INEA Follow through inspection
Aberdeen City Council
14 December 2010
Contents
Page
Introduction
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1.
The inspection
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2.
Continuous improvement
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3.
Improvements since the original inspection
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4.
What does the Council plan to do next?
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Introduction
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published an inspection report on the
education functions of Aberdeen City Council in May 2007. In that report, HMIE
undertook to revisit the Council within two years to assess progress. In light of the
considerable changes within the Council, we agreed to postpone the
follow-through scrutiny of the education functions of the Council for a period of
one year. Follow-through visits took place in June and September 2010 to look at
service progress and improvement in each of the main points for action and good
practice.
1. The inspection
The inspection activity was carried out within the new Shared Risk Assessment
process, and followed the principle of minimising unnecessary scrutiny.
HM Inspectors (HMI) scrutinised all available documentary and statistical
evidence about the extent to which the Council had been making improvements in
line with the original main points for action in the inspection report of May 2007.
HMI then met with senior officers to explore progress and scope out a programme
of inspection activities to enable further evidence to be gathered in relation to the
main points of action. This enhanced the inspection team’s understanding of the
context, including the financial context, within which the service was operating,
and was based upon the self-evaluation report prepared by the authority. The
partnership approach to scrutiny was further strengthened through the inclusion of
a senior council officer as a member of the inspection team.
The Directorate of Education, Culture and Sport had identified six key themes as
a focus for improvement activity. These themes related both to the main points
for action from the inspection report of 2007, and to priorities for continuous
improvement and good practice identified from the directorate’s ongoing
self-evaluation. Aberdeen City progress report September 2010.
The six themed areas were:
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early years;
additional support needs and inclusion;
attainment and achievement;
quality improvement;
curriculum; and
partnerships.
The Directorate of Education, Culture and Sport worked in partnership with HMIE
to evaluate progress against the main points for action identified in the original
inspection of 2007. This was done through scrutinising evidence on each of the
themed areas and reporting on the findings. The process was conducted with a
high level of openness and positive partnership working. HMIE were able to
contribute evidence of the work of the Council through information gathered by the
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District Inspector and through the Shared Risk Assessment process. HMIE were
able to confirm the evaluations of progress made across the themes by the
Directorate for Education, Culture and Sport.
This report describes the key improvements for learners in Aberdeen City Council.
It also sets out the Council’s proposed future actions, which have been agreed
with HMIE. The directorate intends to use this information to inform their
Standards and Quality report for 2010 and to set further improvement priorities.
2. Continuous improvement
Aberdeen City Council has undergone significant changes in the last 18 months.
A new Chief Executive was appointed in 2008, and a new senior management
structure established in 2009, which included the appointment of a Director for
Education, Culture and Sport. The Council has strengthened its approach to
corporate working to ensure a more stable financial position. There have also
been significant structural changes within the directorate resulting in a new
management team, which was nearly complete in August 2010.
The Council has made significant progress since the original inspection.
Councillors, the Chief Executive, and the Director for Education, Culture and Sport
articulate a clear vision for learning across Aberdeen City. Aberdeen Learning
Strategy.
A more focused approach to strategic management and quality assurance has
strengthened teamwork, providing more opportunities to share good practice and
ensure a more consistent approach to support and challenge.
The Director has given priority to a number of important actions, including the
development of a clear and agreed educational vision and strategy, the
restructuring of the service and the development of an innovative priority based
budgeting system to improve and redesign council services. Education, Culture
and Sport are at the forefront of the development of priority based budgeting
across the Council, and have shared their approach nationally with other
Councils. The Director has brought strong leadership and energy to the post.
She has established productive relationships with partners, stakeholders, and
senior and department staff at all levels across the Council. The Director and the
senior team have improved links with other services at strategic level. Teamwork
at senior level is developing positively and productively. The members of the new
senior team now have clearly defined roles and remits, and are working hard to
support the delivery of key service priorities outlined in the 2010-2013 Service
Improvement Plan. The revised management structure has the support of staff
who welcome the strong leadership and clear sense of direction.
The senior team has been successful in fostering a collegiate culture of open
discussion in which staff now feel more valued and supported. The importance of
strengthening the leadership capacity across all levels of the organisation is now
recognised and actively promoted. Evidence from HMIE inspection reports on
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schools show improvements in the evaluations of learners’ experiences. Schools
are increasingly making effective use of the experiences and outcomes from
Curriculum for Excellence in their planning.
