Validated self-evaluation
North Lanarkshire Council
27 July 2010
Contents
Page
1.
The aims, nature and scope of the validated self-evaluation
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2.
Validated self-evaluation in North Lanarkshire Council
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3.
HMIE’s assessment of the quality of self-evaluation in
North Lanarkshire Council
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4.
What does the Council plan to do next?
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Appendix: North Lanarkshire Council self-evaluation
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Evaluation of the key themes
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Joint Statement
North Lanarkshire Council requested that HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) work
alongside the Council to undertake a validated self-evaluation (VSE). The approach
included partnership working between Council staff and HM Inspectors (HMI). This joint
report provides information about VSE as a process generally and how it was carried out
in North Lanarkshire Council, including HMIE’s assessment of the rigour of the process.
It describes how VSE will contribute to the ongoing self-evaluation of North Lanarkshire
Learning and Leisure Service (LLS) and also offers a summary of the agreed key
strengths and future actions.
1.
The aims, nature and scope of the validated self-evaluation
Section 9 of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000 charges 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. Evaluations are based upon a published
framework of quality indicators (Quality Management in Education 2)1 which embody the
Government’s policy on Best Value. The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000
provides a framework for improvement planning that requires education authorities to set
out and report on improvement objectives related to National Performance Framework
(NPF), national priorities and associated measures of performance.
HMIE’s mission is to work with others to secure improvements in the education and
wellbeing of the people of Scotland. It promotes public accountability for the delivery of
high quality education for all learners, and services for children. HMIE no longer operates
a cycle of inspection of the education functions of local authorities (INEA) but is
developing a more proportionate approach to evaluating and reporting on these functions
in line with the drive to reduce external scrutiny at service level. Working in partnership
with other agencies and organisations and building on the findings of inspection and
review, HMIE aims to promote improvements for the benefit of all learners and service
users. VSE contributes to this aim.
What is validated self-evaluation?
VSE is a voluntary process which aims to support and challenge the work of education
authorities to deliver and improve the quality of provision and outcomes they offer for
learners. It involves a partnership between the education authority and HMIE in which
HMIE apply their knowledge of educational delivery and expertise in evaluation in order to
extend, challenge and support the education authority’s own self-evaluation processes.
This enables HMIE to affirm (or otherwise) the outcomes of the self-evaluation and
strengthen the process. VSE acknowledges that the responsibility for improving services
and outcomes lies with the education authority. It recognises that self-evaluation is
increasingly well-embedded across the Scottish educational landscape and that high
quality self-evaluation can lead to continuous improvement for learners and the
achievement of excellence in practice and provision. In summary, VSE seeks to:
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build the capacity of education authorities to evaluate their own performance and
improve the quality of services and outcomes for learners;
Quality Management in Education 2 (HM Inspectorate of Education 2006) is a
framework of self-evaluation for Local Authority Education Services.
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promote and develop good practice and best value in education authorities;
provide information to Scottish Ministers and the public on the quality of provision in
education authorities;
offer independent evaluation and validation; and
contribute to a reduction in external scrutiny at service level where possible, taking
account of risk, and provide high quality and robust information for the shared risk
assessment process.
The VSE process is designed to accord with the principles recommended by the Crerar
‘Reducing the Burden’ Action Group, in that it is:
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focused on outcomes;
proportionate to need;
owned by those carrying out the self-evaluation;
flexible, with the scope to recognise differences in service levels and types;
built on existing good practice and relevant existing standards;
rigorous and transparent; and
designed to secure continuous improvement.
2. Validated self-evaluation in North Lanarkshire Council
North Lanarkshire Council and HMIE agreed to work together to evaluate, in partnership,
aspects of Learning and Leisure in the North Lanarkshire area. The process set out to
enable elected members, LLS and North Lanarkshire Council staff and partners to
answer the following questions:
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What are our key strengths?
What key outcomes have we achieved?
How well do we meet the needs of stakeholders?
How good is our leadership?
What are our key priorities for improvement?
What is our capacity to improve?
Working with HMIE, LLS staff identified five key themes emerging from their ongoing
self-evaluation and priorities for improvement. These themes allowed the groups to test
areas of good practice and also to examine areas of particular challenge. The five
themed areas were:
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improvement through building capacity;
leadership and vision (through Raising Achievement for All);
inclusion and equalities;
delivering efficient services; and
partnership and engagement within the Lifelong Learning Strategy.
LLS brought together a wide range of staff from across the Council including elected
members, head teachers, heads of centres, corporate staff and partners to work together
on the VSE process.
Each thematic group was led by a chair and supported by an adviser. A writer was also
assigned to capture the key findings of the group. Participants were encouraged to share
their expertise in self-evaluation to ensure the process was searching and suitably robust.
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The breadth of staff involved meant that evidence was comprehensive and wide ranging.
Considerable preparatory work was undertaken in gathering and considering the
evidence. They began analysing the evidence and created an initial evaluative
statement. Groups used, for example, attainment and achievement data, evidence from
inspections of pre-school centres, schools and learning communities, and discussions
with learners and parents. HMIE were also able to contribute evidence of what they
already knew about the work of the Council through information gathered by the District
Inspector and through the Shared Risk Assessment process. The groups were also able
to use the findings of the very recent inspection of the Educational Psychology Services
in 2009 and also the findings of the Child Protection inspection of March 2008.
A wide range of activities were organised by each group to enable their statements to be
tested and to confirm or amend their views. For example, those involved in scrutinising
performance, planning and improvement analysed comprehensive data in relation to
performance. The rich source of robust data which was available from within the service
supported benchmarking exercises against other local authorities and across the Council.
The group evaluated the effectiveness of the Quality Improvement Framework. This
included looking at the impact of the school improvement visits of the Quality
Improvement Service, as evidenced through reports and data from support and challenge
visits to schools and services. The group also made comparisons between HMIE
inspection reports and evaluations made by the Quality Improvement Service. As a result
of this work, they recognised the need to capitalise more fully on their key strengths,
analyse inspection reports to identify more clearly how to further improve areas requiring
attention, and continue to challenge schools and services to improve.
The groups recognised the need to use appropriately reflective and challenging questions
in their discussions, visits and interviews. HMIE worked with groups to help develop their
skills through modelling, encouraging staff to think of alternative questioning and
challenging where this was not sufficiently robust. As the week progressed, staff became
more skilled in probing more deeply and further interrogating the evidence to ensure their
evaluations were valid and appropriately focussed on outcomes. They developed their
skills further through leading discussions and visits to establishments, and developed
increasing confidence in challenging each other, particularly in relation to impact and
outcomes.
Some themed groups had planned all of their activities in areas where they knew that
they would find good practice, as a means of setting the standard for all providers.
Through support and challenge from HMIE team members, they recognised the need to
broaden this to explore the extent to which the quality of practice was consistently high
across the authority.
Each thematic group met regularly to discuss their findings, test their conclusions and
share experiences. Group members extended their analytical skills and developed a
more refined approach to identifying next steps. As the work progressed, all groups
identified the need to focus their triangulation of evidence more clearly on impact and
outcomes. For example, having considered impact and outcomes for children and young
people more fully, the inclusion and equalities group identified the need to refine their
evaluation and to test the extent to which good practice was being adopted consistently
across the authority.
Following the first VSE week, senior managers and HMIE met to take stock of the initial
findings and the progress of the VSE. The next stage then included HMIE working
alongside some of the themed groups to further support and challenge their
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self-evaluation. As a result, their position statements were strengthened and became
more evaluative.
3. HMIE’s assessment of the quality of self-evaluation in North Lanarkshire
Council
LLS had established a strong culture of reflective practice and robust self-evaluation. The
VSE process was conducted with a high level of openness and integrity and with
commitment to ensure that evaluations were accurate and rigorous. Senior LLS staff
worked very well to ensure that all partners had a good understanding of self-evaluation
and how it contributed to improvement. LLS staff and their group members were
thorough in their approaches to self-evaluation. All group members were strongly
committed to their role in taking forward improvement based upon evaluation, building
capacity in staff and ensuring continuous improvement. Group members worked very
well with HMIE and developed further their existing partnerships through planning,
working and evaluating together. They intend to build on this in taking forward continuous
improvement. As a result of the VSE process, participants gained new skills, improved
capacity to self evaluate, and improved understanding of the work of LLS and their
contribution to the effective delivery of the services’ priorities.
Taking account of the evidence gained through working with LLS in the VSE process,
HMIE confirm that LLS’s self-evaluation is both rigorous and robust.
What strengths has the validated self-evaluation identified?
LLS and HMIE identified the following high level strengths.
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Strong commitment of the Leader of the Council, Convenor and Senior Elected
Members to the improvement of education within North Lanarkshire.
Leadership and vision of the Chief Executive and Executive Director of LLS in
supporting and enabling creativity and innovation at all levels and ensuring strong
capacity for improvement.
Leadership of the heads of service in taking forward key council and service priorities,
ably supported by hard working and committed education officers and managers.
Very strong early years provision supporting children to have the best possible start in
life.
Improvements in attainment in literacy and numeracy at the primary stages.
Extensive and high quality programme of opportunities provided for vulnerable groups
of learners and others to ensure More Choices and More Chances leading to
improved post-school destinations.
High quality music, art, cultural and sporting opportunities provided for all learners
and celebrated widely within the community.
Success of RAFA 3 in further embedding Curriculum for Excellence and in providing
increased opportunities for further partnership working to enhance the wider
experiences and lifelong learning.
Impact on the wider community achieved through the development and
implementation of innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
The robust approaches to planning and performance management at all levels.
The service’s significant contribution to influencing national developments.
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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 authority;
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.
North Lanarkshire Council LLS has demonstrated its ability to secure improvement in
important areas and to make significant contributions to Council and National priorities. It
is very well placed to manage the future challenges posed by efficiency savings and the
successful implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. For those involved, VSE has
provided a very positive learning experience which has extended skills in relation to
self-evaluation and shown the many ways in which RAFA 3 has been implemented
across services within LLS. LLS intend to use the VSE model to embed this learning,
leading to an enhanced approach to multi-agency self-evaluation. LLS have also
demonstrated excellent practice in the delivery of education services. This will provide it
with the confidence to continue to innovate, in particular, in its implementation of
Curriculum for Excellence and to develop these approaches within the context of
strengthening partnership working. It also provides confidence in the service’s ability to
successfully manage its resources during a period of significant financial constraint.
North Lanarkshire Council has demonstrated very strong corporate leadership which has
set out a clear sense of direction. The Executive Director of LLS and Heads of Service
provide highly effective support and challenge to ensure that the capacity to improve is
embedded. Managers at all levels have a strong commitment to implement the vision
described in the RAFA 3 strategy and all are now more confident about their role and
contribution to improving outcomes for young people. Through the process of VSE, North
Lanarkshire Council LLS has demonstrated that it knows itself well and it has set itself an
appropriate, challenging improvement agenda. We have confidence that North
Lanarkshire Council LLS has a very strong capacity for improvement.
4. What does the Council plan to do next?
As a result of the work undertaken within the VSE process, North Lanarkshire Council
and HMIE have agreed broad areas for further improvement. These are to:
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build on recent improvements in attainment through further implementing
proportionate support and challenge visits to underperforming schools and centres;
further develop RAFA 3 across the service and its partners, including delivery of
enhanced opportunities for joint training, planning and assessment to help achieve
successful implementation of Curriculum for Excellence;
extend the use of the Quality Improvement Framework across all areas of the service
to ensure that areas for improvement are consistently identified and addressed. In
doing so, build on the experiences and learning from the VSE, through further
development of self-evaluation;
continue to implement the estate improvement strategy, including the rationalisation
of provision, the multi-functional use of school buildings to meet educational and
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community needs and Schools and Centres 21 upgrade programmes, to ensure the
estate supports the very high quality learning experiences across the Council; and
establish and implement the service reduction strategy to take account of pending
budget reductions whilst maintaining the very high quality of provision and building on
the existing very effective efficiencies strategy.
Further details of areas identified for improvement are given in the attached report
prepared by North Lanarkshire Council as part of the VSE process.
Lesley R Brown
HM Inspector
Directorate 5
HM Inspectorate of Education
Christine Pollock
Executive Director
North Lanarkshire Council
27 July 2010
How can you contact us?
Should you wish to comment on any aspect of validated self-evaluation you should
write to Dr Gill Robinson, HMCI, at HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House,
Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA. Alternatively, if
your queries related to this report, you may also write to Christine Pollock, Executive
Director, North Lanarkshire Council, Kildonan Street, Coatbridge, ML5 3BT.
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Appendix: North Lanarkshire Council self-evaluation
Context: North Lanarkshire Council area
North Lanarkshire is the fourth largest authority in Scotland with a population of 325,520.
Our mission is to put ‘Services and People First’ to maximise the benefits of North
Lanarkshire’s location creating prosperity, achieving social justice, and meeting local
needs by providing best value quality services.
