A-C
5: Intermediate 2 at A-C; Standard Grade at 1-2
4: Intermediate 1 at A-C; Standard Grade at 3-4
3: Access 3 cluster; Standard Grade at 5-6.
7
By the end of S2, a majority of pupils reached appropriate national levels of attainment in
reading and mathematics and about half of them achieved them in writing. The proportion of
pupils who achieved appropriate levels of attainment in reading had been steady for the last
three years. In 2006, performance had improved in mathematics and declined in writing.
The authority had exceeded its targets for reading in session 2004/2005 but had not met them
in writing or mathematics. No City-wide targets had been set for sessions 2005/2006 or for
2006/2007. The authority had identified target-setting and performance at 5-14 as areas for
improvement.
Overall performance in national qualifications was good. The authority performed broadly
in line with the national and comparator averages for all indicators by the end of S4 and S5.
By the end of S6, it was clearly above them for basic SCQF Level 3 in English and
mathematics and for one or more award at Level 7. By the end of S4, the proportion of
pupils achieving five or more awards at Levels 3 and 4 had fallen slightly in 2006 but was
still broadly in line with the national and comparator averages. The proportion gaining
five or more awards at Level 5 had remained relatively steady for the last three years but had
moved to above the national average in 2006. In 2006, the percentage of pupils at the end of
S4 achieving five or more awards at Level 3 and 4 had fallen slightly. There had also been a
slight decline in the percentage gaining three or more awards at Level 6 by the end of S5.
Attendance in secondary schools was above the national and comparator averages over the
three years from 2004 to 2006. The rate of exclusions from secondary schools had increased
significantly between 2004 and 2006 and was now above the national average but below that
for comparator authorities.
In the period from February 2004 to January 2007, HMIE published inspection reports on
four secondary schools. Performance was variable overall. Leadership and the quality of
teaching was good in all four schools. The quality of pupils’ attainment varied across all
stages in the four schools inspected. Aspects identified consistently as good or very good
included the structure of the curriculum, climate and relationships, pastoral care and
partnership with parents. The quality of pupils’ learning and the extent to which their
learning needs were met varied from weak to good. Self-evaluation was identified
consistently as an area for improvement.
In 2002, the authority issued guidance on curriculum flexibility and devolved
decision-making to individual schools. Schools varied in their responses. There was
evidence of some very good work in individual schools to provide vocational options but
provision at Access, Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2 at S3/S4 was limited. The authority’s
approach to inclusion was not yet having a significantly positive impact on the attainment of
the lowest attaining 20% of pupils. Results for this group of pupils in external examinations
showed no evident trend in improvement.
The authority had made a promising start working with Aberdeenshire and The Moray
Councils to take forward Curriculum for Excellence across authorities and sectors. A
steering group had planned seminars on Curriculum for Excellence which had been well
received by schools and authority staff.
A City-wide approach was required across other key aspects of the curriculum and the
authority had already planned to undertake important work in areas such as behaviour
8
management, learning and teaching and quality assurance. It will be important that this work
is finalised in order to ensure consistency of impact on pupils’ experiences across schools.
The promotion of important aspects of achievement, including arts education, enterprise in
education, sports and outdoor education and health promotion was a considerable strength.
The arts education team, through a series of imaginative events and projects such as the
Aberdeen Storytelling and Theatre Festival, had had considerable successes in engaging
many secondary pupils in developing their skills in art and design, dance and drama.
Outdoor education staff worked very effectively with schools and negotiated a series of
programmes covering outdoor pursuits and more generic skills. These included some
successful programmes which helped to build the confidence, self-esteem and team skills of
pupils experiencing behavioural and emotional difficulties. The authority had recently
received national accreditation for its Health Promoting School Accreditation and was
committed to ensuring that schools were improving this aspect for the benefit of pupils.
The authority had been slow in ensuring the benefits deriving from the national agreement
A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century 5 were coming through to schools. At the time of
the inspection, business managers were being interviewed and secondary schools had not yet
benefited from additional support staff. A number of teachers reported difficulties in
attending continuing professional development (CPD) events because there was no class
cover available. Within the authority’s scheme for the review of middle management posts,
schools were to submit their own plans, subject to specific criteria, for approval by the
authority. Some schools had either not yet agreed their plans or had approval for them.
Overall, pupils were positive about the education they received. Questionnaire returns from
pupils during inspections indicated that almost all thought that teachers expected them to
work as hard as they could. Most believed that at least one teacher knew them well, that
teachers explained things clearly and that staff were good at dealing with bullies.
5
A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century – Scottish Executive, January 2001.
9
Features of good practice: Enterprise in Education
The authority had considerable success in responding to Determined to Succeed 6 and
developing enterprise in education across the sectors, engaging pupils in many and
diverse ways of developing their enterprise skills. Every school had established at least
one partnership with a business or enterprise agency which supported pupils’ enterprise
skills and vocational awareness. This encouraged schools to network with other
businesses/agencies and many established a wide range of links. All pupils at P7 were
involved in Tomorrow’s Inventors - a business game in which an Aberdeen school was
overall winner two years ago and another was the winner of the presentation category last
session. In partnership with Careers Scotland, S2 pupils in every school participated for
half a day to learn about a range of careers that did not involve university education. This
helped pupils to value vocational education and to think more broadly about the range of
careers open to them. Strong partnership arrangements with Aberdeen College, the two
universities, community and learning development and the voluntary sector had impacted
positively on pupils’ motivation and achievement through opportunities to pursue
vocational options and subjects such as psychology, philosophy and sociology. A recent
publication, circulated across the City, provided many examples of innovative practices
in individual schools which ensured that good practice was shared and disseminated.
More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk.
Children and young people with additional support needs
The education authority was committed to the promotion of inclusive practices. There
were a number of examples across all sectors of well-organised arrangements for
identifying the needs of children and young people who were experiencing learning
difficulties or presenting behavioural problems. Nonetheless, there was considerable
scope for addressing their needs more effectively and for collating data across the
authority. The overall quality of progress of pupils with additional support needs in
specialised units, integrated into mainstream primary and secondary schools, was very
good. The authority had undertaken extensive preparation and staff training for the
implementation of The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act
2004 (ASL). There were important weakness in aspects of support for pupils with social,
emotional and behavioural difficulties and of provision for children in care. The
education authority needed to develop a comprehensive strategy on meeting the needs of
children and young people who presented social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in
order to guide practice and provide a benchmark for quality assurance. The move to an
integrated Children’s Service, which brought together education and social work was a
good step forward. Overall, the impact on, and outcomes for, pupils with additional
support needs was adequate.
There were good examples of schools providing a variety of well-considered approaches to
ensuring effective support to pupils with additional support needs. These included
one-to-one counselling, early intervention strategies and collaborative work with
family-liaison officers. The authority and schools recognised the importance of promoting
the wider achievements of children and young people through their participation in a
6
Determined to Succeed – Scottish Executive, 2002.
10
commendably wide range of activities. They had responded positively to pressures to meet
the needs of immigrant pupils with English as an additional language (EAL). The significant
increase in the numbers of migrant children was causing additional pressures on the small
EAL team and some individual schools.
In the period September 2003 to September 2006, HMIE inspected 11 special units in
primary schools and four in secondary schools. The overall quality of provision and the
progress of pupils had been good or very good. The provision for primary pupils with
specific learning difficulties, delivered in the base of one school, was very good. The work
of one of the language units was very good overall. In another school, the contributions of
EAL teachers were inspected and evaluated as good overall.
The authority had a number of special schools catering for children and young people with a
wide range of additional support needs. It had made some changes in special school
provision and had plans to make further changes although final decisions on future
developments had still to be announced. The authority was not collecting data to track
evidence of improvement in progress and achievements in special schools. Senior managers
within the authority did not give sufficient attention to tracking achievement in relation to
targets set within individualised educational programmes (IEPs) or to attainments gained by
pupils in National Qualifications at Access levels.