Curriculum
Overall, there has been steady progress in the development of Curriculum for
Excellence since 2007. Focused collaboration across schools, particularly at
headteacher level, has led to a more coherent approach to curriculum planning
and organisation. Staff at all levels would welcome greater opportunities to
engage in joint working and collaboration regarding curriculum development and
implementation. The authority has provided helpful guidance to support schools
in implementing Curriculum for Excellence. Senior officers recognise that there is
a need for further consistency and coherence across the city in relation to the
implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. The development of GLOW is at an
early stage.
Partnerships
There is a strong strategic drive from the Director to strengthen partnership
working. Individual services within the directorate are effectively engaged in a
number of creative partnerships at both local and national levels. Effective and
productive partnerships with local industry benefit young people. Engagement
between the Youth Council, elected representatives and Council Officers is good.
Not all secondary schools are fully engaged in effective partnership working with
community learning and development.
Young people are actively engaged in decision making. For example, Youth
Council members participated in an authority wide strategic planning event. The
support provided by the Youth Participation Officer is valued by young people.
Elected representatives and Officers promote the voice of young people in council
and community developments. Engagement between the Youth Council, elected
representatives and Council Officers is good.
3. Improvements since the original inspection
Overall, the Council has made a number of significant improvements since the
original inspection, improving outcomes for learners across Aberdeen.
Early years
The directorate has made good progress in relation to this theme. The early
years service has built on the strengths recognised in the original inspection
report, and maintained effective partnership working through the Early Years and
Childcare Partnership forum with its pre-school partner providers. The quality
assurance focus has been strengthened through more effective working practice
between the pre-school and quality assurance teams, and through the recently
established service management post, which focuses on the needs of the children
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from 0 to 7 years. Local authority nurseries within Aberdeen City have received
increasingly positive inspection reports over the last few years. There is now a
strong focus on workforce improvement and continued professional development,
which allows early years staff to improve their qualifications and outcomes for
children. The early years service recognises that further improvement is required,
and has outlined an appropriate action plan, which will build on its strengths, while
ensuring that workforce planning and self-evaluation continue to develop.
Additional support needs and inclusion
Officers and HMIE recognise that the pace of progress in relation to this theme
has been slower than anticipated, and evaluated overall progress as satisfactory.
Aberdeen City Council has continued to strengthen their commitment to the
promotion of inclusive practices for children and young people. Young people
with additional support needs are being more successfully included in city-wide
activities, including those run through the Active Schools team. Officers recognise
that further development is required in embedding the Getting It Right for Every
Child agenda across the Council. The directorate has sought to meet better the
needs of children and young people with social, emotional and behavioural needs
(SEBN) through a range of strategies. Approaches include effective partnership
working through the newly created Intensive Community Support and Learning
Service to maintain children and young people in Aberdeen, and to respond more
appropriately to their joint care and educational needs. Partnership working
should be further extended to meet more effectively the needs of young people
with additional support needs at points of transition, and in particular for those
young people moving into further education and the world of work. More work is
required to address the needs of all children and young people who require
additional support and in particular, those with SEBN. The inspection team
confirmed that officers have undertaken robust self-evaluation in relation to their
progress in this area. The directorate has now put in place a clear action plan
identifying their strengths and next steps for improvement.
Attainment and achievement
The directorate has made satisfactory progress in improving attainment. They
have made very good progress in improving young people’s achievement.
Staff have demonstrated a strong commitment to continuous improvement. There
is a clear focus on raising attainment, promoted strongly across the directorate,
and at elected member and senior officer level. The new management structure
and the drive for improvement in attainment are helping to ensure that schools are
being challenged more systematically to improve. Education officers have
developed more positive links with schools in relation to support and challenge.
At authority level, there is a greater focus on using data to identify strengths and
areas for improvement.
The work of quality improvement officers is now more clearly focused on assisting
schools to improve approaches to tracking and monitoring attainment. Staff in
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schools are beginning to use data more systematically to set targets for
attainment and to track the progress of individuals and groups of children and
young people. The directorate recognises that further improvement is required to
increase attainment across the school sector. Since 2007, there has been a small
increase in performance across reading, writing and mathematics at the primary
stages. There has been a similar steady gain in the secondary sector with
notable improvement in writing in 2009-2010. Progress in relation to national
attainment at the secondary stages has been mixed. There has been
improvement in a number of key measures, but overall progress remains below
comparator authorities.