The Council has the second largest number of areas (9.2%) in the 15% most deprived
data zone areas in Scotland. Similarly, the Council has the third largest number of areas
(6.8%) in the 5% most deprived data zone areas of Scotland. Approximately 1.3% of the
population is from a non-white ethnic minority background. Our Pakistani community is
the largest non-white group (0.5% of our population) followed by the Chinese and Indian
communities (each 0.2% of our population). Within North Lanarkshire in 2007, national
insurance numbers were issued to a total of 22 different nationalities, mostly from Poland,
India, Pakistan, the Slovak Republic and Hungary.
The industries of coal, steel and heavy engineering have largely been replaced by a
modern business infrastructure and newly formed sectors. These new sectors have been
badly affected by the current economic situation creating significant challenges within the
council area. The number of economically inactive people in 2010 has increased to
41,000, an increase of 20.2 %.since 2008. The number of job seekers allowance
claimants has risen from 4,926 in January 2008 to 11,869 in April 2010. This represents
an increase of 140.95% against a national increase of 88.43%.
Learning and Leisure Services Profile
North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Service (LLS) aims to provide the highest quality
services to all our residents through nursery and school education, childcare, community
learning and development, libraries, information services, sports development, outdoor
education, creative services and museums and heritage centres. We will respond to the
learning and leisure needs of our community and using an integrated approach with North
Lanarkshire Partnership organisations we will deliver a quality range of front-line services.
Twenty-one point three percent of primary school pupils and 15.59% of secondary school
pupils are entitled and registered for free school meals. Nineteen point seven percent
and 15.7% respectively are eligible for school clothing grants (based on the September
2008 school census). In light of the economic downturn these figure have increased
during 2010 by 9.22% overall. Due to a lack of employment opportunities an additional
400 young people returned to secondary school in August 2009.
The authority has 127 primary schools, 24 secondary schools and 11 special schools.
Schools are inclusive and make provision for children and young people with additional
support needs. We provide services for pupils with additional support needs as follows:
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mainstream schools/nurseries with additional individual support;
specialist units within mainstream schools;
co-located schools on the same campus as a mainstream school; and
free standing schools.
For each locality the authority has schools and nurseries which are fully compliant with
the Disability Discrimination Act ensuring localised provision for pupils.
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The total number of school pupils in February 2010 was 48,229 made up of 26,477 in the
primary sector, 20,917 in the secondary and 835 in the special sector.
Education services for children aged 0-5 years comprised:
• 65 nursery classes;
• two nursery schools;
• 17 nursery centres delivering a range of high quality services for children aged 0-5 and
their families; and
• five nursery classes in special schools.
For 3 to 5 year olds, partnership with the independent and voluntary sector covered a
further 39 nurseries offering services to approximately 24% of the 3 to 5 age group. The
number of children attending early years was 8,165. Officers from the quality
improvement service provide a high level of support to all providers to ensure a high and
consistent quality of provision across the service. A very strong Childcare Partnership
supports the delivery of the Childcare Strategy and North Lanarkshire Council is the first
council to receive the new national quality assurance kite mark ‘Aiming High’ for its
childcare services. This is reflected in the consistently positive Care Commission and
HMIE Integrated Inspection reports. Almost all out of school care providers offer a wide
range of services to 2,000 children, in addition there are 342 childminders with the
capacity to deliver services to a further 2,052 children. All nursery centres and 61 day
carers offer effective emergency placements to vulnerable children. There is clear
evidence that this early intervention approach supporting vulnerable young children and
their families has contributed to the reduction in numbers of children placed on the Child
Protection register and the numbers of young children looked after by the local authority.
The multi-agency Early Years Sub Group of the Children’s Services Partnership Board is
successfully progressing the Early Years Framework aligned to the Getting It Right For
Every Child (GIRFEC) learning partner activity (pan Lanarkshire) at operational and
strategic levels.
Community Information and Learning very successfully deliver a diverse range of high
quality provision to people of all ages through six Community Learning and Development
Localities across North Lanarkshire:
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seven community arts and theatre venues;
95 community facilities;
four ‘Learning Through Technology’ centres;
24 libraries and five mobile libraries;
six museums;
one outdoor centre; and
15 sports facilities.
The user statistics for these services in 2008-2009 demonstrate a high level of
stakeholder participation and engagement and represent a significant improvement in
participation rates across the full range of services:
• 142,485 people visited museums of which 1,921 were school children who visited
Motherwell Heritage Centre;
• 64,000 people borrowed from libraries;
• 610 people enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme;
• 28,307 Young Scot cards were issued;
• 81 certificated adult courses took place;
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• there were 44,292 lets in community centres;
• there were 223,620 attendances at concert halls and theatres;
• 2,747,180 attended sports centres.
Within LLS there were a total of 7,999 permanent or temporary employees in
December 2009, of whom 4,362 were teachers and 3,637 were single status staff.
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a) Political decision-making structure
Emergencies Committee
Full Council
Policy and Resources Committee:
• Policy and Resources (Finance and Customer
Services) Sub-Committee
ƒ Policy and Resources (Finance Appeals)
Sub-Committee
• Policy and Resources (Human Resources)
Sub-Committee
ƒ Policy and Resources (Human Resources
Appeals) Sub-Committee
ƒ Policy and Resources (Human Resources Early
Retirement) Sub-Committee
ƒ Policy and Resources (Human Resources
Sounding Board) Sub-Committee
• Policy and Resources (Property) Sub-Committee
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Learning and Leisure Services Committee: 35
(plus 3 Religious and 2 Teacher Representatives)
ƒ Learning and Leisure (Education Appeals)
Sub-Committee: 12
ƒ Learning and Leisure (Joint Appeals,
Maintenance Allowances and Bursaries)
Sub-Committee: 12
Corporate Services Committee
ƒ Corporate Services (Licensing) Sub-Committee
ƒ Civic Functions Group
Environmental Services Committee
Housing and Social Work Services Committee
ƒ Housing and Social Work (Housing Special
Cases) Sub-Committee
Planning and Transportation Committee
Regeneration Committee
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• Audit and
Governance
Panel
• Scrutiny Panel
• Educational Trust
Committee: 3 (plus 3
nominated by
South) Lanarkshire
Council)
Local Area Committees /
Partnerships:
• Airdrie
• Bellshill and District
• Motherwell and District
• North
• Wishaw and District
• Coatbridge
b) Officer decision-making structure
Corporate Management structure
Chief Executive
Assistant Chief Executive:
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Executive Directors:
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Regeneration Services
Corporate & Performance
Management
Learning and Leisure Services
Corporate Services
Environmental Services
Finance & Customer Services
Housing and Social Work Services
Learning and Leisure Services Management Structure
Executive Director
HEAD OF EDUCATION
QUALITY & DEVELOPMENT
ƒ early years service
ƒ primary, secondary, special
education sectors
ƒ additional support needs
ƒ specialist placements
ƒ curriculum 0-18 years
ƒ continuous professional
development
ƒ Raising Achievement for All
development
ƒ education support services
ƒ service improvement planning
ƒ Children’s services planning
ƒ performance management
and best value
HEAD OF EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES
ƒ personnel planning
ƒ financial planning
ƒ estates planning
ƒ forward planning
ƒ administration
ƒ contract commissioning
ƒ technician support service
ƒ PPP Contract Monitoring
EDUCATION OFFICERS
Personnel
Property
HEAD OF COMMUNITY INFORMATION
& LEARNING
ƒ community capacity building &
community facilities
ƒ community learning and development
service
ƒ arts and venues
ƒ cultural strategy
ƒ libraries
ƒ museums
ƒ play services
ƒ sports development
ƒ customer services
• Leisure Trust (client monitoring)
Finance
MANAGERS
EDUCATION OFFICERS
Quality
Improvement
Additional
Support
Needs
Infrastructure
and
Development
Early Years
and
Childcare
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Creative
Services
Community Learning
and Libraries
c) Strategic planning structure
Scottish Government: Strategic Objectives
Wealthier and Fairer
Healthier
Safer and Stronger
Smarter Greener
National Concordat: 15 National Outcomes (45 National
Indicators)
Single Outcome Agreement with North Lanarkshire Council:
• Local Outcomes and indicators
North Lanarkshire Community Plan and Corporate Plan:
Priority Themes
Lifelong Learning Health and Wellbeing
Developing the Organisation
Environment
Regeneration
Learning and Leisure Services
14 Service Improvement Priorities
• Service Plan
• Service Improvement Report
Lifelong Learning Strategic
Measures of
Success:
• Improving access to quality
learning opportunities
• Raising achievement for all
• Creating opportunities for all
14 Service Improvement Priorities
2008-2012:
• To work in partnership to provide better access
to learning for all
• To implement ‘A Curriculum for Excellence’ for all
learners, promoting the use of ICT
• To improve learning pathways to employment
• To close the attainment gap
• To promote quality learning to improve outcomes
for all learners
• To develop the ‘Schools and Centres 21’ Estate
Management Programme
• To support staff through high quality, continuous
professional development
• To deliver programmes supporting health, wellbeing and care
• To support inclusive practices and positive
behaviour strategies
• To promote parental involvement engaging
parents/carers in their children’s learning
• To enhance quality assurance systems including
Best Value, the quality framework, performance
monitoring and efficiency requirements
• To develop and deliver an arts and culture
strategy
• To promote community planning and partnership
working to build community capacity.
• To care for our environment
3 Heads of Service:
• Key actions
• Section / Service
Division Improvement
Plans
• Performance
Portfolios
• PRD Targets
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What are the key strengths of the North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure
Services?
Leadership and vision
Very strong leadership has steered the service through a period of major transition. In
this challenging context, senior officers have been confident and decisive. The service
has been very successful in communicating its vision, direction and sense of purpose.
Raising Achievement for All
This over-arching and ambitious policy, now endorsed through the principles of
Curriculum for Excellence, is the keystone of activity in the authority and underpins a
range of work in many areas. This work is acknowledged at national level as innovative
and sector-leading.
Innovation and creativity
The Raising Achievement for All policy has empowered the service to confidently take
measured risks to maximise a full range of opportunities to meet the needs of learners.
Exemplification includes.
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Effective Early Development and Learning.
Learning? Naturally!
Purposeful Play.
Active Literacy.
Active Numeracy.
Transition Programmes.
Out of School Hours Learning.
Co-operative Learning.
Restorative Practice.
Vocational education programme.
Flexible learning.
Expanded learning opportunities.
Enhanced comprehensives for music and sport.
Schools of Ambition for expressive arts, technology and hospitality.
The School of Football (S.F.A).
16+ Learning Hubs.
Pathways to Employment.
Adult Literacy and Numeracy.
Curriculum for Excellence Interactive Planning Tool (in partnership with Angus
Council).
Strong endorsement of accreditation beyond 5-14 and SQA attainment (e.g. Duke of
Edinburgh Awards, Skillforce, ASDAN awards, Skills for Work, ECDL).
Strategic planning of resources, finance and the estate
Strong and well-considered long-term strategic planning of resources, finance and estate
based on the principles of Best Value has ensured the service is well placed to meet the
significant challenge of effective service delivery within the current demanding financial
environment. The application of Value for Money and Best Value practices and
decision-making are all very clearly evident throughout the service and are strongly
endorsed by previous inspection processes including HMIE, Best Value and Audit
Scotland.
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Key achievements which have resulted from this strong strategic direction include:
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a highly effective scheme of delegation, financial regulations and standing orders;
Risk Management and Option Appraisal;
robust and efficient management and staffing structures;
class size reductions S1-S2 (English and maths);
class size reductions P1-3;
early years staffing structures;
implementation of job evaluation scheme;
comprehensive range of personnel policies and procedures including Professional
Review and Development Programme for all staff;
Investors in People accreditation;
implementation of Service and People First agenda;
LLS Capital Programme;
the delivery of the Education 2010 building programme;
Schools and Centres 21 strategy;
property rationalisation;
three major capital investment programmes: Summerlee: Museum of Scottish
Industrial Life, Ravenscraig Sports Facility and Broadwood Sports Arena;
shared campus approach to co-location of specific Roman Catholic and
non-denominational primary schools with some shared common facilities. This
illustrates strong commitment to Best Value through an innovative and progressive
approach.
Quality assurance
The service’s sustained commitment to, and clear focus on, continuing improvement is
underpinned by the revised Quality Improvement Framework. A highly effective Quality
Improvement Service, endorsed by Customer Service Excellence status, plays a key role
in the delivery of continuous improvements in the areas of attainment, achievement,
curriculum and staff development and the implementation of key national and local
educational priorities. It is the responsibility of officers within this team to support and
challenge all educational establishments to deliver high quality learning and teaching,
through the application of the appropriate range of performance management tools. The
Quality Improvement Team is very successful in carrying out their central functions of;
leading encouraging and supporting creativity and innovation in curricular provision;
monitoring and tracking performance, and promoting and sustaining quality in the overall
delivery of educational provision.