The authority had organised imaginative events on additional support needs and on diversity
and inclusion for the purpose of raising awareness and enabling young people to have their
opinions heard. A successful pupil conference on inclusion and diversity in Aberdeen City
schools was held in October 2006. The authority had also made significant progress in the
implementation of ASL. A Coordinated Support Plan Monitoring Group had been
established and was focusing on developing clear criteria for the opening of coordinated
support plans. The Educational Psychology Service and other professionals had made a
strong contribution to developing and supporting the authority’s comprehensive policy on
additional support needs.
11
Features of good practice: The implementation of The Education
(Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (ASL)
The authority had a well-planned, strategic approach to raising awareness about
legislation concerning additional support for learning. A policy officer, supported by
staff from the Educational Psychology Service, provided high quality training for staff at
all levels across the authority. Implementation, built on extensive consultation,
awareness-raising and training of staff, helped stimulate thinking and debate on the Act.
Pupils had been involved in the planning of a well-attended pupil conference on inclusion
and diversity which helped to raise their understanding and awareness of the needs of
pupils with additional support needs. Parents were kept up to date through the
widespread distribution of a national parents’ guide on additional support needs. The
Educational Psychology Service played a lead role in the development of procedures for
resolving disagreements which supported staff in schools to work effectively with parents
and carers to resolve any disagreements at an early stage. As a result of these strategies,
staff reported that they felt well supported and had a good understanding of the
requirement of the Act and its implications for their current and future practice.
More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk.
The education authority had made considerable progress towards ensuring that pupils with
additional support needs or disabilities were treated equally and fairly. It had ensured that all
schools received training in, and had carried out an audit on disability access. It also had
made good progress with modifications to establishments and had increased resources to
help young people with disabilities to access buildings and the curriculum. The authority
had extended provision in secondary schools for children with autistic spectrum disorders.
In line with the Getting it Right for Every Child agenda it had made a promising start in the
Dyce area on an integrated assessment framework. This pilot project provided a wide range
of information on assessment strategies to enable pupils, families and professionals to know
more about current developments. The authority, in conjunction with other north-east of
Scotland authorities, had clear child protection guidelines which were currently being
updated. It had taken appropriate steps to inform schools about matters relating to child
protection and to prepare them for future child protection inspections.
There were significant weaknesses in provision for pupils experiencing social, emotional and
behavioural difficulties, including looked after 7 children. The rates of exclusion in both
primary and secondary schools had increased significantly between 2004 and 2006 and at a
much greater rate than for comparator authorities and Scotland as a whole.
The authority had one secondary special school catering specifically for pupils with social,
emotional and behavioural difficulties. The findings of a recent inspection highlighted major
weaknesses in provision for this group of vulnerable young people. The length of the school
week was too short and links with pupils’ associated mainstream secondary schools were
weak. In addition, the quality of pupils’ attainment was evaluated as weak and the quality of
the curriculum, leadership and self-evaluation were all unsatisfactory.
7
The term ‘looked after’ in this report includes all children looked after or looked after and accommodated by the Council.
12
The authority was placing a high number of children and young people with additional
support needs into residential settings across Scotland. It had set itself a target of a
10% reduction each year in the number of children who were looked after outwith the
north-east. This target had not been met. Many young people were placed in residential
schools far from their homes and at considerable cost to the authority.
The percentage of learners from care, at or away from home who had gained at least one
qualification at SCQF Level 3 or above was slightly higher than national averages. Those
children who were cared for away from home attained better than those who were cared for
within the authority. Steps should be taken to monitor and improve the quality of
educational support provided to looked after children who were cared for at home.
Features of good practice: Person-centred planning in schools
The Educational Psychology Service played a significant role in introducing the use of
person-centred planning in schools. Together with teachers, they made effective use of
this approach to ensure that children and young people were fully involved in decisions
about their progress and learning. Staff consulted with pupils on matters relating to their
education which helped to keep pupils at the centre of forward planning. Children and
young people were actively involved in assessment procedures which empowered them to
influence appropriate next steps in learning. Staff used attractive and informative posters
on giftedness to focus discussion on pupils’ roles, preferences, skills and talents.
Educational psychology staff led continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers
and modelled good practice which helped to develop the confidence and understanding of
teachers in the approach. Person-centred planning supported teachers to work with pupils
who have additional support needs to be actively involved in the reviews of their
progress, and placed the pupil at the centre of any assessment, planning and review.
More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk.
Community learning and development
Overall, the impact of services provided and the outcomes achieved by participants were
good. Staff in CLD worked well with partners to deliver a range of effective learning
programmes across the City. These included links with the arts education team and local
artists to engage young people in issues through artistic and cultural activities. There
were good examples of young people being actively supported to participate in
decision-making and projects which were engaging harder-to-reach young people. There
had been an increase, from a low base, in the number of young people gaining nationally
recognised awards and in the number of centres accredited to offer Youth Achievement
Awards. Targets set to increase the number of learners in adult literacy programmes were
being exceeded. Family learning staff were engaging with a number of adults leading to
improvements for both individual learners and their families. There was scope to increase
the level of engagement with and impact on adult learners.
A recent HMIE inspection report on CLD in the Seaton, Tillydrone and Woodside areas of
Aberdeen judged provision to be good overall. Work with young people, adult learners and
community organisations resulted in significant positive outcomes for participants and
communities.
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CLD staff provided a wide range of learning opportunities in local communities for children,
young people and adults. Some young people were actively involved in decision-making.
Youth projects in Mastrick, Torry and Tillydrone encouraged active participation in
centre-management groups and a number of local youth forums were in operation in parts of
the City. The Aberdeen City Youth Action Committee engaged actively with the Council at a
City-wide level, supported by council staff.
Children and young people contributed to the planning and organisation of local Planning
for Real events in Summerhill, Cults and Culter. These events were examples of schools
contributing to NCA planning and the development of neighbourhood networks.
Primary 6 and 7 pupils enthusiastically engaged in the planning of the Summerhill event,
creating clay models with specialised support from the White Space Arts Team. CLD staff
were engaging well with harder-to-reach young people and gave effective support to the
recently established lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) youth group. There was
scope for increased joint working, particularly with schools to develop this work further.
A centrally-based adviser linking with schools ran a very effective training scheme for peer
educators at Cults Academy. High numbers of senior pupils had been trained and provided
peer counselling and personal development support for S1 pupils. The Torry Youth Project
arts and chess programmes were helping targeted young people to improve their behaviour
and concentration skills. The Dialogue Youth Information Project (DYIP) effectively
supported 15 youth information points across the City which provided relevant information
for young people on a range of issues and services. The DYIP worker had recently taken
over support for the Aberdeen City Student Forum. This had resulted in an increased
awareness by school-based staff of the DYIP and what it had to offer. A recent conference,
planned and organised by young people with support from CLD staff, recognised the wider
achievements of young people. However, school staff had not been invited losing the
opportunity to encourage joint working between CLD and school staff. In a number of youth
projects such as the Torry Young Mums group, better exit strategies were required to support
the young people involved to move on.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was well supported by outdoor education staff and
delivered by schools. Meetings had recently taken place between outdoor education staff
and those in CLD and schools to refocus some elements of provision towards meeting the
needs of disaffected young people. Small numbers of young people overall were engaged in
Youth Achievement Awards. CLD staff were making considerable efforts to engage with
excluded and vulnerable groups but needed to link more effectively with staff in schools to
provide better continuity of support to these young people.