The Directorate of Education, Culture and Sport has continued to build on its
strong performance in relation to achievement and has further increased the
range of opportunities available to children and young people with the support of
partners. The Active Schools team has extended the range of activities available
to children and young people across the city including kickboxing, snowboarding
and fun runs. Through involvement in the Children’s University Project, children
from regeneration areas across the city have been able to explore different ways
of learning and gaining accreditation. An effective collaboration between
Aberdeen City Council and the University of Aberdeen National History Centre
called Planet Plant, involved over 1000 children in following plant trails, potting
plants and making compost bottles. The directorate has increased the
opportunities and participation levels of children and young people in a wide range
of exciting events and projects across the city, including a number of targeted
initiatives to support the needs of vulnerable learners and those for whom learning
is a challenge, including the award-winning Reading Bus initiative and the Literacy
Project. Effective partnership working has led to an extensive range of creative
opportunities for young people across the city. These include Adventure
Aberdeen, Arts Extreme, a wide range of events led by the Countryside Ranger
service and the innovative Station House Media Unit, Dialogue Youth Project,
where young people are supported and trained to present radio shows about local
issues and news which affect young people.
Quality improvement
The Directorate of Education, Culture and Sport has made satisfactory progress in
this area. Quality improvement visits are now more rigorous and have a clear
focus on evaluating the impact of developments focused on improving attainment
and learning and teaching. Headteachers welcome the move towards a more
proportionate quality improvement model. The recent Scottish Qualification
Awards challenge meetings held in every secondary school, and attended by the
Director and Heads of Service, have resulted in targeted visits to those schools
and departments in need of further support.
The directorate has met with considerable success in reducing exclusions in
secondary schools by monitoring individual school data and investing in
innovative solution orientated approaches. By 2008-2009, exclusions in
secondary schools had fallen steadily and are now below comparator authorities
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but marginally above national averages. Exclusions in the primary sector
continue to be well above national and comparator authority averages.
The directorate has enabled increased recognition of achievement through an
extensive range of qualifications and certification available to young people
including The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Youth Achievement and Sports
Leadership Awards.
The strengths of the Council
Aberdeen City Council and HMIE identified the following high-level strengths:
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the achievements of children and young people, which are being fostered
through the city-wide services in arts education and music, outdoor
education, health and physical activity initiatives and sports development;
the clear commitment of the Convenor and Senior Elected Members to
improving learning across the Council;
the strong leadership and vision of the Chief Executive and Director of
Education, Culture and Sport, to ensuring improvement and encouraging
creativity and innovation at all levels;
a range of creative and effective partnerships at local and national levels
which are improving outcomes for learners across the city; and
the more rigorous approach to support and challenge across the Directorate
of Education, Culture and Sport.
What is the Council’s capacity for improvement?
Capacity for improvement depends upon a range of factors, including:
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the overall impact and outcomes achieved by the education service;
its focus on improvement;
its track record in bringing about improvement;
the quality and accuracy of its self-evaluation; and
how leadership and management of the Council results in improved
outcomes for learners.
Aberdeen City Council’s Directorate for Education, Culture and Sport has
demonstrated its ability to secure improvement in a number of important areas
and to make significant contributions to Council priorities. It is well placed to
manage the future challenges posed by efficiency savings during a period of
significant financial constraint. The Director, with support from Heads of Service,
provides very effective support and challenge. Staff at all levels understand and
have been actively involved in the creation of the vision. They are now more
confident about their roles, and understand better their contribution to improving
outcomes for children and young people. Through its participation in this
inspection process, the Directorate of Education, Culture and Sport has
demonstrated that it knows itself well, and has set itself an appropriately
challenging improvement agenda. HMIE has confidence that the directorate now
has a strong capacity for continued improvement.
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4. What does the Council plan to do next?
Aberdeen City Council and HMIE have agreed to specific areas of focus for
action, which include:
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raise attainment and increase expectations in order to improve the life
chances of all young people;
further develop leadership at all levels in taking forward Curriculum for
Excellence; and
implement the significant improvements identified in the city-wide review to
better support the needs of all children and young people, particularly those
with social, emotional and behavioural needs.
Further details are provided through the attached link to the 2010-2013 Service
Improvement Plan by Aberdeen City Council.
HMIE will undertake no further activity in relation to the inspection undertaken in
2007. The findings of this report will contribute to the collaborative Shared Risk
Assessment process.
Anna Boni
HM Inspector
14 December 2010
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Crown Copyright 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education