The service has a sustained record of highly successful partnership working with SCRC
(Care Commission) and HMIE. It provides a high level of professional support both in
preparation for, and follow-up to the inspection processes.
The Music, Sport and Arts Programme
Through the full variety of teams across the service, enriched and varied programmes
encompassing art, music, sport and cultural activities are offered. These focus not only
on the nurturing of talent, but also on creating opportunities for high levels of access,
inclusion and participation. Stakeholders across the community have experienced a
positive impact through such activities as:
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a nationally recognised music programme;
a highly ambitious sports programme; and
a comprehensive programme of arts and cultural activities.
Both the work of the Libraries and Museums Service offer further enhancement to this
comprehensive and far-reaching programme.
Pupil Voice and Youth Empowerment
A highly effective Pupil Council structure for all sectors, which has been commended in
both inspections and school reviews, affords opportunities for effective consultation and
engagement with young people. Regular Pupil Conferences at authority level ensures
the views of pupils inform service planning priorities and the newly developed Youth
Strategy embeds consultation and engagement into our practices working with young
people.
Additional Support Needs and Inclusion
The universal right to be included drives North Lanarkshire’s strong framework to support
and extend its overt commitment to inclusion. The Council meets its requirements in
relation to the Additional Supports Needs legislation very well and a highly ambitious and
successful staff development programme has been undertaken to ensure compliance
with legislative requirements.
Partnership working
The authority has very well-developed and sustained successful partnerships across all
sectors and services. Partnership working is a central tenet in the Raising Achievement
for All policy. Across North Lanarkshire, LLS works collaboratively with key services and
partners to ensure the needs of the community are met. The service makes an important
contribution in leading and working with a range of providers to secure better outcomes
for children, young people and communities through highly effective supports in a wide
range of settings. The North Lanarkshire Partnership plays a strategic role in delivering
efficient and effective services across the Council.
What key outcomes have we achieved?
Improvements in performance
Through embedding our rigorous approach to improving outcomes, the service has
demonstrably improved performance in the key areas of attainment (in particular, for
children who are looked after and accommodated), attendance, exclusions and school
leaver destinations.
Attainment
In primary, there was significant improvement in the percentage of pupils reaching
or exceeding expected levels of attainment (A – D) in reading, writing and
mathematics, up from 81.6% in 2006 to 85.3% in 2009. This is broadly in line with the
national average and represents our best performance to date.
In secondary, 2009 saw encouraging improvements at Level E in 5-14, and at
Standard Grade, Intermediate 2 and Higher levels. In reading, writing and
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mathematics, the percentage attaining Level E or better by the end of S2 was up from
60% in 2006 to 64.6% in 2009. Once again, this represents our best performance to
date. Overall in 5-14 attainment, we ranked 4th out of the 12 local authorities formerly in
Strathclyde Region. Our pupils showed improved attainment at Standard Grade and
Intermediate 2 as well as at 3 or more Higher grades. S4 and S5 pupils achieved the
highest attainment for 6 years for gaining 5 or more awards at level 5 (credit level) by the
end of S4 (up from 30.6% in 2008 to 30.8% in 2009), 3 or more awards at level 6 (higher
level) by the end of S5 (up from 17.2% to 19.4%), and 5 or more awards at level 6 (higher
level) by the end of S5 (up from 6.6% to 7.2%).
Very good progress was achieved in 2009 by looked after and accommodated
young people, with 100% achieving SCQF level 3 or better in English, and 88% in
mathematics. This group traditionally under-performs in national qualifications. As a
result of a range of initiatives, including the Flexible Learning Initiative for secondary age
pupils, attainment has improved significantly since 2006, particularly in English and
mathematics at level 3 or better (Foundation level or above). These learners are now
achieving or exceeding attainment targets set against national education priorities. We
have reduced the number of young people placed in provision outwith the authority. In
2007-08, 128 vulnerable young people were placed in independent or inter-authority
placements. In 2008-09 the number was reduced to 113, a 12% reduction.
Outstanding progress has been made in the areas of vocational education and
alternative curricular provision. The OECD report of Dec 2008 commended the
service in its sector-leading approaches to vocational education. By August 2009
vocational education courses were offered to S3 and S4 pupils in almost all secondary
and special schools. This commitment to vocational education across the sectors was
supported by a significant investment programme to adapt school facilities. The average
pass rate of 86% in vocational courses in 2009 is the highest performance since the
programme began and exceeds performance levels in other councils in this area.
Excellent progress has been made in offering alternative curricular options in secondary
schools. The wide range of options includes Skillforce, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, The
Prince’s Trust Activities, European Computer Driving Licence, and volunteering. Pupil
performance in these areas is very strong and this approach continues to have a clear
positive impact on school leaver destinations.
The performance in HMIE inspections for 2008-09 for schools, nurseries and
learning communities was very strong overall. Overall, of the 28 school
establishments inspected, nursery performance was excellent or very good, primary
performance was very good or good, secondary performance ranged from very good to
satisfactory, and special school performance ranged from excellent to satisfactory. With
one exception, all inspections were positive. In the four Community Learning and
Development (CLD) inspections of learning communities, there were no “weak” or
“unsatisfactory” ratings, and 75% of indicators were good to excellent. This pattern of
reports represents an overall improving trend.
Attendance
Attendance figures show a steadily improving trend. Between sessions 2004-05 and
2008-09, primary school attendance increased from 94.4% to 94.7%. In the same period,
secondary school attendance improved more significantly from 88.3% to 89.7%. This is
an area of focus for continued improvement.
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Exclusions
The number of exclusion incidents and openings lost through exclusion for pupils
attending primary and secondary schools has reduced markedly over the past
7 years. Compared to session 2002-03, exclusion incidents in 2008-09 in the primary
sector had fallen by 23%, from 456 to 351, and the number of openings lost through
exclusion had dropped by 53%, from 3,617 to 1,698. In secondary schools, the reduction
over the same period was 24% in incidents (from 3,168 to 2,411) and 20% in openings
lost (from 16,926 to 13,520). However, there is a need to continue to further reduce
exclusions, particularly in special schools, by examining best practice in other local
authorities.
Positive leaver destinations
Between 2005 and 2008 the percentage of young people progressing to positive
destinations (education, training, employment or volunteering) in the North
Lanarkshire area improved from being in line with the national position to
exceeding this figure. In 2008, 87% of North Lanarkshire Council school leavers
progressed to positive destinations, and in 2009 the figure was 86% in spite of the
economic downturn which has hit North Lanarkshire particularly badly. Commendably,
87% of our most vulnerable school leavers on the Expanded Learning Opportunities
programme achieved positive destinations in 2009. In 2009, the percentage of young
people entering higher education was the highest to date, at 34% against a national
average of 35%. Such improving trends demonstrate the high level of commitment from
the service to ensuring the best possible outcomes for young people. The negative
impact of the economic recession has very badly affected North Lanarkshire’s youth
unemployment figures. Services require to continue to improve performance in this area.
Learning in the community
The level of performance demonstrated in CLD has significantly improved across
the 3 disciplines of Adult Learning, Youth Work and Community Capacity Building.
In 2008-2009 the number of adults involved in adult learning or family learning
opportunities rose to over 3,000 from nearly 2,600 in the previous year, showing a
percentage increase of approximately 12%.The number of young people engaged in
youth work activities was over 5,700, an increase of 15% from the previous year. Across
the CLD Partnership, which includes local colleges and the voluntary sector, the number
of new adult literacy and numeracy learners has increased from 871 in 2006/07 to 2,140
in 2008/09. During 2008-2009 the number of adults taking part in certificated courses run
by the local colleges in community venues as part of a collaborative programme between
CLD and the colleges rose to nearly 1,200, an increase of approximately 10%. In
libraries, the number of visits in 2008-2009 was over 1,630,000 which was an increase of
nearly 10,000 on the previous year. In museums the number of visitors rose from
109,300 in 2006-2007 to over 138,000 in 2008-2009.
Fulfilment of statutory duties
The quality of financial management in North Lanarkshire is very good. In 2009-10, the
Council’s total Grant Aided Expenditure was £734m. Expenditure on LLS was £379m,
which is 52% of the total. Financial management is characterised by prudence and very
robust checks and balances for accountability. There is highly effective support for
managers dealing with finance at all levels and strategic approaches to efficiencies which
minimise any impact on front line services. We have strategies to maximise services and
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minimise costs through internal and external partnerships. The audit of Best Value and
Community Planning carried out by Audit Scotland over the first half of 2008 praised the
Council’s strategic direction, leadership and clear vision, its strong commitment to
continuous improvement and its well developed arrangements for financial, asset and risk
management.
The authority is fully compliant with the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000,
which lays out a framework for improvement in Scotland’s schools. As part of the
improvement framework, the National Priorities for education are defined as follows.
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Achievement and Attainment.
Framework for Learning.
Inclusion and Equality.
Values and Citizenship.
Learning for Life.
LLS service improvement priorities are very well linked to the five National Priorities.
LLS Strategy for Parental Involvement outlines North Lanarkshire Council’s commitment
to promoting parental involvement and is fully compliant with legislation. It acknowledges
the value and importance of parents in their children’s education. Parental involvement
has and continues to be both recognised and valued and is a key element of the
authority’s Raising Achievement for All policy. The aims of North Lanarkshire’s Strategy
for Parental Involvement are to:
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involve parents in their own child’s education, and that provided by a school to its
pupils generally;
give advice and information to parents in respect of their own child’s education;
promote the establishment of Parent Councils in schools and support their operation;
and
establish a complaints procedure for its duties under the Act.
North Lanarkshire Council continues to provide high quality Gaelic medium education to
the children of parents who request it. Full provision is available from pre-school to P7
and is available at secondary up to Advanced Higher level. The service is committed to
maintaining and developing provision and currently supports the training of two teachers
each year. The draft Gaelic Language Plan has been produced in anticipation of revised
guidance from the Scottish Government regarding the Gaelic Language Act.
North Lanarkshire Council’s Early Years and Childcare services work in full compliance
with the standards set out in the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care Act
(2002). The Scottish Social Services Council legislative requirements for the childcare
workforce are observed and the service, in a recent inspection, was found to be fully
compliant in terms of Safer Recruitment procedures as required by the Care Commission.
Currently all early years and child care provision is fully registered with the Commission.
The Council has provided clear, defined guidance for schools and establishments, based
on the principles and legislative requirements of the Additional Support for Learning
(Scotland) Act 2004. The Council’s Policy into Practice is carefully designed to support
schools and establishments to effectively address all areas of the legislative requirement.
The Council meets its requirements in relation to the Additional Supports Needs
legislation very well and a highly ambitious and successful staff development programme
has been undertaken to ensure compliance with the legislative requirements of the ‘Act’.
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The service has ensured that high quality planning, including additional support plans and
co-ordinated support plans are in place to ensure all children’s needs are met. Currently
614 children and young people have a Co-ordinated Support Plan. Highly effective
management systems in use within the service ensure the full range of legislative
requirements is met.
In 2009 North Lanarkshire was the first authority in Scotland to launch a single equalities
strategy, which sets out plans for the next three years. LLS provides an effective
corporate lead in ensuring that equalities issues are fully addressed across all council
services. The service’s monitoring systems ensure the active promotion of equality of
opportunity in full compliance with the legislative requirement.
How well do we meet the needs of our stakeholders?
Impact on learners
The authority has a strong track record in developing leading edge practice, and North
Lanarkshire’s Raising Achievement for All policy has influenced national thinking in
relation to Curriculum for Excellence. This progressive policy entitles learners to a range
of outcomes and experiences within the formal and informal curriculum, allowing them to
develop into successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective
contributors. All learners are entitled to an unrivalled range of experiential opportunities
which combine to form pathways to enhanced attainment and achievement. This
includes programmes for cultural activities, expressive arts, enhanced in particular
through the team of Cultural Co-ordinators, intergenerational projects, vocational
opportunities, 16+ Learning Hubs, and enterprise and cross curricular activities which
provide richer experiences for all learners. Centrally-run teams provide a wide range of
activities including out of school hours learning, outdoor education through Outward
Bound and Kilbowie Outdoor Education Centre, the Active Schools programme, Easter
Revision Schools and Summer Transition Schools, Flexible Learning Initiative, Expanded
Learning Opportunities, curricular challenges and competitions, sport and music.
Consequently, participation in sporting, cultural, citizenship, volunteering and youth work
activities is both high and inclusive. One hundred percent of schools and nurseries have
health promoting status. Ninety-six percent of schools are registered as Eco Schools and
are the ‘greenest’ in Scotland. This initiative has been extended to the childcare sector.