The authority worked with a range of adult learners who were positive about the
opportunities provided to them. Those adults who were involved in family learning
initiatives articulated the benefits to them such as improved communication skills and
increased confidence in supporting their children’s learning. Crèche facilities were an
invaluable feature of helping participation by parents with young children. The authority
provided helpful English programmes to meet the increased demand from the families of
Eastern European migrant workers. In recent years, there had been a limited uptake of the
Adult Learners’ Week organised by the Scottish Adult Learning Partnership. In the last year,
the proportion of adults in Aberdeen City giving up some of their time to help as an
organiser or volunteer had shown a downward trend. Similarly, there had been a reduction in
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the number of new adults joining programmes. CLD staff should put in place more rigorous
strategies to monitor and review with adults the programme on offer and their achievements
in the selected activities.
Overall, CLD offered a good range of services. Better systems were now required to record
and monitor the achievements of children, young people and adults in order that officers had
a clear overview of trends and were better able to target resources to areas of significant
need.
Features of good practice: Promoting personal and social development
through family learning
The authority had been successful in identifying a range of innovative family learning
projects which involved parents in actively supporting their children’s learning.
Activities included parenting classes, literacy development and a range of
self-development activities. Innovative and accessible programmes such as, the
Challenge Dad project and I’m a parent get me out of here helped to enrich relationships
with children and improve parental awareness of their children’s language and
mathematics development. These projects became a springboard for some parents to
re-engage in learning, including progression to higher education. Family learning
projects encouraged parents to share their knowledge and experience to find solutions.
A number of parents progressed from these programmes to voluntary and employment
opportunities within schools. Family learning projects were targeted at eight primary
schools across the City in areas of multiple deprivation. Research undertaken by
Aberdeen City Council showed that children whose parents were participants in family
learning had made greater progress in language and mathematics than their peers whose
parents were not involved.
More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk.
4. What impact has the authority had in meeting the needs of parents,
carers and families, staff and the wider community?
Impact on parents, carers and families
The authority’s impact on meeting the needs of parents, carers and families was good.
Evidence gathered over the previous three years from school inspections showed that
parents were generally satisfied with their children’s schools. Relationships with parents
were usually good or very good. The authority had undertaken some successful projects to
involve families in learning. The findings from the pre-inspection survey of School
Boards and Parents’ Associations were more variable and indicated that the authority
needed to take further action to strengthen partnerships with them. In follow-up
discussions, School Board members and parents of pupils attending special schools
outlined major concerns about the quality of contact and communication with authority
personnel.
Evidence of questionnaires which had been returned during school inspections in the
previous three years indicated that parents were generally satisfied with the provision in the
15
schools their children attended. In almost all primary school inspections, partnership with
parents, the School Board and the community were found to be good or better. Of the
four secondary schools which had recently been inspected, partnership had been very good in
three schools and good in one. A number of parents of pre-school and primary-aged children
supported children’s learning within schools. Parents involved were very positive about the
benefits to them and their children, particularly their improved confidence and self-esteem.
Only a small proportion replied to the pre-inspection survey of School Boards and Parents’
Associations. Most who replied agreed that the authority promoted opportunities for pupils
to learn about keeping healthy and that different services worked together effectively with
the schools. A majority agreed that the authority was having an impact on raising standards
of education. Less than half knew about how the authority’s procedures for supporting
pupils would be implemented in practice.
The education authority had taken appropriate steps to consult and inform parents and
families about its plans for improving educational provision. In particular, it had placed an
emphasis on informing them about the implementation of legislation relating to additional
support needs and on involving them in matters relating to diversity and inclusion. It had
given particular attention to promoting race equality including the issuing of cards about
declaring schools to be free of racism.
The authority had set up reference groups comprising parents, community representation
School Board members and officials for all of the 3Rs projects to ensure consultation with
parents and the local community. Parents, as well as pupils, chairpersons of School Boards
and Parent Teacher Associations, had been actively involved in influencing the design of
their new schools. Members of School Boards indicated that there were a range of concerns
about relationships with the authority. They did not feel that they were regarded as equal
partners and thought that communication between the authority and School Boards had been
poor. Parents of pupils at special schools expressed frustration and annoyance about aspects
of their relationships with the authority. Significant concerns raised by these parents
included poor communication with them, deadlines for providing answers not being met and
uncertainty about future provision for their children.
A positive development had been the formation of family learning groups led by CLD.
These initiatives were clearly focused on social inclusion, with the aim of reaching families
who would not normally have been closely involved in schools. Planned activities for
parents had included classes on mathematics, language and information and communications
technology (ICT). Parents involved in family learning reported increased insight into their
children’s learning and were more actively engaged in supporting their children with
homework. The authority’s Gaelic development officer supported parents and carers who
were interested in Gaelic-medium education. Parents had been supported to work with their
children and to gain qualifications in order to sustain the development of this provision.
The Educational Psychology Service worked closely with a limited number of parents and
families to promote better outcomes for children. It made valued contributions when
working with families of children encountering difficulties at the early years stage and at
later stages of development. Parents were pleased when educational psychologists consulted
them after assessments had been completed and checked with them if what had been
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observed was normal at home. However, the service did not monitor sufficiently its
involvement with families, including levels of parental satisfaction with service delivery.
Impact on staff
The authority’s impact on meeting the needs of staff was adequate. There was a good
range of CPD opportunities for staff across sectors. In particular, the probationer teacher
induction programme was a strength. The authority had prioritised leadership CPD
opportunities and planned to develop this systematically across sectors. The authority was
aware that there were a number of staffing issues having a detrimental impact on key
groups of staff. Staff morale was mixed, absence levels of teachers were high and there
was a lack of clarity about roles, responsibilities and communication.
The Council issued an Employee Opinion Survey in November 2005. Responses alerted
senior staff and elected members to a number of significant issues which required to be
addressed to take forward the transformation programme. These included low morale
amongst staff at all levels, poor internal communication about the Council structure and only
a minority of support staff who had received their entitlement to a staff appraisal. The Chief
Executive and his team of new corporate directors had taken a number of appropriate steps to
address these key findings. They ensured the roll-out of appraisals for support staff which
was completed as planned by December 2006. This scheme was being supported by a
significant investment of funds to each Directorate to support the needs of staff identified
through their appraisal. Corporate Directors and the Heads of Service for culture and
learning were attending meetings of headteachers and visiting schools more regularly to
ensure effective communication and the development of a positive culture.
The Council had recently appointed a head of service to oversee human resources across the
Council, including training. This appointment had the potential to maximise the
coordination of training activity and increase the level of joint training across directorates
and with partners. Close partnership working with neighbouring authorities and further and
higher education institutions had helped increase opportunities for sharing good practice and
keeping up to date with major initiatives such as Curriculum for Excellence.
Professional staff had access to a wide range of CPD programmes which were appropriately
linked to national and local priorities. Specific CPD had been put in place to build the skills
and confidence of staff particularly in the delivery of ICT. The authority had developed a
computerised CPD Pathway toolkit which enabled teaching staff to self-evaluate their own
training needs. This was developed in 2004 and re-launched in 2006 but it was not yet being
used systematically across establishments. Staff in pre-school partner provider centres had a
very good range of CPD opportunities arranged through the Aberdeen Childcare Partnership.
A workforce development action plan was in place which was enabling staff across sectors to
achieve minimum qualifications to enable registration with the Scottish Social Services
Council.
Within schools, a comprehensive pack The Guide to the New Teacher Induction Scheme
supported probationer teachers and their mentors well and was valued by them. Developing
arrangements were in place to take forward leadership at all levels, including coaching and
mentoring projects, principal teacher networks and support for the Scottish Qualification for
Headship. Professional staff were well supported through an established Professional
Review and Development Policy which was linked to CPD. The review scheme should be
17
developed further to ensure consistency in the quality of the process and stronger impact of
CPD on outcomes for children and young people.