Six schools have achieved Fair Trade status. Our seven enhanced comprehensives and
Schools of Ambition (three for sport, one for music, one for expressive arts, one for
hospitality and one for technology) combined with the School of Football and the
Confucius Hub offer enriched curricular opportunities for learners.
Exemplification includes.
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Vocational Education Programme delivered in school to over 2,000 S3-S4 pupils, in
partnership with the local colleges and recognised by the OECD as an outstanding
example of meeting learners’ needs.
Enhanced comprehensives for music and sport provide an enriched environment that
permeates the life and work of the school and the local community. Schools of
Ambition for expressive arts, technology and hospitality similarly provide a specialist
focus and enhancement to all learners. Replicating this model, the School of Football
seeks to offer specialist provision in football for young talented people across North
Lanarkshire.
The music programme includes brass bands, jazz orchestra, strings orchestra, rock
band, choirs, pipe band, samba band, traditional Scottish music, and a Celtic music
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band, with participation by more than 1100 children and young people each year. In
addition there is an acclaimed music programme for young people with additional
support needs. Within the authority, a series of annual performances precede the
annual concert series in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall where 900 children and young
people perform to an audience in excess of 2000.
A comprehensive arts programme for senior pupils has seen the experiential Arts
Residency at Kilbowie Outdoor Education Centre; extend to include music,
photography and a textiles master class supported by our partners in Heriot Watt
University.
A wide range of cultural facilities provides opportunities for all learners.
Summerlee: Scottish Museum of Industrial Life.
Motherwell Heritage Centre.
Colzium House.
Bellshill Cultural Centre.
Stepps Cultural Centre.
Motherwell Concert Hall and Theatre.
The Culture Co-ordinator Programme supports schools to provide an enriched
curriculum. This team has played a key role in the implementation of the Confucius
Hub, the Summerlee fashion show initiative “Glam Metal”, and has supported the
development of the interdisciplinary Chinese teaching resource.
The multi-media Learning Centre provides unique opportunities for senior pupils to
develop multi-media skills. It also offers an extensive staff development programme.
The award winning “Lensheads” Film School provides unique opportunities for senior
pupils to develop the full range of film making skills.
Our Outdoor Education facility at Kilbowie, near Oban, provides outdoor learning to
over 4,000 P6 and P7 pupils. The programme includes primary to secondary
transition activities. Annually at Loch Eil 1,000 S4 pupils participate in Outward
Bound.
Enhancing schools’ provision to two hours of quality physical education, the Active
Schools Programme has encouraged greater participation in sports and physical
activities. In 2009, alongside the team, 1,000 community volunteers delivered the
programme in schools. It delivers sports activities at break and lunchtimes, supports
out of hours clubs and provides training for teachers. A “Player Pathway” programme
for football is in place.
The authority, in partnership with South Lanarkshire, has successfully secured the
opportunity to host the International Children’s Games in 2011. This has contributed
to North Lanarkshire recently achieving “European City of Sport” status.
Award winning services, including Flexible Learning Initiative and Expanded Learning
Opportunities focus attention on meeting learners’ needs through personal learning
plans delivered in partnership with a wide range of providers.
Alternative accredited programmes such as The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme,
ASDAN, Millennium Award, Diana Award, Youth Achievement Award and Prince’s Trust,
provides enhanced opportunities for wider achievement and is available to all learners.
Young people report that they appreciate greater recognition for formal and informal
achievements and this has contributed to higher levels of attendance, improved
engagement.
The contribution from North Lanarkshire Pupil Council, representing pupil councils from
almost all our schools, has strengthened service delivery, for example in identifying the
authority’s service improvement priorities (2007) and, in their clusters improving local
transition arrangements (2008) and developing anti-bullying strategies (2009). Views are
sought through a range of strategies, with a particular focus on co-operative learning, and
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recent exercises sought the views of all children and young people on transition,
Curriculum for Excellence and accreditation for pupils involved in the Councils. The
newly developed Youth Strategy embeds consultation and engagement with young
people into our practices. Valuable input has informed a range of successful initiatives,
including North Lanarkshire Challenge, youth accreditation, summer programmes and the
development of six locality forums. The Young MSPs Conference hosted in North
Lanarkshire in 2010 saw the highest level of participation to date, with North Lanarkshire
Young MSPs winning the “Team of the Year” award.
The coming together of schools and centres, community learning provision, libraries,
museums and heritage into a single service as LLS provides added value, enabling
further opportunities for learning. Building on the very good existing practice, the service
has, to date, identified opportunities for creating greater synergy across the various
functions and is fully committed and well placed to exploit these. Further development is
required to embed RAFA 3 across all elements of the service.
The Council has made a significant investment in a wide range of effective teaching and
learning approaches, which have enriched the experiences of all our learners and have
contributed to improvements in attainment. These include the promotion of ICT through
the use of information technology, including such initiatives as LogintoLearn and Glow.
Supportive strategies including Nurture Groups, Active Learning, Purposeful Play, Active
Literacy, Co-operative Learning and the use of formative assessment strategies ensure
the learning experience is stimulating and successful for learners.
Learners in the primary sector achieve higher levels of performance in reading, writing
and mathematics than those of our comparator authorities. Secondary pupils, overall,
improved attainment at Standard Grade and Intermediate 2 as well as at 3 or more
Higher Grades which was better than the Scottish average for improved results. Due to
the service’s strategic approach and high quality delivery, Looked After and
Accommodated children within North Lanarkshire perform well above the comparative
national average.
Adult and family learning is very well-supported through CL&D and figures indicate that
over 3,000 individuals have interacted and benefited from this service. This
comprehensive and inclusive approach is the foundation of the service’s drive to ensure
the best possible learning experiences and outcomes for learners in the 21st century.
Impact on parents/carers and families
LLS has developed very strong and productive partnerships with parents, carers and
families. Through planned opportunities for meaningful engagement with schools and
nurseries, central support services and other agencies, parents and carers have become
more actively involved in making an effective contribution, and in so doing, directly
supporting their children’s education.
Following the establishment of Parent Councils and with the aid and support of the
service, councils are fully operational in 94% of schools representing a 50% rise in
parental engagement. The very well-established Parents Consultative Group works with
officers of the authority to support development and implementation of key strategies.
Informative and well attended annual conferences are organised in partnership with the
Parent Consultative Group, Parent Councils and the service.
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The service, in carefully considering its provision, has organised a range of highly
effective supports for parents of children from birth to post school. School, nursery and
CLD staff consistently engage with parents and carers to ensure a more active role in
their children’s learning, complemented by local parenting forums supported by CLD staff.
In order to provide an effective range of services to parents and carers across the
sectors, home link, parent support and home school partnership staff are specifically
allocated to nurseries and school clusters in each locality. Parents regularly recognise
the positive impact of these interventions in relation to their children’s progress and this is
confirmed in HMIE reports. The service provides a comprehensive range of training and
learning opportunities for parents and carers to build their capacity to enter employment,
training and further education.
A locality-based programme of training delivered in partnership with key agencies, is
effectively progressing the approach to GIRFEC and the Early Years Framework. This
will continue to be developed further in the coming years. A forward thinking early
intervention initiative has capitalised on strong multi-agency working to provide highly
effective support for hard to reach parents and vulnerable families in the nursery setting.
Impact on staff
A rigorous and comprehensive Professional Review and Development process allied to
flexible and responsive continuous professional development (CPD) programmes
ensures that staff are supported and equipped to meet the needs of stakeholders and the
challenge of new curricular initiatives. The Quality Improvement Service provides a wide
range of very high quality training opportunities, twilight courses and delivery in localities.
In 2008-09, the service delivered 236 courses delivered centrally and 637 delivered in
schools and centres to a total of almost 6000 staff, with almost all participants evaluating
courses as good or very good. Major curricular initiatives such as Co-operative Learning,
Active Learning in the early stages, interdisciplinary developments,
mathematics/numeracy and Assessment for Learning are very well complemented by
appropriate staff development opportunities. The effective implementation of GLOW,
supported by investment in information technology has enhanced the delivery and quality
of learning and teaching. Further opportunities to extend training across the service and
with partners will be planned.
The service, in supporting early intervention to improve outcomes in literacy and
numeracy has heavily invested in specific staff development programmes at the early
stages, including:
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the highly regarded “Effective Education and Development 0-3” with its accompanying
parent support programme and Little Wish Bags;
“Learning? - Naturally!”
Purposeful Play; and
Active Literacy (co-ordinated through the Literacy Base).
A particular strength is the service’s clearly defined guidance for schools and
establishments translating Phase 2 of RAFA 3: Raising Achievement for ALL: Inclusion
and Additional Support for Learning legislation into practice. The needs of our children
and young people are effectively met through the implementation of the accompanying
comprehensive programme of professional development, enabling staff to effectively
deliver appropriate learning and teaching interventions. Significant progress has been
made in reducing exclusions, improving attendance and enhancing young people’s
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engagement with learning through adopting approaches such as Restorative Practices,
Solution Oriented Schools and PaTHS training.
The service is committed to developing a distributive leadership model. This is clearly
exemplified by the comprehensive development opportunities at local and national levels
for staff at all levels. This enables the service to empower individuals, succession plan
and build capacity and in doing so, achieve effective service delivery with a highly skilled
workforce. Working groups include.
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The Early Years Framework.
Curriculum for Excellence.
Literacy Strategy.
Numeracy Strategy.
Health and Well Being.
Interactive Curriculum for Excellence Planning Tool (with Angus Council).
Raising Achievement for All.
Quality Improvement Framework.
Better Behaviour, Better Learning.
More Choices More Chances.
Budget Monitoring Group.
Health and Safety Group.
Human Resources Network.
Lifelong Learning Working Group.
Children’s Services Partnership/Improving Children’s Services Working Group.
Health and Wellbeing Group.
SEEMIS Working Group.
Efficiencies Working Group.
Child Protection Committee.
Performance Improvement Group.
Equalities Working Group.
Senior Officers play a key role in influencing national groups and are involved in wide
ranging staff development opportunities through service, corporate and national
development programmes. High profile involvement at a national level serves to affirm
the work of the local authority, thus ensuring officers are well informed to take forward
change for improvement. These include.
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Curriculum for Excellence Management Board.
Curriculum for Excellence Implementation Group.
ADES Personnel Network.
ADES Early Years Group.
ADES Inclusion Group.
ADES Education Committee.
ADES Resource Committee.
ADES Quality Improvement Network.
Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).
National Network for Youth Work in Schools (Chair).
LTS Advisory Committee.
COSLA Advisers.
The authority has a strong track record of effective partnership working with trades unions
and professional associations through Staff Representative Groups (SRG), the Joint
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Negotiating Committee for Teachers (JNCT) and the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC).
These structures facilitate representation, participation and consultation with staff on a full
range of issues.
Impact on the local community
LLS plays a key role within the six locality planning groups established across North
Lanarkshire to respond to the needs of the local community. Within this multi-agency
group the service works very effectively to develop collaborative working to identify and
respond to the needs of stakeholders in the locality.
Strong and highly valued partnerships with local organisations provide an enhanced
educational experience for learners, giving opportunities for community involvement,
environmental projects, volunteering, and health and wellbeing developments and
enterprise activities. The service has fostered very significant partnerships to support
service delivery and secure improved outcomes This has been achieved through
engagement and partnership working with a wide range of providers such as colleges,
Skills Development Scotland, higher education, police, social work, health, businesses
and the voluntary sector, Skill force and the Prince’s Trust. Additionally, to further
enhance service provision and address stakeholder needs, the service has entered into a
range of effective partnerships and service level agreements with other agencies which
clearly articulate roles and responsibilities of key staff enabling effective joint working
arrangements. These include Young Carers (Action for Children), independent nursery
and child care providers, colleges and Speech and Language Therapy services.
The local community is very well supported by the authority. The service has actively
sought to bring added value through partnership working with businesses and local
community organisations. The number of business partnerships effectively supported by
enterprise education has reached a total of 422 formal agreements. The Toy Lending
Library supports 552 childcare providers by offering a free lending service; Summerlee,
Museum of Scottish Industrial Life welcomed 200,000 visitors exceeding its annual
expected target in nine months with planned programmes within the museum supporting
enhanced learning and the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence. In 2008-09, 15 new
play facilities were opened in North Lanarkshire. By providing a comprehensive range of
sports and leisure opportunities in modern, well-equipped settings in partnership with
North Lanarkshire Leisure, the service has added value to the existing provision in
schools and community facilities.
The authority is proactive and highly effective in addressing the health, safety, security
and wellbeing of children and young people in the community. HMIE inspection report on
Inspection of Services to Protect Children and Young People, published in September
2008, concluded that inspectors were confident that children in need of protection
received help promptly to keep them safe and identified considerable strength in the
approach to protecting children, including ownership of a shared vision and effective
partnership working across staff at all levels in the Council, overseen by the highly
effective Chief Officers’ Group and the Child Protection Committee.
A particular strength of the service is its contribution to the Council’s work in supporting
refugees in our communities. North Lanarkshire was the first and remains the only
Scottish authority to participate in the Gateway Protection Programme integrating
refugees from the Congo. This award winning project successfully integrated the children
and families into nursery and school provision and housed families into the local
communities through a supported transition plan. The service, in recognition of the
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challenges offered in this area, has effectively allocated resources in order to ensure that
children and families from Eastern Europe are similarly supported and integrated into
schools and communities.
Impact on the wider community
The authority is a pathfinder for a number of national initiatives and strongly supports
effective and well-judged innovation. It has a very strong reputation for responding to
national and international programmes. As a result, learners and other service users
receive a very high quality of provision through such initiatives as the national pilot for
16+ Activity Agreements and Learning Hubs and Co-operative Learning. The North
Lanarkshire model of in-school provision of vocational education has been recognised as
outstanding practice in the Reviews of National Policies for Education - Quality and Equity
of Schooling in Scotland, OECD, Dec 2007, “The policy of the North Lanarkshire Council
is an outstanding example of promoting and supporting vocational studies as part of the
strategy of raising achievement for all.” The award winning partnership with Balfour
Beattie has been recognised at a local and national level. In addition, the quality of both
the sports development programmes and the quality of sports facilities in centres and
schools has been recognised by the European Award for City of Sport in North
Lanarkshire by 2011.
International education is a key strength within LLS and successful links have been
established with a number of other countries to share good practice and develop
innovative approaches and programmes. The authority provides opportunities for staff to
participate in international study visits to improve their own practice and to share
experiences with colleagues. These activities are supported by The British Council and
Learning and Teaching Scotland.
With the encouragement and support of the authority many schools fully engage in charity
work and fundraising for developing countries. Very successful programmes of pupils’
visits have been undertaken. Support projects are well established with Malawi, India,
Uganda, and Kenya. Very successful links exist between North Lanarkshire and partner
schools in France, Italy, Spain and Germany and a new and exciting link with a school in
China. Creative ICT approaches have been adopted in developing on line links with our
European partner schools. The authority hosts a significant number of successful and
high profile visits for, and on behalf of other agencies, for example, The Scottish
Government, HMIE and Learning Teaching Scotland. These events are effectively used
to showcase best practice in relation to many of the key areas of innovation in our
schools and nurseries.
Senior officers provide strong leadership and are highly proactive in supporting local,
national and international developments. They have made very significant contributions
to national policy development. Through this involvement, they are able to confidently
assess and effectively plan to address current need and respond rapidly to future
requirements.
How good is our delivery of education processes?
Delivering education services
The authority’s ambitious strategy, Raising Achievement for All, provides clear direction to
support the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence, by setting out a broad and
comprehensive view of what education should offer learners. This approach underpins
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our work, and centres on developing all the skills and talents of all learners and placing
equal value on attainment and achievement. The policy empowers staff to take bold and
innovative approaches to ensure appropriate curricula to better meet learners’ needs.
The policy not only provides the mandate for targeted support but also embodies an
unrivalled range of universal experiential entitlements. North Lanarkshire’s Curriculum for
Excellence: Framework for Action guides schools and centres to develop the new
curriculum. The authority offers excellent support in the delivery of services through an
increasingly comprehensive range of policies and procedures providing accurate and
up-to-date guidance for staff, parents, pupils and the wider community. These include
curriculum, learning and teaching, health and safety, security and legislative matters.
North Lanarkshire is proud of, and celebrates the achievements of its children, young
people and adults through a range of public events. These include the Convener’s Award
for Excellence in Attainment, the Flexible Learning Initiative Awards Ceremony,
Excellence Awards Ceremony, and the Celebration of Learning during Adult Learners’
Week, and a comprehensive range of musical, sports and arts performances.
In response to Additional Support for Learning legislation, the authority has provided
schools and centres with practical and comprehensive guidance, setting out the strategic
policy of the universal right of the child to be included. This guidance has been well
received in all schools and centres and is being consistently used to inform good practice
and will be reviewed and further developed to ensure full compliance with GIRFEC.
Where targeted additional support is required for children and young people, the authority
provides a range of effective and responsive services through peripatetic teams. These
services include English as an Additional Language (EAL), Pre-Five Support for Learning,
Sensory Support, and the Support by Assisted Media (SAM) Group. Specific support is
provided for very young children who access services for 0-3 years, children who require
education in hospital, gypsy travellers, looked after and accommodated children, young
people from black and ethnic minorities, young people with disabilities, young carers,
young offenders or those at risk of offending and vulnerable adults. The authority is fully
committed to developing and supporting a nurturing approach and has resourced Nurture
Groups for younger children with social, emotional and behavioural barriers to learning.
Comprehensive support for each of the six localities in the authority is provided by a team
of six additional support managers, the Quality Improvement Service and Psychological
Services. Parents highly value the joint working across these services and respect and
trust its ability to meet their children’s needs.
Improving the quality of services and establishments
The very effective Quality Improvement Service is a key driver in supporting the
authority’s commitment to and focus on continuing improvement which is underpinned by
the revised Quality Improvement Framework. A clearly defined role has been developed
for the Quality Improvement Service and senior officers, where there is a requirement to
support and challenge establishments in their delivery of high quality provision. There is
a continued commitment at all levels to detailed analysis of trends in attainment and the
use of this information to plan further improvement in attainment and outcomes for
learners. This well established structure within the authority is a key driver in school
improvement, and has a noticeable impact on levels of attainment, leading to a very high
percentage of positive HMIE inspection reports.
A clear evaluative approach has been adopted by the service when developing and
implementing its improvement planning processes. Establishments are challenged
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regarding the content of their improvement plans and reports to ensure that priorities
focus on national and local priorities and outcomes for learners. A comprehensive
programme of School Improvement Visits is in place, building and improving on the
former Standards and Quality Validation programme. Formal evaluations provided by
headteachers clearly demonstrate that these visits are now offering more in-depth
support and challenge through their use of, direct observation, quantitative data and the
seeking of stakeholders’ views to evaluate quality. The service in monitoring its provision,
takes a proportionate approach with over 10% of schools and nurseries receiving an
improvement visit. In selecting an establishment consideration is given as to the specific
focus and purpose of the improvement visits which may cover areas such as good
practice, newly appointed headteachers, new builds, “How good is our school?” or
underperformance.
Good use is made of officers from within the Quality Improvement Service with every
school and nursery having a dedicated link Quality Improvement Officer whose specific
remit it is to provide support and challenge on all aspects of learning and teaching and
the delivery of quality education. In-depth and targeted curricular support is readily
accessible and available to establishments from specialist Quality Improvement Officers.
In session 2008-9 figures indicated that a total of 4,530 formal support visits were
undertaken by Quality Improvement Officers, Development Officers and seconded staff.
The authority has, over a significant period of time, demonstrated its commitment to not
only self-evaluation but also to external scrutiny of itself and the comprehensive range of
services it provides. Notably the Customer Service Excellence and Investors in People
accreditation have both been consistently achieved by the service. This commitment to
excellence is also reflected in the fact that over 20 schools and centres have also
achieved the Customer Service Excellence award.
How good is our management?
Policy review and development
The authority has in place a very effective system for policy development. Improvements
in its integrated planning approaches at all levels in order to deliver key outcomes have
supported direct linkage to the Single Outcome Agreement. There is continued and clear
focus on service improvement priorities and the corporate and community plan priority
themes. A more rigorous structure for challenging and supporting schools and nurseries
has been provided through the recently revised Quality Improvement Framework. The
service recognises the need to continue to build on these important strengths to achieve
consistency in schools and services. This approach complements the structures within
education and the wider service, and it links very effectively with council service planning,
performance monitoring and reporting, as well as Members’ Scrutiny and Audit and
Governance panels. Additionally, the service opens itself up to evaluation through a
range of rigorous internal audits, service reviews and efficiency savings programmes.
Participation of learners and other stakeholders
The service very successfully engages with Pupil and Parent Councils in schools and at
authority level, the Parents’ Consultative Group, in order to ensure that their views are
sought and that they are able to make meaningful contributions to areas for improvement
across the service. Pupils’ views are articulated very effectively at authority level through
the well-established North Lanarkshire Pupil Council and the Youth Council. Similarly, in
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learning communities, stakeholders are supported by the service and are able to engage
meaningfully with the planning process. The service values and recognises the benefits
of schools having a Staff Representative Group and senior officers have developed very
productive partnerships at authority level with both the teaching and non teaching trade
unions.
Operational planning
Operational planning is very strong across the service with a full range of planning and
reporting processes being well embedded The Quality Improvement Framework and the
Council’s performance framework underpin these planning processes and provide a very
strong structure to support continuous improvement. Through formal links to the
Corporate and Community Plans and to LLS Improvement Priorities, schools, centres and
service sections’ improvement plans now combine together to provide a greater sense of
direction and create increased opportunities for joined-up working across the service.
The authority has successfully developed locality self-evaluation and performance
planning to inform local planning priorities, mirroring the Council’s local planning
structures and responding to the demands of “How good is our community learning and
development? 2”. Robust internal validation and review of performance of service areas
at corporate level is provided by Internal Audit and officer/member audit and scrutiny
panels, formal committees and committee and performance exceptions reports. This is
further enhanced by the Performance Improvement Corporate Working Group which
oversees the strategic continuous improvement agendas in all services and provides a
solid framework for accountability.
Sufficiency, recruitment and retention
High quality recruitment and selection procedures are in place with effective analysis of
staffing ensuring that resources are appropriately and fairly deployed to address needs.
In recognition of the high levels of deprivation, North Lanarkshire Council has chosen to
enhance staffing standards within schools. Staff have benefited from amended
employment legislation in relation to a range of employment policies ensuring a high level
of retention of staff. The service has a strong track record of supporting the full range of
staff in the area of health and wellbeing, recognised through the awarding of a gold
Healthy Working Lives award. Managers are very well supported by the centre through a
planned programme of training in the areas of managing attendance and in professional
review and development both of which are high priorities for improvement within the
service and the Council. As a result of these interventions there is a clear improvement in
levels of staff attendance across the service. This continues to be an area for
improvement. The recent highly successful introduction of the online recruitment portal
has not only enhanced the recruitment process but has also allowed the service to secure
best value.
Deployment and teamwork
A highly effective, efficient and successful workforce is in place across the service which
supports the delivery of the Council’s priorities. Team working is a key strength of LLS.
The services recognise the need to provide clear remits and understand and value the
impact and importance of the Professional Review and Development (PRD) process staff
are regularly encouraged to show initiative and independence. As an Investors in People
accredited organisation, staff receive regular PRD interviews with their line managers,
and have a clear understanding of their role within LLS. Staff skills are effectively utilised
to support the delivery of the service improvement priorities. Effective decisions were
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made in taking forward the restructuring of the service into 19 clearly defined business
units, the impact of which has improved team working. This was further recognised
through achieving the Customer Service Excellence Award. However, the service
requires to continue to exploit opportunities for creating further synergies and so secure
added value for all stakeholders.
Development and support
Workforce development is a major priority in the Council’s Corporate Plan. The Council
provides highly effective staff development opportunities to enhance and improve service
delivery. Recognising the positive impact of staff development on the skills confidence
and competence of staff, LLS continues its commitment to and investment in its
workforce. The service has effectively deployed its Quality Improvement Team to provide
an extensive range of staff development opportunities for a range of staff. This service
has been very responsive to the demands of Curriculum for Excellence and continues to
review its delivery model. In taking this forward the service requires to extend further
opportunities to all staff across the service and to key partner agencies. In recognition of
this need, multi-agency training is now being delivered to support and enhance the
delivery of the More Choices More Chances, Early Years Framework and GIRFEC
developments.
Partnership working
The effective delivery of the corporate and community plans is progressed through
well-developed, successful partnerships across all sectors and services. Senior officers
lead and make significant contribution to a wide range of partnership groups which deliver
the Council’s priorities. Robust performance improvement structures measure and
ensure successful delivery of agreed outcomes.
The Executive Director of LLS very effectively chairs the multi-agency Corporate and
Community Plan Lifelong Learning working group, which has a clear focus on partnership
working to achieve common outcomes and agreed improvements, including those in the
Single Outcome Agreement with the Scottish Government. A considerable contribution
has been made in this area by LLS, with responsibility for 34 actions out of a total of
60 key actions attributed to the service. Despite a dramatic economic downturn in North
Lanarkshire, 83% of Lifelong Learning targets were met. Building on the success of
Activity Agreements and the successful range of targeted interventions to offer More
Choices, More Chances, priority will be given to continuing developments in the area of
youth unemployment.
LLS has developed highly successful partnerships and works collaboratively to support
successful delivery of a wide range of outcomes. Within these effective partnerships,
planning and targeting of resources supports improved outcomes, in particular, by
according high priority to socially disadvantaged groups and communities.