Staff in CLD who worked at an operational level were highly motivated and committed to
delivery. They had access to a comprehensive and wide-ranging training programme which
was delivered by external trainers. A number of staff had been supported to gain
professional qualifications. Staff in the Educational Psychology Service made good use of
training and development activities to improve their practices. Staffing difficulties had
limited the Service’s contributions to wider developments within the Council. The authority
was in the process of restructuring this service and recruiting new staff.
Centrally-based staff were hard working and there were good examples of teams and
individuals making an impact in their specialised area of work. Many were adapting well to
changed remits but were finding it difficult at times to cover the range of work expected of
them. During the inspection some centrally-deployed staff raised concerns about the
break up of established teams and uncertainties about their place in the new structure. Other
staff were conscious of a skills gap which was emerging because of recent changes to remits,
and staff professional backgrounds not being fully aligned to the required functions of the
new structures. Education Officers (EOs) were keen to take forward their extended quality
assurance roles but needed more focused training to allow them to work consistently and
confidently in supporting and challenging schools. Support staff worked conscientiously and
positively although morale had been affected by the outcomes of the first ‘single status’
exercise. They valued the new system of staff appraisal and were benefiting from the
feedback on their work and were looking forward to greater opportunities for CPD.
Evidence from the pre-inspection surveys indicated a very mixed range of views by staff
about the work of the authority. Less than half of centrally-based staff felt that they had time
to fulfil their remits effectively and that communication between staff was good. Almost all
headteachers felt that they were well informed about child protection issues and that the
authority assisted staff in accessing professional development and training. A majority
agreed that they received feedback about the effectiveness with which they led their
establishment and that the authority made a difference to improving the quality of learning
and teaching. Absence levels for teachers had risen since 2003/2004, although percentage
absence still remained below Council averages for other groups of staff.
Impact on the local community
Impact on the local community was good. The Council had established a number of
structures to engage with local communities at both a local and City-wide level. These
were already beginning to have an impact on engagement at a local level. A first NCAP
was in place for all 37 neighbourhoods with strong support from partner agencies. These
had resulted in a number of tangible improvements. Local community organisations were
active partners and provided a range of valuable services within their own communities.
Schools played a positive role in their local communities and relationships with local
people and a range of partners were strong. The authority now needed to build on this
good work and develop a more strategic approach to school links across neighbourhoods
and to neighbourhood community planning. The respective roles of Neighbourhood
Community Planning Officers and CLD staff needed to be clarified to improve effective
engagement.
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The Council had established a number of structures to engage with local communities at both
a local and City-wide level. NCAPs were in place for all 37 neighbourhoods and included an
up-to-date neighbourhood profile which served as the basis for allocating resources on a
needs-led basis. As a result of these neighbourhood plans there had been a number of
tangible improvements including the coordination of environmental improvements around
shops in the Mastrick area, the development of the Torry Neighbourhood Centre and the
introduction of a local credit union in Seaton. CLD staff provided some introductory training
for activists around committee skills but overall provision was limited.
Adults who had been involved in a digital photography project in Northfield had successfully
campaigned for a new play park facility. A small number had progressed to join local
community centre management committees and local consultation meetings to inform
community regeneration. The DYIP, working with the Network Development Officer
(Youth Participation), provided an effective mechanism for community planning partners to
engage with young people. The DYIP had been instrumental in supporting events to engage
young people actively in their neighbourhoods across the City. A number of young people
participated in local youth forums and the Aberdeen City Youth Action Committee engaged
with the Council at a City-wide level. The quality of arrangements for youth forums varied
from very good to weak.
Schools played a strong role in their local communities and were often a key point of contact
for local people. Many had forged strong links with local groups and community events. A
number of effective partnerships were in place with local businesses through the promotion
of enterprise. The Gaelic Pre-School Council had launched a Gaelic community initiative in
2003 to bring stakeholders in the Gaelic community together. The resulting Aberdeen Gaelic
Club worked very effectively to organise a varied programme of Gaelic cultural events
across the City. The arts education team linked well with experienced youth workers to
enhance the experiences of children and young people in traditional music and dance, theatre
and storytelling.
Schools and staff within CLD were not yet effectively linked into NCAP developments.
Corporate Directors and headteachers needed to agree more strategic management
arrangements to enable school staff to attend key meetings. Senior staff had the potential to
play a stronger role in contributing to the agenda of meetings and making effective use of the
wide range of information contained in neighbourhood profiles. Neighbourhood Community
Planning Officers and CLD staff were not yet working effectively as partners. Respective
roles needed to be clarified and monitored to ensure productive engagement.
Community planning was in process of development. NCAPs needed to focus more clearly
on the needs of children and young people in communities. Joint training was needed to
increase understanding and participation in the neighbourhood community planning process
and the key roles to be played by schools within their local community context.
Impact on the wider community
Impact on the wider community was good overall. The Council’s work in neighbourhood
planning and using neighbourhood community action plans as the building block for
integrated services, had stimulated interest from other councils and national groups. A
number of central staff had played a key role in piloting national initiatives which
19
impacted positively on local schools. Links with the further and higher education sectors
were strong. The Council had actively sought to liaise with other councils in order to
develop key initiatives linked to a range of CPD initiatives. The authority’s provision for
music, through the Aberdeen Music School, was nationally recognised.
The Chief Executive was very influential in leading the thinking behind the Council’s vision
and had served on a number of national committees such as the Ministerial Group on
Community Planning and Best Value. He had been invited to address various groups about
neighbourhood networks and neighbourhood community action plans. He had also been
invited by elected members to address senior staff in other councils and was personally
involved in taking forward a national pilot on the Citistat approach. This approach used data
sets and focused questions from an expert panel to hold services to account. The Council
attributed a significant improvement in its performance in re-letting empty council houses to
this approach. The authority had begun to extend the approach to other services such as
sport and leisure services and had plans to roll this out to aspects of Children’s Services.
Individual members of staff had been asked by the Scottish Executive to participate in a
number of pilot developments, such as the national implementation project Personal Support
in Schools, an Integrated Assessment Framework and Arts Education Across the Curriculum.
Recent innovative work by the arts team included the engagement of young people in
Planning for Real events as part of neighbourhood community action planning. The range
and quality of work in music, in particular through the Aberdeen Music School, was a
strength that had been recognised nationally. Similarly, the well-established International
Youth Festival had a strong reputation for providing children and young people with the
opportunity to work with and learn from artists of the highest quality. Within the
community, a number of parents and carers involved in family learning projects had
addressed national events.
The authority had very good arrangements for working with the further and higher education
sectors. These included link-programmes for S3/S4 pupils with additional support needs
through Aberdeen College as well as preparation for university study for S5/S6 pupils and
pre-access preparatory programmes for CLD through Robert Gordon’s University.
Arrangements with Aberdeen University included the release of a principal officer from the
City to undertake research and development work with the national initiative Scottish
Teachers for a New Era.
The authority liaised well with some other councils to take forward new initiatives. A
Pan-Grampian group had successfully developed a joint accreditation scheme for health
promoting schools (HPS) which had been launched in September 2006 by the National HPS
Unit. The recent development of a North East Consortium for curriculum support and
development had the potential to be a very useful forum for joint-curriculum development
work.
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5. How well is the authority led?
Vision, values and aims
The authority’s vision, values and aims were good overall. They had been set out clearly
in a range of written plans and were aspirational and ambitious. They were well focused
on social equality, inclusion, and on promoting the wider achievements of children, young
people and their families. Elected members, the Chief Executive and senior officers
showed a strong commitment to the fulfilment of the authority’s vision, values and aims,
which provided appropriate guidance for the Education Service. The authority’s vision
had been widened to include a commitment to be recognised as a ‘leading council in
Northern Europe’. This was a bold commitment but needed to be further explored and
explained if it was to make an impact. Not all staff had been receptive to embracing the
vision and, as a result the authority had not been wholly successful in sharing its vision
with all relevant staff.