Central to the implementation of the Early Years Framework, an innovative, multi-agency
approach is being developed within Nursery Centres in partnership with Glasgow
University. This early intervention and multi-agency approach has been instrumental and
highly successful in improving outcomes for vulnerable young children and their families.
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Financial management
Strong and effective financial management is embedded throughout the Council and
reflected in the procedures, processes and linkages which underpin the service wide and
corporate responsibilities. This approach allows the service to be well placed to respond
positively to the current and future economic agenda. Highly effective annual and
three year financial planning cycles at corporate and service level ensure operational and
strategic plans are realistic, affordable and achievable.
This is demonstrated by the fact that the Council has been able to increase its efficiency
target from £10 million to £15 million during financial year 2010/11. Furthermore, LLS
has very successfully achieved efficiency savings of £10 million over the past three years,
with each saving having been carefully evaluated in order to prevent or minimise the
impact of strategic financial decisions on front line services. Systematic and robust
processes are clearly in place which ably support officers in making well informed and
prudent financial decisions with regard to budget setting and incurring expenditure.
Very successful lines of communication throughout the service have ensured that officers
at all levels have been fully informed in respect of the service’s present and anticipated
financial challenges. Officers are regularly encouraged to play an active part in the
service’s efforts to continue to deliver efficiencies and drive out savings whilst delivering
quality outputs and protecting front line provision. All service reviews have resulted in
efficiency savings. A strong strategic approach has been developed to meet the
efficiency savings target.
The service has been proactive and has taken every opportunity to secure a range of
external funding from national and European sources to enhance services to all
stakeholders. The flagship Ravenscraig Regional Sports facility exemplifies the service’s
high level of commitment to identifying a range of financial partners in order to ensure a
positive impact on the local and wider community of North Lanarkshire.
Resource management
The authority demonstrates a high level of commitment and is very effective in its
resource management. The principles of Best Value underpin the service’s approach.
The Council has been highly ambitious and successful in implementing its Education
2010 building programme incorporating 24 state-of-the-art new schools on 17 sites,
alongside a range of community facilities including public libraries, a cultural centre,
indoor and outdoor sports and child care provision. Service users are highly satisfied with
the provision on offer as reflected in the record breaking usage figures. These facilities
offer new effective learning and sporting environments for our stakeholders.
An innovative and progressive approach has been adopted by the Council in taking
forward the “shared campus” model. Evaluations clearly demonstrate high levels of
customer satisfaction with the new co-located provision. The service provides excellence
in delivery as exemplified by the award-winning partnership with Balfour Beattie.
Prioritisation of capital resources by elected members has supported the effective
delivery of the ambitious Education 2010 programme. LLS is well placed to take forward
the next phase of its estate programme, Schools and Centres 21 which focuses on
schools, nurseries and community facilities and which has a gross value of £250 million.
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The service has successfully driven three additional major capital investment
programmes, Summerlee: Museum of Scottish Industrial Life (opened in September
2009), Ravenscraig Sports Facility (due for completion in June 2010) and Broadwood
Sports Arena (opened January 2010).
The service has a clear focus in driving out further efficiencies and is presently taking
forward a comprehensive review of its full estate.
Deployment of staff and allocation of resources has allowed the Council to make notable
inroads into the reduction of class sizes P1-P3, with 90% of classes in P1/P2 having
23 pupils or less. Within the secondary sector, the service has been fully successful in
achieving an average class size of 20 or less in S1/S2 English and maths classes.
The Council recognises the value and significance of its staffing resource and has
successfully introduced policies and procedures to improve attendance levels. This has
been achieved through the service’s proactive approach to training its managers and
informing staff of the positive impact of high levels of attendance when providing services.
The well-planned and systematic introduction of an online recruitment portal has allowed
the service to make significant savings whilst streamlining the process. The service has
in place a comprehensive and highly effective system for the professional review and
development of its entire staff, which is clearly linked to the improvement planning
process and the continuous improvement agenda.
Information systems
Highly effective information systems supporting the management of information, tracking
and monitoring performance and accessing online information and learning are readily
available. The significant investment in IT infrastructure has ensured a ‘fit for purpose’
service. LLS has made a notable contribution to the development of a new council wide
online performance monitoring and reporting system. The impact of this work has been
to improve the reliability, speed and accessibility of information for managers and officers,
and has made performance management more effective across all services. LLS was
proactive in ensuring the new system was immediately available and accessible.
Excellent performance management systems are available to enable the tracking of a
wide range of national and local data which support the service in the production of high
quality statistics. Senior officers make highly effective use of the statistical information
available to challenge performance. Establishments have been well-supported by a
range of officers in their analysis of performance information which has contributed to
further improvements in 5-14 assessments and national qualifications attainment. The
progress of looked after and accommodated young people can be effectively tracked thus
supporting the corporate parenting role and this has resulted in improved performance.
The service has adopted a systematic approach to the effective tracking and monitoring
of a more comprehensive range of achievements including Duke of Edinburgh awards
accredited through Community Learning and Development, ASDAN, Dynamic Youth,
Millennium Volunteer and Youth Achievement Awards accredited through schools. A new
tracking system has been developed to ensure young people are supported during
transition from school to ensure positive destinations.
Successful joint working with Social Work Services has led to the implementation of an
effective online alert system for children in need of protection ensuring that schools and
nurseries are able to put supports in place with immediate effect.
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North Lanarkshire’s award winning online nursery admissions system (NAMS) has been
implemented and is now being used in almost all local authorities in Scotland. The new
and highly effective system has streamlined administration and has improved the
admissions process.
The service has in place a strategic plan for the effective implementation of GLOW,
bringing improved opportunities for online learning, sharing good practice and joint
working across schools and authorities. In partnership with Angus Council, a new
interactive planning tool is presently being developed and trialled. This is designed to
support many of the aspects of Curriculum for Excellence.
How good is our leadership?
Leadership
Elected members demonstrate a very strong commitment to the service and they have
consistently supported its clearly articulated and ambitious vision. The Chief Executive is
strongly committed to, and has driven forward the implementation of the Service and
People First transformation programme. The service, led by the Executive Director, has
continued to clearly demonstrate strong and courageous leadership through a period of
major transition within the service and across the Council. This sustained and strong
direction has resulted in an innovative, creative authority that is acknowledged both
nationally and internationally.
Within the Council’s overarching policy of Service and People First, the Corporate Plan
for 2008-12 is based on five strategic themes, aligned closely with the Government’s
Strategic Objectives.
•
•
•
•
•
Health and Wellbeing (healthier).
Environment (safer and stronger; greener).
Lifelong Learning (smarter).
Regeneration (wealthier and fairer).
Developing the organisation.
The Council’s Single Outcome Agreement has worked very well, providing a very clear
and logical introduction and context, appropriate targets and timescales. The LLS
Improvement Plan reflects well the outcomes expressed in the SOA complemented by
very clear performance measures outlined in the Council’s Performance Management
Framework. LLS makes a significant contribution to the Single Outcome Agreement in
North Lanarkshire through the explicit linkages made from our Service Improvement
Priorities to local and national outcomes. The Executive Director and Heads of Service
report performance against indicators to Elected Members on a quarterly basis.
The Executive Director plays a key role in the Council’s corporate management team,
which focuses on a shared vision “Service and People First”. Her outstanding leadership
is based on determination and commitment, and she has a well deserved reputation for
highly effective leadership at both local and national level. Her reputation for strategic
work is nationally acknowledged and is exemplified in the Council’s highly regarded
reputation for implementing a wide range of developments using innovative approaches.
The motivated and highly effective heads of service bring a complementary range of skills
and wide-ranging experience to the senior management team. Within a demanding and
comprehensive portfolio, each fulfils a very challenging remit with key strategic
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responsibility for service delivery. Heads of Service are supported by a team of
committed and highly skilled education officers and managers who successfully fulfil
complex and wide-ranging remits. Each is responsible for key areas of service delivery.
Members of the directorate have a high profile and are visible across the service.
Through their involvement in a range of national groups and organisations senior officers
from LLS have been instrumental in influencing national thinking and progressing the
national agenda.
The senior management team sets challenging performance targets for all areas of the
service, which have a clear focus on enabling and securing improvement. Through the
Quality Improvement Framework processes, specific directorate members have
responsibility for SQA visits to secondary schools, conducting performance review
meetings for primary schools, and leading quality assurance visits to establishments.
Working with the Quality Improvement Service, they are responsible for identifying and
sharing good practice and identifying and addressing under performance, with direct
intervention where appropriate. They provide valuable professional support for head
teachers, heads of centres and managers through the service’s very effective
Professional Review and Development Programme which is designed to develop capacity
and leadership. Through a culture of distributive leadership the service encourages and
promotes innovation and best practice where staff increasingly understand their key
contribution to progressing the work of the service.
What is our capacity for improvement?
The strong and effective leadership and the commitment to self-evaluation across the
service ensures that the service is very well placed to continue to deliver on the range of
challenging agendas now and in the future. Through well considered strategic thinking
and effective consultation with stakeholders the service makes very effective use of the
improvement planning process in order to drive forward its ambitious and challenging
agendas.
The service continues to consolidate its robust framework for performance monitoring,
improvement and quality assurance, to ensure consistency. The revised Quality
Improvement Framework provides a very strong structure for challenging and supporting
schools, nurseries and services and encourages leadership and innovation from officers
and schools. Policy development is very effective and policy statements provide high
quality advice, guidance and support. The service aligns its policies well with national
policy frameworks while continuing to be responsive to local needs.
Senior officers recognise the importance of consistency and supporting quality provision
in developing education experience which is closely matched to meeting the needs of its
learners. As a service, Learning and Leisure has and continues to recognise and value
the wide range of opportunities to maximise the various synergies across the service for
the benefit of the full range of its stakeholders.
LLS has a very strong capacity to improve. It has consistently demonstrated that it is well
placed to deliver its challenging and ambitious agenda of delivering an integrated high
quality service that effectively meets the needs of all learners.
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Areas for improvement
Through strong and robust self-evaluation, the service has identified the following broad
areas for improvement which will be operationally delivered through the service’s
improvement planning process;
Developing and improving learning
•
•
•
•
Continue to implement Curriculum for Excellence.
Extend the use of GLOW to support effective learning and teaching.
Continue to build further capacity in self-evaluation.
Improve and further develop CPD opportunities to key partners in learning.
Meeting the needs of all learners
•
•
•
•
Continue to improve levels of attendance and reduce exclusions.
Continue to work with partner agencies to embed the principles of GIRFEC at locality
level.
Further enhance alternative curricular provision.
Increase the number of adult learners and increase the number of qualifications
gained.
Increase leaver qualifications
•
•
Continue to improve attainment across all areas, including literacy and numeracy.
Further develop the recognition of, and increase access to wider achievements.
Support economic recovery
•
•
•
Further improve positive school leaver destinations.
Continue to improve the range of youth employment opportunities.
Support businesses to enhance employee skills.
Improve financial management
•
•
•
Support the Transformation Board to deliver the Council’s efficiency strategy.
Continue to effectively prioritise the allocation of financial resources.
Continue to deliver positive outcomes from future service reviews.
Improve the estate
•
•
Improve the school estate through the effective delivery of Schools and Centres 21.
Further rationalise properties across the service in keeping with the Estate
Management Strategy.
Embed the equality strategy
•
•
Further develop the impact assessment process.
Deliver an effective and focussed staff development programme.
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Encourage healthy lifestyles
•
•
•
Further increase participation in sport and health and wellbeing activities and continue
to embed the health and wellbeing outcomes.
Continue to support the delivery of the healthy working lifestyles programmes.
Further develop nutrition in schools.
Communication
•
•
Further improve the service’s communication infrastructure.
Continue to embed RAFA 3 within the context of Learning and Leisure as a service.
Evaluation of Key Themes
Theme 1: Leadership and vision (through Raising Achievement for All)
What key outcomes have we achieved?
The Council has successfully achieved a major restructuring of the service, bringing
together schools and nursery centres, education support services, community learning
and development, libraries, museums, creative services, community facilities and sports
development under one management structure. In tandem with this, it has recently
revised the overarching strategy, Raising Achievement for All to reflect and drive forward
the wider service it now provides, to fully embrace Curriculum for Excellence, and to
ensure enhanced partnership working across the service. In so doing, the Council
provides learning experiences ‘to last a lifetime’. As it enters the third phase of RAFA 3,
an excellent start has been made to achieving a commonality of vision, purpose and
working practices throughout all sections and services. Performance reports show
continuing improvement across a very wide range of indicators. These positive outcomes
reflect the principles and approaches in RAFA 3, and clearly demonstrate what has been
achieved so far by joint working across the service and with external partners. They
illustrate lifelong learning and achievement across a range of fronts, including the impact
of targeting vulnerable groups of learners. Strong leadership at all levels and the
willingness of staff across the service to pull together through a period of major
restructuring has supported across the board improvements in levels of participation and
achievement.