The authority’s vision, values and aims had been developed effectively from the Community
Plan Aberdeenfutures which set out ambitious plans for the successful delivery of services
through improved joint working. In addition, the Council aimed to raise achievement, ensure
inclusion and reduce inequality. The authority further aimed to be a City of Learning, with
the target of being the highest attaining of the four largest cities in Scotland. The
Chief Executive and the Corporate Management Team had reviewed and developed the
vision, values and aims in November 2005. The authority’s new vision, to be recognised
within the City and more widely as being a leading council in Northern Europe by 2010 was
challenging. Further work was needed to develop what this might mean in practice and how
progress towards achieving this aim was to be measured.
Elected members, the Chief Executive and senior officers showed an appropriate
understanding of the authority’s wider vision, values and aims for education. They shared
the authority’s commitment to joint working in neighbourhoods as a means to promote social
equality and raise achievement and attainment. Many of the senior officers had been in post
for less than a year and recognised that implementation of the vision required more visits to
establishments to meet with staff and clarify the authority’s aspirations. Senior officers,
under the direction of the Chief Executive, had a strong commitment to the principles
outlined in the authority’s vision, values and aims. These principles directed their work and
provided a basis for evaluating its successful implementation. The authority, in conjunction
with the Educational Psychology Service, was reviewing how best educational psychologists
could make a more effective contribution at a City level.
Staff in educational establishments were generally aware of the authority’s wider vision,
values and aims. They were committed to working with parents and other stakeholders, and
to raising attainment and achievement. There were a number of effective partnerships which
were successful in improving access to artistic, cultural and sporting experiences, and to
improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people. Similarly, some
initiatives which were targeted at children and young people in the most economically
disadvantaged areas had been successful in improving their confidence, self-esteem and
aspirations for achievement. Overall, however, the impact of work in raising attainment and
catering effectively for the varying needs of all children and young people was too
inconsistent.
21
In moving towards its vision for inclusion, the authority had made good progress in
developing a policy and action plan but there was no strategy in place for children with
social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The number of pupils being excluded from
school was too high, as was the proportion of pupils being educated outwith the authority.
The authority had not yet ensured that all staff, including those in Educational Psychology
Services, CLD and social work services fully understood the implications of integrated
working to fulfil the vision, values and aims. Senior officers had contributed with mixed
success to headteacher meetings and to training events to outline the authority’s aspirations.
They had not yet developed a clear policy framework on key aspects of learning and teaching
to enable staff to work more consistently towards being a City of Learning. More remained
to be done to clarify to all staff in educational establishments, particularly headteachers, their
role in integrated working, and the potential benefits for learners and their families.
The authority’s vision clearly set out its commitment to the promotion of positive attitudes to
cultural diversity, equality and social justice. The commitment to the implementation of this
vision was evident in many aspects of the authority’s work. It had effectively promoted
racial equality through an inclusion and diversity conference, the distribution of helpful
materials to pupils and the provision of a clear policy. Authority staff, including CLD staff,
had worked well with groups of parents and children to encourage their greater participation
in cultural and sporting activities.
Leadership and direction
The Council was in a period of considerable change. Elected members provided strong
support to the Chief Executive and had supported some key initiatives to take forward the
work of the authority. The Chief Executive had a comprehensive knowledge of the
authority and had appointed senior staff who were totally committed to making
improvements. The new Corporate Team was hard working, eager to learn from one
another and signed up to change. Corporate Directors had begun to put new support
structures and significant planning procedures in place. These were not complete and the
links between strategic planning and operational planning were not yet impacting
sufficiently on service delivery. Changes in staffing, variability in the levels of challenge
and support to establishments and services and difficulties in engaging some headteachers
in their corporate role, had resulted in insufficient progress against key outcomes and
targets. Further work was needed to raise the profile of risk management at an
operational level. New appointments had served to strengthen leadership. Overall, the
impact of leadership and direction in the context of the education functions of the
authority was weak but improving.
The Chief Executive had a comprehensive knowledge of the authority and was strongly
committed to performance improvement. He worked tirelessly to drive forward an agenda
for change and demonstrated the ability to take difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions
to deliver high quality services. Commitment to the change agenda had been very mixed and
by 2005 the Chief Executive recognised the need to accelerate the rate of change and to raise
performance to a higher standard. Towards these ends, he had ensured the development of
six key directorates and a structure that separated strategic leadership from operational
management, and included a directorate with the specific remit of leading continuous
improvement. He had appointed six new directors to strengthen leadership across the
authority. The Directorate Team were strongly supportive of the change agenda. In their
22
relatively short time in post, they had created a positive dynamic in the authority and were
meeting regularly with their staff to share performance information and direct improvements
in services. There was some evidence that work undertaken to build community engagement
at a local level and to provide targeted support to individual schools was beginning to have a
positive impact. Corporate Directors were coming to terms with the demands of their new
posts, which were wide-ranging, whilst at the same time managing a considerable change
agenda.
Elected members were very supportive of the Chief Executive. They worked with senior
officers against a background of significant change and were aware that the transition to the
new arrangements had been difficult. The 3Rs schools project was operating to the agreed
timescale and had the potential to considerably improve the school estate and provide
facilities that were more conducive to learning. However, the Council had not ensured that
its inclusion policy had been developed in good time. Stronger leadership and direction was
required in order to reduce the high levels of exclusions, target resources to those
establishments that needed additional support and share effective approaches to learning,
teaching and behaviour management. Officers should take further steps to ensure that
reports to committee are succinct and focused on key data sets to help elected members to
make informed decisions about areas needing improvement.
The Community Plan was being reviewed and was being informed by wider regional
priorities and the actions arising from the 37 NCAPs and neighbourhood profiles. It
included clear priorities to enable and encourage citizens of all ages to reach their maximum
potential, to develop learned citizens and to create seamless lifelong learning and
development opportunities. The Children’s Service Plan contained an unrealistically high
number of targets, a high proportion of which were being carried forward to the Integrated
Children’s Service Plan 2006-2010. Links between NCAPs, service plans and establishment
plans were still under development. Work to simplify planning and to develop the ‘Golden
Thread’ between the various levels of the Council’s planning framework was ongoing.
Senior staff were playing a key role in corporate planning and were working within tight
timescales to develop and improve service planning in their respective areas. These
timescales were preventing the level of consultation with headteachers that senior staff
would have liked. The CLD Strategy and linked operational plans was helping to direct the
work of this service. The City Strategist offered effective leadership to the Lifelong
Learning Forum which focused on key areas of concern such as the National Youth Work
Strategy consultation. CLD programmes were having a positive impact on local
communities and there was a strong commitment to improving the standard and quality of
CLD work in the City. Further work was needed to provide clarity for operational staff on
how their recent redeployment would be progressed.
In a number of contexts, the leadership provided by other central officers was having a
positive impact on the quality of pupils’ achievements. Effective operational plans directed
improvements in a number of areas such as ICT, health promotion and active schools,
enterprise in education and the implementation of the ASL Act. Principal officers within arts
education, Gaelic, outdoor education, physical education and sports development had
ensured that workable planning mechanisms were in place to support the wider achievement
of learners. The principal educational psychologist had the capacity to provide leadership for
the Educational Psychology Service, although the service as a whole needed to develop its
23
strategic role in planning for improvements and to extend its procedures for monitoring
performance and outcomes.