How well do we meet the needs of our stakeholders?
From the outset Raising Achievement for All has focused on meeting the needs of all
learners, encouraging high aspirations and achievement across a range of fronts, and
removing barriers to achievement for particular individuals and groups. The Council has
a strong track record of targeting support and monitoring outcomes for underachieving
and under-represented groups. In line with the key Council priorities of health and
wellbeing, lifelong learning, and social and economic regeneration, all services promote
social inclusion, and target resources to meet the needs of all stakeholders. By gathering
and analysing data, forming effective working relationships with partners and listening to
stakeholder views, the service has a sound knowledge of the needs of learners in the
communities it serves. Consultative mechanisms are strong and the use of a range of
strategies to ensure active participation has meant that it have been able to draw on the
views and experiences of large numbers of learners, parents, and staff alongside
representatives of professional organisations in devising RAFA 3 and its support pack.
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Widespread consultation prior to publication has ensured that the final version of the
policy is responsive to the needs of learners and endorsed by stakeholders. Significant
partnership projects already established are pointing the way in modelling joint working in
the new service, developing a shared understanding, setting targets and monitoring and
evaluating the outcomes identified for learners. There is clear evidence that the
principles of RAFA 3 are already impacting on practice across the service and therefore
the service is confident that RAFA 3 is the platform to take LLS to a new level of wider
and fuller participation.
How good is our delivery of education processes?
Raising Achievement for All gives clear strategic direction for LLS. Within the school
sector, RAFA 3 is well-embedded and its vision (‘closing the gap’, encouraging high
aspirations, promoting inclusion and equality, developing wider achievement as well as
traditional academic achievement) is widely understood. The policy is acknowledged as
having helped pave the way for Curriculum for Excellence, therefore schools and services
benefit from the fact that there are already well established processes which ensure that
the vision is translated into practice at the point of delivery, negating the need for any
major ‘step change’ in embracing the four capacities. There is a clear structure for the
delivery of learning. We have well-established processes for improvement planning and
reporting, through our quality frameworks, which set out the authority’s approach to
quality assurance in relation to schools, centres, services and wider communities. Every
school and centre has a Quality Improvement Officer assigned to help ensure a clear
challenge and support structure whilst encouraging the professional freedom and
responsibility necessary for creativity and innovation to flourish. Specialist expertise
within the Quality Improvement Service has enabled the provision of guidance and
support in the form of curricular packages, extensive CPD opportunities, and more
recently, with a clear focus on Curriculum for Excellence, support for the development of
interdisciplinary topics, planning against the experiences and outcomes, and remodelled
structures for curriculum delivery.
Whilst all aspects of the service and section improvement plans echo and endorse the
principles of RAFA 3 in broad general terms, LLS recognises it needs to test the extent to
which improvement planning and quality assurance processes throughout the service are
explicitly geared towards implementing the principles and approaches in the policy, and to
meeting the entitlements for learners. Adopting a common language and approach will
help build our capacity to deliver new learning experiences, and be clear about how we
are contributing towards realising our shared vision for the service.
How good is our management?
The Service Improvement Plan operating within a well-managed planning process
centred around consultation, audit and review, articulates well with the national agenda
and identified Council and Partnership priorities. A strategic decision to implement a
community planning approach has resulted in six localities being established across
North Lanarkshire. This has facilitated inter-agency working in line with the GIRFEC
agenda in order to improve outcomes for children and young people, consistent with the
principles and philosophy of RAFA 3. There is a strong commitment to integrated
working at both service level and across the six localities.
Well-developed management processes within existing ‘tranches’ of the service, and at
SMT level, enable the sharing of ideas and provide mechanisms for consultation and
decision-making. Cross-service working groups have been established to develop or
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review policy, most recently in respect of Curriculum for Excellence implementation, the
post-16 agenda and partnership working in line with GIRFEC. Annual staff conferences
have provided a useful forum for a cross-section of staff to meet each other, hear
important information and share ideas. The relatively recent amalgamation to form LLS
has brought its own challenges with respect to the sharing of information and the
establishing of effective channels of communication across the service. This will be
further developed through joint working as the organisation evolves.
How good is our leadership?
Since the policy was first published, the vision has been embraced and shared by elected
members, who have strongly supported the major cross-authority initiatives and
programmes created as part of RAFA 3. In the light of the restructuring of LLS services,
elected members readily endorse the need to refresh the policy to extend the vision to
include all aspects of the service. There is a strong ethos of ‘service and people first’ and
a fundamental commitment to putting learning and learners at the centre. It is significant
that the Council is continuing to safeguard aspects of the wider learning agenda as
contributing to the economic and social regeneration of communities, even in financially
challenging times. There is extensive evidence across all services of strong expectations
and commitment to innovation. This is clearly demonstrated by a number of
cross-authority projects, including developments such as volunteering, intergenerational
learning, the piloting of More Choices, More Chances activity in schools and
subsequently the 16+ Learning Activity Agreements, which capitalise on the many
opportunities for partnership working presented by the new service. These have
significantly impacted on learners’ experiences, and demonstrate the capacity to build on
this success. Senior managers have established systems to identify and promote
innovation and best practice, and in turn managers, including headteachers and heads of
centre, are encouraged and supported to seek recognition of achievements through
external awards and by acknowledging all achievements formally and informally.
Recognition and accreditation of wider achievement is valued and celebrated, for
example via the North Lanarkshire ‘Pathway’, ‘Passport’ and ‘Diploma’ at points of
transition.
Leadership capacity within the organisation continues to be developed through a variety
of opportunities which reflect the principles and approaches of RAFA 3. These include
teambuilding, peer coaching and mentoring, secondment within and outwith the service,
and involving school leaders in school improvement visits and CLD peer reviews.
Leadership development opportunities should be extended through a joint programme
involving staff from all sections. Active leadership is encouraged at all levels, with many
examples of children, young people and adult learners participating in decision making
and taking on leadership roles, at local, national and international levels. Further
opportunities exist to extend the strong practice developed across the service, and to use
RAFA 3 as a vehicle for promoting ‘Communities of Learners’ across all sectors and
throughout all aspects of the service.
What is our capacity for improvement?
RAFA 3 extends the original vision to include lifelong learning, encompassing every
aspect of Curriculum for Excellence, and highlighting the critical importance of all parts of
the new service working together to deliver the learning entitlements identified in the
policy. With a strong culture of continuous improvement, and the commitment to meeting
all stakeholder needs and the determination to ‘close the gap’ embedded in every
element of the service, the service is now delivering on this ambitious agenda. Staff are
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committed to fully articulating the work of the service in terms of the central vision,
principles, values and approaches embodied in RAFA 3. While a most encouraging start
has been made, the service recognises the need to take this to the next level, maximising
opportunities to replicate and extend joined-up working across the whole service, and
further develop the capacity to work together implementing RAFA 3 as a fully integrated
service.
A strong culture of self-evaluation across the service with a high level of participation by
relevant partners drives the improvement agenda. Consultative bodies are
well-established and feedback from consultation exercises continues to inform the
strategic direction including the work still to be done to achieve full implementation of
RAFA 3.
The service is confident that the policy has the potential to energise and strengthen the
coherence, unity and effectiveness as a Learning and Leisure service.
Areas for improvement
Through rigorous and robust self-evaluation and the VSE process, we have evidence that
there are shared aspirations across the service, and we plan to to continue to make the
links more explicit and the vision more coherent. Future improvement planning should:
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further develop ownership of the visions, values and aims of RAFA 3 across the
service;
ensure RAFA 3 explicitly informs all strategic and operational plans and policies;
encourage and extend joint working across the service to deliver the learning
entitlements;
continue to develop leadership capacity across the service;
continue to reinforce the strong relationship between RAFA 3 and the Curriculum for
Excellence;
develop a communication strategy that better meets the needs of the amalgamated
service; and
extend leadership development opportunities through a joint programme involving
staff from all sections.
Theme 2: Improvement through building capacity
What key outcomes have we achieved?
Through the revised Quality Improvement Framework and the re-structuring of the Quality
Improvement Service (QIS), LLS has a more consistent, rigorous and systematic
approach to continuous improvement across establishments. This supports schools and
centres to improve outcomes for learners through more effective self-evaluation,
particularly through the process of school and centre improvement visits which have
re-focused establishments on raising achievement and attainment. In addition our
approach to delivering Curriculum for Excellence has supported schools and centres to
offer a curriculum which is more flexible and relevant to learners’ needs to increase their
enjoyment and motivation to learn. Key outcomes include:
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A steady improvement overall in performance since 1998 in reading, writing and
mathematics with our best performance to date in 2009. Attainment in all three areas
now exceeds that of the other authorities with whom we are compared. In particular,
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the Active Literacy programme has contributed significantly to the improved
attainment in reading and writing. Formal evaluation of the programme has shown a
positive impact on teacher-pupil interaction, children’s motivation and attainment. We
will continue to further improve attainment in English language and mathematics in
primary schools.
An overall improvement in performance in S1 and S2 since 1998 in reading, writing,
and mathematics, with our best performance in reading and writing in 2009.
An increase of over 3% of those attaining five or more awards at Credit level by the
end of S4 in national qualifications from 2005 to 2009. Attainment in 2009 for S5 was
the highest in six years, rising to 19.4% for three or more Highers and 7.2% for five or
more Highers. We will make every effort to ensure this improvement continues.
Continued significant improvement overall since 2005 in the attainment of looked after
and accommodated children, by the end of S4, particularly for English and
mathematics at Level 3 or better at 100% and 88% respectively. We will improve
information sharing between services to better support this vulnerable group.
Significantly increased opportunities for vocational education in our schools which
have improved outcomes for more young people, through offering all abilities a wider
range of courses and activities. In the current session, over 2400 S3 and S4 pupils
have participated and over 90% is school-based with delivery in more than
50 specially adapted areas. Attainment in 2009 at 86.3% represented the highest
performance since the programme began. We will continue to develop vocational
education by involving parents and employers to increase opportunities for developing
skills for learning, life and work across the curriculum, which will include providing
greater levels of cognitive challenge for pupils.
Continued increase in pupil attendance figures for the period 2004/05 to 2008/09,
particularly for secondary schools. Through our delivery of the Curriculum for
Excellence, we will continue to increase pupil attendance across all sectors.
A significant reduction over the last nine years in the number of exclusion incidents
and days lost through exclusion for pupils attending primary and secondary schools,
with the number over session 2008-2009 at their lowest since session 2000-2001.
We will continue to reduce exclusions focusing on the special sector.
A considerable advance in the percentage of school leavers progressing to positive
destinations. In 2007/08 87% of our school leavers went on to positive destinations,
representing a significant improvement to 15th place nationally from a baseline of
27th in 2003/04. In 2008/09 the figure of 86% was slightly above the national average
in spite of the economic downturn which has hit North Lanarkshire particularly badly.
In the same year 34% of leavers entered higher education and 24% entered further
education. Both of these figures are the highest that have been achieved in North
Lanarkshire. Through our partnership approach we will continue to prioritise
supporting young people to progress to positive destinations.
The development of 16+ Learning Hubs, is a key element in our sector-leading
approach to supporting vulnerable young people to remain engaged in the senior
phase of Curriculum for Excellence delivered through a wide and effective
partnership. The North Lanarkshire Partnership led by LLS successfully piloted the
national 16+ Learning Choices initiative, and in August 2009 was the first in Scotland
to deliver Activity Agreements for young people learning in six locality-based Learning
Hubs. Early indications show that this initiative has made a significant impact on
young people, with a higher number already moving on to positive destinations. We
will continue to build on the strong start made to the delivery of this critical part of the
senior phase of Curriculum for Excellence.
The increase in the number of new learners in the key skill areas of literacy and
numeracy each year from 2006/07 to 2008/09, and the number of English as Another
or Additional Language learners with a significant rise in 2008/09.
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More effective and consistent challenge to schools and centres by the QIS
implementing the revised Quality Improvement Framework, particularly through the
programme of School and Centre Improvement Visits. Consequently, almost 90% of
the 60 HMIE inspection reports have been positive in the last two sessions, and the
proportion of HMIE-led follow-through visits has reduced considerably. Notably,
14 schools and centres have received a total of 25 excellent levels for outstanding
and sector leading performance. The QIS has now taken over the responsibility for
the vast majority of follow-through inspections on behalf of HMIE. We will continue to
challenge schools and centres to achieve positive inspection reports.
Strong HMIE inspection reports of learning communities, which have been inspected
concurrently with non-denominational secondary schools.
How well do we meet the needs of our stakeholders?