All schools had school improvement plans which were directing the work of their
establishments and departments. To date, the impact of school planning on improving
outcomes for children and young people was too variable across schools. The leadership and
direction provided by headteachers varied. There was no requirement for schools to select,
trial and report on the impact of selected strategies to improve attainment as part of the
planning process. Corporate Directors were reviewing the process of target setting and had
plans to negotiate challenging targets with headteachers for 2007/2008. Headteachers
needed to recognise their role as change agents and active participants in the modernising
agenda.
The Council had a coherent three-year financial plan and was starting to develop an
integrated approach to resource management and service planning. Senior officers had taken
appropriate steps to achieve coherence between the strategies for service development and
the strategies for resource management. In 2005/2006, education under each of the three
Neighbourhood Services, and Leisure and Learning, achieved a net under-spend of
£5 million, which included the devolved education management budget, National Priorities
Action Fund and an implementation of A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century. The
delays in appointing support staff to secondary schools meant that teachers and senior staff
were undertaking duties that could have been completed by support staff, and which would
have freed them to focus on activities that impacted directly on work in classrooms.
The Council had appropriate arrangements to manage strategic risk. Corporate risk registers
were in place and the Chief Executive brought in external specialists to risk assess the
changes in structures and staffing. This allowed the Chief Executive to develop a strategy
for managing risks during the restructuring of senior management posts. A review of risk
management arrangements had been undertaken in May 2006. As a result, risk registers
were to be included in each of the six service plans being developed for 2007/2008.
Current development work was helping to develop robust linkages between the service
planning and budget process which had not been in place previously. Service Plans for
2007/2008 and the review of the Corporate Plan and the Community Plan provided an
opportunity to establish the appropriate linkages. The separation of strategic leadership and
operational management needed to be monitored closely to ensure that the work of strategists
was clearly focused and aligned to improving service delivery.
Whilst there was evidence of effective planning and direction at operational level and
significant improvements at corporate level, long-standing weaknesses had impaired the
work of Education Services. These included direction to education authority pre-school
provision and for children across sectors with challenging behaviour. Strategic leadership
and oversight of City-wide services had been weak and needed to be improved in order to
maximise the use of staff and monitor the impact of services. Similarly, leadership and
direction to the Educational Psychology Service had been limited but was beginning to
improve. Staff at all levels recognised the need for clearer strategic direction in a number of
areas including learning and teaching, catering effectively for the needs of vulnerable pupils
and curriculum development. Planned developments to address these concerns were
underway and there were promising signs that these had the potential to make an impact.
24
Developing people and partnerships
Performance in this area was good overall. The authority placed a high priority on
pooling the expertise of staff through integrated working. Despite recent significant
changes in staffing, partnership working continued to be a strength. Working
relationships within teams at the centre and within establishments and services were
positive. Senior staff were concerned to improve staff morale and address workload issues
although more required to be done. New staffing appointments had served to strengthen
leadership and a number of key developments had been undertaken to further build
leadership capacity. Further work was required to create a stronger sense of corporate
teamworking and to ensure that leadership capacity building impacted more strongly on
service delivery.
The Chief Executive placed high importance on developing leadership at all levels. This was
required to drive forward the modernising agenda and develop joint working across
traditional council services. He had taken positive steps to bring together the combined
budgets and programmes for social work, education and corporate CPD under one head of
service. This had the potential to strengthen joint training and enhance leadership capacity
across services. A new model for collaborative leadership and management had been
developed which included a programme of leadership and management training aligned to
agreed leadership competencies. These programmes and other related opportunities were too
recent to have had a major impact. The early development of such programmes was highly
appropriate in the light of new portfolios, wide-ranging responsibilities and the demands of
taking forward integrated working.
Within the school sector, the overall quality of leadership in the establishments inspected
varied. In the three years prior to the inspection, HMIE found very good leadership in less
than 30% of pre-school establishments and just over a third of primary schools but none in
the special or secondary schools inspected. The impact of courses in the CPD Directory to
improve self-evaluation had not yet had the desired impact on improved systems in the
schools inspected. There were a number of innovative programmes that had been developed
through the drive of individual headteachers and members of staff. In the past, the authority
had delegated much of the decision-making to schools. Within this framework, schools
could choose to develop strong partnership working at a local level or adopt a more
inward-looking stance. The developing arrangements for integrated working meant that an
inward-looking approach was no longer an option. Headteachers had a key responsibility to
ensure productive partnership working within the neighbourhood networks and shared
decision-making on resource allocation at a local level to tackle difficult social issues.
The authority placed a high priority on sustaining positive working relationships with staff
and stakeholders in establishments and services. HMIE findings from inspections
demonstrated that relationships in educational establishments between staff and learners
were very positive. This was reflected in the quality of relationships between the authority,
its establishments and a wide range of partners and agencies. Some groups, however,
particularly parents and School Board chairs found changes in staffing at the centre and in
roles and responsibilities frustrating. The authority should ensure that those groups had an
identified point of contact at the centre, and any changes were clearly communicated.
25
Teamwork within the extended Corporate Team was developing well. Staff shared a
common sense of purpose and drive towards securing improvements in the quality of
services. Many appreciated the considerable support for taking forward their own
professional development including attending national and international events. The
education authority was placing a high priority in meeting and listening to staff in order to
improve motivation and morale. Nevertheless, there were strong and consistent messages
from staff at all levels that morale continued to be low. This was affected by a number of
issues including high workloads, the proportion of time being spent in meetings that were
deemed unproductive, insufficient opportunities to engage in debate about professional
issues and a perception of continual change. Senior staff should continue to meet and listen
to their own staff and stakeholders in order to respond to aspects of day-to-day working that
were impacting on morale. This needed to be a priority in moving the modernising agenda
towards successful outcomes for children and young people.
The Educational Psychology Service was delivering a broad range of services with regard to
consultation and advice, assessment and intervention. It had developed some good working
relationships with children and young people, teachers and social workers. Nonetheless,
partnerships with schools and with agencies which were external to the Council required
further development to maximise impact. The service had not established itself sufficiently
well as a major contributor to professional development and training. It also needed to have
a more central role in contributing to research and strategic development within the
authority.
The move towards neighbourhood working was serving to break down departmental barriers
and encourage joint working. Staff within CLD were being treated more equitably and as a
result, feeling more valued. Joint-service delivery was a positive feature of the Lifelong
Learning Forum and Integrated Children’s Services projects. Productive joint working with
NHS Grampian on the family learning project and a range of well-planned projects in Torry
had resulted in successful outcomes for vulnerable children and their families. Very
effective links with higher and further education institutions provided opportunities for more
effective transitions between school and post-school destinations.
Leadership of change and improvement
The quality of the leadership of change was adequate. The authority had some very good
information on school attainment and provided helpful analyses of that data for school
and authority staff. It had a quality assurance framework in place since 2003 which
identified regular visits by EOs to schools and the agendas for each of their visits.
However, the level of challenge provided to establishments, including provision for pupils
with additional needs and pre-school centres, was too variable. The quality assurance
framework did not encourage EOs to engage with staff in a sufficiently broad range of
activities to test schools’ self-evaluations. There was no overall strategy to focus resources
on schools which were underperforming. A number of visits to schools had not taken
place in the previous year because of staffing shortages.
The authority had strengthened the capacity of central teams to support and challenge
schools. The strategic management of education had been enhanced with the very recent
appointment of a Head of Planning and Policy for Services to Children and Young People, a
team of strategists responsible for important aspects of educational policy and strategy as
26
well as service managers for schools. The remits of EOs were now focused more on their
quality assurance role to schools and services. These arrangements had been put in place to
strengthen the work of schools and services but had not been operational long enough to
make a significant impact.
The authority had developed a well-established framework for quality assurance in schools
although staff at all levels were aware that the impact of this framework on outcomes for
children and young people varied across the City. As a result, the framework had been
strengthened very recently through the implementation of a new policy on the effective
monitoring of classroom practice. The policy was seeking to direct improvements in
self-evaluation by engaging staff in sharing good practice in learning and teaching and
developing a stronger culture of peer review. Almost all headteachers believed that the
authority had encouraged a systematic approach to school self-evaluation and were positive
about taking forward the sharing of classroom practice.
The authority held detailed neighbourhood profiles as well as profiles of performance data
for each of their schools. The latter provided a valuable trend analysis as a basis for schools
and EOs to evaluate performance. Central staff were developing a more robust strategy to
draw on this performance data to ensure that resources were targeted more effectively on
areas requiring improvement.
Within the new arrangements, headteachers operated at third tier as senior officers of the
authority with City-wide and neighbourhood roles. They were committed to their schools
and to further strengthening links with their local community for the benefits of children and
young people. They needed to ensure that they were clear on the authority’s expectations of
them in their new, extended roles. Further discussions were needed to help headteachers to
manage their responsibilities in ways that enhanced their leadership roles in schools and
within their communities.
Staff in schools across sectors had effective arrangements in place for identifying those
pupils who were most at risk and failing to make appropriate progress. There were some
imaginative initiatives in place to support young people who were disaffected with school.
These were as yet too sporadic and insufficiently consistent across all schools. In recent
inspections, the quality of how well pupils’ needs were being met was evaluated less strongly
than other aspects.
The authority responded thoroughly to the findings of HMIE inspections on establishments
and services. In the last three years, HMIE disengaged from almost all schools after their
arranged follow-through visit. The authority also made generally accurate evaluations of the
progress schools had made after HMIE inspections in follow-through reports for which they
were responsible. Pre-inspection reports on schools varied in accuracy. They often gave
higher evaluations than HMIE for aspects such as teaching, learning, meeting pupils’ needs
and self-evaluation.
The authority had given good support to schools in a number of areas which had resulted in
better outcomes for children and young people. The Arts in Education Team had supported a
range of innovative projects in art and culture. Individual officers at second and third tier,
along with principal officers and small groups of specialist staff had made continued and
valuable improvements in important aspects of provision, such as ICT, enterprise in
27
education, health promotion and music. The curriculum support teams for 5-14 and 10-18
provided a good range of services to schools and their support was much valued. They
responded positively to specific requests from headteachers although their support was not
always targeted by the authority where it could be most helpful.
The Educational Psychology Service had not been sufficiently involved in developing policy
and practices with the authority. Senior staff were actively involved in taking steps to
develop the service’s capacity to improve and to ensure that it would be able to make a more
positive impact on behalf of its stakeholders. In extending and developing the role of the
Educational Psychology Service, senior managers should ensure the service avoids becoming
fragmented.
The authority celebrated successes of pupils and schools in a number of ways. An annual
awards ceremony had a high level of participation and was highly regarded. The authority
was currently reviewing this event to ensure that it embraced and celebrated achievement
across Children’s and Young People’s Services. The Children’s University which
encouraged and celebrated pupils’ achievements was an imaginative initiative. Further steps
needed to be taken in order to share good practice among its schools to make an impact
across the authority.
6. What is the Council’s capacity for improvement?
Aberdeen City Council had an aspirational agenda and had taken some bold decisions to
breakthrough to new levels of performance. The commitment to change had been mixed.
New staffing appointments within the centre had the potential to release the ideas and
talents of all staff, with a renewed focus on improvements in service delivery. Strengths in
areas such as partnership working and in developing learners’ wider achievements
provided a springboard for future work. The authority continued to demonstrate strong
performance in some areas. These included attainment in SQA examinations in
secondary schools, enterprise initiatives across sectors and developments which were
working for the benefit of pupils with additional support needs. However, there were
considerable challenges ahead. These would require the development of leadership
capacity at all levels and a more rigorous approach to ensuring consistency of provision
within and across establishments, services and directorates.
Since the publication of the previous HMIE report on the Council’s Education Services, the
authority had undergone significant changes in structure and staffing, particularly at
corporate level. Aberdeen City was on a journey towards consistently high achievement.
The new extended Corporate Team demonstrated a strong commitment to taking this
forward. They were committed to working in ways that made a difference and worked with
energy, drive and enthusiasm. The appointment of staff, such as the service managers for
schools and children’s services, signalled the importance that the authority attached to
managing and improving education. These appointments were crucial in building the
capacity of central staff to support and challenge establishments and to deliver better
outcomes for learners. A key challenge for the authority was closing the gap between the
high aspirations for consistency of performance and the realities of the outcomes being
achieved.
28
A number of initiatives had been taken forward which had helped to develop the interests,
talents and self-esteem of children and young people. Learners were being supported by
specialist staff from within and outwith the Council to develop their potential in areas such as
the arts and culture, sport and outdoor pursuits and physical activity. These experiences
were important in developing the all-round talents of children and young people, including
those with additional support needs, and in valuing their achievements. Further work was
needed to ensure that authority staff had a clearer overview of the impact of these services on
the achievements of children and young people.
The transition to the new staffing arrangements and changed structure had been difficult.
The inspection was taking place at a key point in time during the Council’s change
programme. A high proportion of staff and key partners including parents and School
Boards were uncertain of roles, responsibilities and remits. Communication channels were
in process of development and there was still some confusion about whom to contact in
relation to key issues. CLD staff were feeling more valued within the new structure and
discussions were underway to work in a more joined-up way with schools. Senior staff had
also taken important steps to improve the quality and focus of service planning.
Continued efforts were needed to develop a culture of mutual trust and respect that
engendered a stronger sense of corporate ownership. Headteachers had a key role to play in
grasping their extended leadership roles. The Council had an experienced and capable pool
of staff both within the centre and across its establishments and services. Elected members,
the Chief Executive and recently appointed senior staff shared a renewed determination to
drive improvements through all services, including education, to improve the quality of life
for all Aberdeen’s citizens. The education authority’s capacity for improvement required the
development of a culture which released the energies of staff and raised people’s awareness
of their respective roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. This would require strong
leadership and direction at all levels.
29
Key strengths
•
The priority given by the Chief Executive, and elected members and senior staff to
implementing the Council’s agenda for Education Services especially integrated working
at a neighbourhood level.
•
Arrangements to gather contextual information and involve local people through the
37 neighbourhood profiles and neighbourhood community action plans.
•
The positive impact on learners of provision through City-wide services in arts education
and music, outdoor education, health and physical activity initiatives and sports
development.
•
The approach to promoting the implementation of ASL and the Race Equality Acts.
•
Effective provision for enterprise in education and the strong attainment in SQA
examinations in secondary schools.
•
The contribution of CLD to support family learning initiatives.
Main points for action
•
Improve the strategic direction of the authority as a City of Learning through clearer
linkages between planning at service, establishment and neighbourhood levels.
•
Provide more effective arrangements to direct, support and monitor the work of authority
pre-school providers, City-wide services and provision for children and young people
with challenging behaviour.
•
Make more effective use of performance data to improve self-evaluation in schools and
target support and challenge to services and establishments in order to improve
attainment and achievement and reduce exclusions.
•
Take further action to address motivation, morale and workload issues among
centrally-deployed staff.
•
Continue with actions to establish CPD pathways across services in order to develop
leadership capacity, enhance joint training and encourage the sharing of good practice in
integrated service delivery.
30
The authority has been asked to prepare an action plan indicating how it will address the
main findings of the report. HMIE will maintain contact with the authority and will make a
return visit within two years to evaluate progress.
Annette Bruton
HM Chief Inspector
Directorate 5
May 2007
31
Appendix 1
Quality Indicators
Quality Indicator
Improvements in performance
Impact on learners
Impact on parents/carers and families
Impact on staff
Impact on the local community
Impact on the wider community
Vision, values and aims
Leadership and direction
Developing people and partnerships
Leadership of change and improvement
Evaluation
Adequate
Adequate
Good
Adequate
Good
Good
Good
Weak
Good
Adequate
Note:
The quality scale used in inspections is indicated below. Further details are provided on the
inside cover of this report.
Old level
Very good
New level
Excellent
Very good
Good
Good
Adequate
Fair
Weak
Unsatisfactory Unsatisfactory
32
Description
Outstanding, sector leading
Major strengths
Important strengths with some areas for improvement
Strengths just outweigh weaknesses
Important weaknesses
Major weaknesses
Appendix 2
Attendance
Table A.1: Percentage Attendance
Primary:
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
95.4
95.4
95.0
CA Average
95.2
94.9
95.0
National
95.3
95.0
95.0
Secondary:
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
91.8
91.9
91.3
CA Average
90.0
89.9
90.1
National
90.2
90.1
90.5
Staying on Rate
Table A.2: Percentage of pupils staying on to S5 (Post Christmas)
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
60.4
60.0
63.0
CA Average
64.2
64.4
64.4
National
64.2
64.1
63.8
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
32
37
39
CA Average
29
31
29
National
29
31
30
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
21
22
18
CA Average
20
20
24
National
21
21
23
Training:
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
1
2
1
CA Average
4
4
4
National
5
5
5
Employment:
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
21
24
26
CA Average
26
28
26
National
25
27
26
Pupil Destinations
Table A.3: Percentage of pupils entering each destination
Higher Education:
Further Education:
33
Unemployed and
seeking employment:
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
19
9
12
CA Average
13
12
13
National
13
10
11
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
2
2
1
CA Average
3
3
2
National
3
3
2
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
3
5
3
CA Average
4
3
2
National
4
3
2
Unemployed and not
seeking employment:
Destination unknown:
Exclusions
Table A.4: Total number of exclusions and exclusions per 1,000 population
2004
Primary
Aberdeen City
Per 1,000
Total
Per 1,000
Total
Per 1,000
262
19
320
24
392
31
11
4,478
11
5,319
5,779
2005
15
2006
Per 1,000
Total
Per 1,000
Total
Per 1,000
674
64
1056
101
1237
119
116
33,465
105
121
35,513
SQA Attainment
Table A.5: Results in Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) National Qualifications
Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
(SCQF) levels
Level 7: Advanced Higher at A-C/CSYS at A-C
Level 6: Higher at A-C
Level 5: Intermediate 2 at A-C; Standard Grade at 1-2
Level 4: Intermediate 1 at A-C; Standard Grade at 3-4
Level 3: Access 3 Cluster; Standard Grade at 5-6
34
13
16
Total
CA Average
National
14
2004
Secondary
Aberdeen City
2006
Total
CA Average
National
2005
112
131
36,136
115
Percentage of relevant S4 roll achieving by the end of S4
English at
Level 3 or
better
Mathematics
at Level 3 or
better
5 + at Level 3
or better
5 + at Level 4
or better
5 + at Level 5
or better
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
94.1
94.7
94.8
94.8
95.7
CA Average
93.0
92.6
93.3
92.9
93.8
National
93.4
93.7
93.7
93.6
94.0
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
93.2
93.9
93.9
94.2
95.0
CA Average
92.1
91.8
91.3
91.6
93.0
National
92.6
92.6
92.5
92.1
92.9
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
91.1
91.3
91.9
91.2
90.5
CA Average
89.8
89.5
89.4
88.7
89.7
National
90.8
90.7
90.8
90.2
90.7
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
75.0
76.6
74.3
77.1
75.0
CA Average
74.9
74.4
75.0
74.5
75.3
National
76.7
76.4
76.6
76.1
76.8
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
32.0
33.9
34.9
33.7
35.2
CA Average
33.7
33.8
33.9
34.6
34.0
National
33.9
34.0
34.6
34.2
34.8
Percentage of relevant S4 roll achieving by the end of S5
3 + at Level 6
or better
5 + at Level 6
or better
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
22.9
23.2
24.8
24.0
22.0
CA Average
23.1
23.0
23.2
22.7
22.8
National
22.8
22.6
22.7
22.7
21.7
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
8.7
8.5
10.3
10.7
10.8
CA Average
10.1
10.0
9.9
10.4
10.3
National
9.3
9.6
9.4
9.9
9.7
35
Percentage of relevant S4 roll achieving by the end of S6
English and
Mathematics
at Level 3 or
5 + at Level 3
or better
5 + at Level 4
or better
5 + at Level 5
or better
1 + at Level 6
or better
3 + at Level 6
or better
5 + at Level 6
or better
1 + at Level 7
or better
36
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
92.8
93.6
92.9
93.8
93.1
CA Average
91.4
91.3
90.9
91.0
91.0
National
92.3
92.3
91.6
91.8
91.7
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
90.5
91.7
91.9
92.3
92.9
CA Average
89.6
89.8
90.4
90.2
90.0
National
90.9
91.1
91.3
91.2
91.4
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
75.5
78.1
77.0
78.6
76.0
CA Average
76.0
76.7
77.2
76.8
77.0
National
77.9
78.6
78.6
78.4
78.5
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
45.6
44.4
44.4
48.1
47.6
CA Average
45.2
46.4
46.8
46.6
47.0
National
45.7
46.9
47.2
47.1
47.6
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
45.4
43.8
42.7
44.8
44.1
CA Average
43.6
43.8
43.4
43.3
42.7
National
43.7
43.6
43.5
43.1
43.0
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
33.1
31.9
31.0
32.6
32.2
CA Average
30.9
31.0
31.1
30.7
29.9
National
31.0
30.7
30.6
30.1
30.0
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
20.6
20.2
20.4
21.9
22.1
CA Average
20.2
19.6
19.6
20.1
19.9
National
19.7
19.6
19.6
19.4
19.7
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Aberdeen City
14.2
14.5
14.2
16.5
15.7
CA Average
12.6
12.3
13.1
12.8
13.5
National
11.6
11.9
12.3
12.1
12.5
Notes
(1) CA average denotes comparator authority average.
(2) Comparator authorities for Aberdeen City include:
Comparators
Rating
Edinburgh City
****
***
***
***
***
Dundee City
South Ayrshire
Argyll and Bute
Renfrewshire
‘Very Close’
‘Close’
‘Close’
‘Close’
‘Close’
(3) Caution should be exercised when making comparisons with comparator authority
averages if there are a number of authorities that are not extremely or very close.
(4) Users are urged to exercise particular caution when using the comparator authority
averages for the City education authorities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow,
as these have very few education authorities to which they are considered extremely or
very close.
37
How can you contact us?
If you wish to comment about education authority inspections
Should you wish to comment on any aspect of education authority inspections, you should
write in the first instance to Annette Bruton HMCI, at HM Inspectorate of Education,
Directorate 5, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA.
Our complaints procedure
If you have a concern about this report, you should write in the first instance to our
Complaints Manager, HMIE Business Management Unit, Second Floor, Denholm House,
Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA. You can also email
HMIEcomplaints@hmie.gsi.gov.uk. A copy of our complaints procedure is available from
this office, by telephoning 01506 600200 or from our website at www.hmie.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our complaints procedure,
you can raise your complaint with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). The
SPSO is fully independent and has powers to investigate complaints about Government
departments and agencies. You should write to the SPSO, Freepost EH641, Edinburgh
EH3 0BR. You can also telephone 0800 377 7330 (fax 0800 377 7331) or e-mail
ask@spso.org.uk. More information about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from
the website: www.spso.org.uk.
Crown Copyright 2007
HM Inspectorate of Education
This report may be reproduced in whole or in part, except for commercial purposes or in
connection with a prospectus or advertisement, provided that the source and date thereof are
stated.
38