Our approach to developing Curriculum for Excellence, which is embedded in the third
phase of Raising Achievement for All, focuses on each learner’s entitlement to active and
experiential learning which is relevant to them. Fundamental to the Quality Improvement
Framework is the challenge to focus on improving outcomes for learners. Together,
these drivers have further developed our capacity to meet the needs of our stakeholders
more effectively. This is illustrated in a variety of ways:
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Children and young people in schools are clearer about the purpose of assessment
and understand and can explain how it helps them improve. This has been endorsed
in a number of HMIE inspection reports over the last two years.
Our sector leading programmes of vocational, enterprising, partnership, volunteering
and experiential activities have combined to achieve significant improvements
including raised achievement and attainment, improved attendance, lower exclusion
rates and positive school leaver destinations.
Young people’s participation rates and performance levels in sporting, outdoor
education, cultural, citizenship, volunteering and youth work activities are high and
include those with additional support needs.
We support our most vulnerable young people through a range of targeted services
and locality-based provision. Home-School Partnership Officers play a crucial role in
providing this targeted support.
In our drive to recognise wider achievement and support progression we have
provided staff in secondary schools, Community Learning and Development and at
authority level with support and resources to systematically monitor and track
learners’ achievements; provide more opportunities for learners; and support young
people at critical transition stages benefiting from more effective partnership working.
We will continue to develop more opportunities for accrediting wider achievement.
Through a range of professional development programmes and in-school support, the
QIS has given staff valuable support to implement Curriculum for Excellence and the
freedom to innovate to deliver more active approaches to learning. We have
enhanced this provision, to reflect the Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC)
approach and the Early Years Framework.
Teaching and non-teaching staff participate in a range of establishment and authority
working groups and take advantage of other leadership opportunities to support, for
example, delivering aspects of Curriculum for Excellence and report positively about
the quality of support provided by the QIS. This commitment to the wider continuous
improvement agenda provides valuable opportunities for continuing professional
development.
Meeting the needs of children, young people and their families is at the heart of the
Quality Improvement Framework, which emphasises the importance LLS places on
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effective engagement. For example, in 2007, as part of the LLS approach to
consultation, pupils were involved in identifying relevant service improvement
priorities for the authority through participation in the North Lanarkshire Pupil Council,
improving transition arrangements to secondary school in 2008/09 and in 2009/10
they contributed to the development of the authority’s anti-bullying strategy. Pupils
are also provided with the opportunity to engage in the democratic process, for
example through participation in the Scottish Youth Parliament online elections, when
in 2009, North Lanarkshire recorded the largest vote in the country, and in 2009/10
we also established pupil locality networks to allow young people to have a voice in
their local communities. An example of excellent practice is that all pupils’ voices are
heard through the use of co-operative learning in the Pupil Council meetings. In
addition since the change from School Boards to Parent Councils, there has been a
50% increase in parental participation, giving parent voice particularly in
establishments a greater influence.
The authority has a strong track record in developing leading edge practice, and has
influenced national thinking in relation to Curriculum for Excellence. We have
positively impacted on the wider education community through our innovative work,
for example, our Active Literacy programme, Co-operative Learning approach,
Raising Achievement for All strategy and a range of behaviour strategies.
How good is our delivery of education processes?
The revised Quality Improvement Framework brings a more rigorous, systematic and
consistent approach to the process of continuous improvement across the authority. In
partnership with the LLS Senior Management Team the re-structured QIS has delivered a
greater consistency of challenge, through a developing locality-based model focusing
more effectively on support and challenge to raise attainment. The quality of learners’
experiences in schools and centres has improved and is now more consistent across the
authority. Over the next few years, the QIS will continue to build capacity in
establishments providing proportionate support to target improvement priorities. To drive
the continuous improvement agenda in line with Curriculum for Excellence and the
Quality Improvement Framework:
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We make effective use of sophisticated performance data which now includes wider
achievement, more detailed benchmarking data and predicted school leaver
destinations. This provides senior managers and the QIS with a more detailed profile
of performance with which to challenge schools. This has resulted in schools
prioritising improving pupils’ performance.
All establishments, including early years, produce annual improvement reports and
plans, developed as a result of more rigorous self-evaluation. These reflect
establishments’ own priorities within the framework for the authority’s improvement
agenda, and focus clearly on improving outcomes for learners.
We have developed a comprehensive programme of focused and challenging
meetings and visits. This focuses on supporting establishments to be more rigorous
and systematic in their self-evaluation processes in order to improve the learning
experiences for pupils and deliver raised achievement and attainment. Of particular
importance are the School and Centre Improvement Visits, which are led by LLS
Senior Managers.
The QIS facilitates and encourages creativity and innovation necessary to underpin
Curriculum for Excellence. Innovations have included the Curriculum for Excellence
electronic planning tool, active learning including Active Literacy, Co-operative
Learning, integrated topics for primary schools, cluster transition projects, expressive
arts collaborative projects, Glow development, music group development,
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volunteering opportunities, school-based vocational learning, formal and informal
learning opportunities, 16+ Learning Choices and Teacher Learning Communities.
We have a culture of strong collegiate working, including the involvement of
professional associations and trades unions, which has resulted in very positive
working relationships across the authority and with a variety of partners. This
effective partnership working has provided a wider range of learning experiences
enhancing our delivery of Curriculum for Excellence for children and young people.
How good is our management?
The Quality Improvement Framework supported by the Council’s performance framework,
links to the Single Outcome Agreement. The principles of Curriculum for Excellence are
embedded throughout the LLS Service Improvement Priorities as identified by pupils,
parents, staff and other stakeholders. To deliver key outcomes the authority has
developed more effective integrated planning at all levels, which provides a structure for
challenging and supporting establishments more effectively. The Council’s integrated,
accountable and transparent approach to ensuring continuous improvement from
strategic to operational levels includes elements of excellence achieved through:
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Clearly demonstrated formal links to local outcomes from the LLS Service
Improvement Priorities, schools, centres and service sections’ improvement plans,
which combine together to contribute to agreed outcomes.
To mirror the Council’s local planning structures and to build capacity to deliver
relevant services in the community, Community Learning and Development has
developed locality self-evaluation and performance planning.
Heads of Service report performance against a number of performance indicators
quarterly, and against agreed target outcomes biannually, to elected members. We
are accountable to the Audit and Governance Panel comprising Elected Members for
all areas of performance. This is strongly linked to the Best Value Audit process.
The North Lanarkshire Council Internal Audit Section provides additional scrutiny at
operational levels for a range of quality assurance processes including the positive
report on the impact of the revised Quality Improvement Framework, January 2010.
The revised Quality Improvement Framework highlights the important contribution
learners and their families make to the school and centre improvement planning
process. Through effective engagement with pupil and parent councils and the
Parents’ Consultative Group, they make a more meaningful contribution to
improvement planning through identifying and delivering aspects of the improvement
agenda.
Through their engagement with the Quality Improvement Framework, staff are more
aware of their individual contribution to establishment and overall service
improvement planning and reporting. This sense of identity and commitment to
continuous service improvement ensures better outcomes for learners.
How good is our leadership?
As confirmed by the Audit of Best Value and Community Planning (2008) and the report
of the Joint Inspection of services to protect children and young people in the North
Lanarkshire Council area (2008) LLS performs very well in the areas of strategic
direction, vision, consultation, commitment to continuous improvement and
well-developed arrangements for financial, asset and risk management. LLS is an
authority which leads, innovates and shares its approach to Curriculum for Excellence
and quality assurance with the wider education community. Some elements of the very
effective leadership, which has a positive impact on outcomes for learners are:
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The Executive Director playing a key role in the Council’s corporate management
team, which focuses on a shared vision “Service and People First” which underpins
the delivery of all our services. She chairs the Corporate Lifelong Learning Working
Group which has Raising Achievement for All as one of the three main measures of
success.
The senior management team and other senior staff supporting the Executive Director
very effectively. They are highly visible and actively involved in the continuous
improvement agenda within LLS, across the Council and nationally.
The Quality Improvement Framework and Curriculum for Excellence Framework for
Action policies setting out clear expectations that staff at all levels will participate in
distributed leadership.
The authority providing very effective support for schools and centres to give children
and young people more responsibility for their learning, through taking opportunities
for making better choices and decision making. The authority encourages and
supports pupils to be actively involved in pupil councils, school committees and other
decision making roles.
What is our capacity for improvement?
LLS has considerable capacity to continue to improve, through strong leadership,
effective improvement frameworks, sound management processes, a highly effective
Quality Improvement Service, staff commitment and a rigorous approach to monitoring
and target setting. We have a proven track record of delivering significantly improved
outcomes for learners particularly through Raising Achievement for All. The Quality
Improvement Framework revision and our approach to Curriculum for Excellence have
further enhanced our capacity to improve outcomes for learners. The interlinking and
complex frameworks for performance monitoring, improvement and quality assurance,
including the revised Quality Improvement Framework provide a structure for continuing
to challenge and support schools and centres effectively. We are very well placed to
manage change, particularly in relation to meeting the challenges of successfully
embedding Curriculum for Excellence.
Areas for Improvement
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Extend the principles of the Quality Improvement Framework across the whole
service.
Continue to develop Curriculum for Excellence at local level, to support schools,
centres and learning communities to work together more effectively to meet learners’
needs.
Improve information sharing between services and partners to better support all
children and young people.
Theme 3: Delivering efficient services : Financial efficiencies and estate
management
What key outcomes have we achieved?
Financial Efficiencies
The concepts of improved efficiency, effectiveness and Best Value are all very clearly
evident throughout the Council as evidenced by previous inspection processes including
Audit Scotland’s Audit of Best Value and Community Planning and Best Value – Use of
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Resources Toolkit reports. These key principles are very well embedded in the policies,
practices and procedures of LLS. The Efficient Council Plan very clearly demonstrates a
well-developed overarching strategy to address, improve and deliver efficiencies for the
years 2008/12. This well-considered strategy provides direction on how to improve
efficiency. It includes a detailed action plan based on SMART principles for the
achievement of efficiencies across the Scottish Government’s key work streams and ably
covers the various elements of both the Concordat and the Single Outcome Agreement.
LLS has fully embraced and responded to the principles of the Service and People First
agenda, the Efficient Council Plan and Corporate Plan during the construction of its
annual Service Plan and annual budget. This has been achieved through systematically
embedding efficiency within the service’s planning, risk management and continuous
improvement processes and procedures to ensure key objectives are very well supported
and efficiently and effectively resourced.
The key driver for efficiency within the Council and across Learning and Leisure is the
Service and People First change agenda which included an initial Council-wide five year
efficiency target of £50 million. Efficiencies are focused corporately on Absence
Management, Property Management, Procurement, Service Rationalisation and Income
Generation coupled with specific service-led efficiencies. The service has made
significant progress in achieving its efficiency targets in these designated areas by
conducting a series of Best Value Reviews, Service Restructuring (for example in
Community Learning and Development, Library Services, and Cultural Services),
introducing IT systems to promote effective procurement, use of the national recruitment
portal, and entering into a targeted school rationalisation programme. A significant
service-led reduction in the cost of school transport has been achieved as a result of the
careful re-negotiation of contracts. LLS has achieved an overall saving of £10 million
over the past three financial years.
Effective deployment of staff and allocation of resources has allowed the service to make
notable inroads in reducing class sizes in P1-3, with 90% of classes in P1-2 having
23 pupils or fewer. Information available indicates that the service has achieved an
average class size of 20 or less in all S1-2 English and maths classes.
The service has been most proactive in seeking effective and constructive partnerships in
order to maximise the funding available to support the delivery of better and high quality
services to its stakeholders. These include partnerships with the Scottish Government,
Balfour Beatty Workplace, Transform Schools, Sport Scotland etc. This is best
exemplified by the tripartite approach to funding - Scottish Government / Council / LLS in the 2010 Project. Very constructive and positive relationships exist between the
service and the Council’s corporate finance service, thus allowing for the effective
consideration of budget allocation.
Estate management
Since the formation of LLS in 2007, very good progress has been made in developing
an over-arching strategy dealing with the education estate, the community estate and
the leisure estate. The service has successfully integrated the education and
community services departments’ estate management plans and capital spending
profiles into a single comprehensive learning and leisure services estate management
plan, which takes account of the sports pitch strategy.
The learning and leisure estate management strategy has resulted in significant
achievements for the Council. LLS successfully completed the Education 2010 scheme
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which involved a total of 24 major construction projects. This comprised three
secondary schools, 21 primary schools (14 on shared campus sites), three nursery
centres and two libraries (some as integrated facilities). Major community projects at
Broadwood and Summerlee Heritage Park have been delivered on budget and on time.
Excellent partnership working has been a major factor in the delivery of these
developments. The strategy also manages closely the energy consumption of its
properties and has achieved a reduction in energy use across the estate.
The Council’s own resources have been mobilised after extensive negotiation to
produce a new funding package for the next phase of learning and leisure estate
modernisation. The project is called Schools and Centres 21 and it has a projected
budget of £250 million, of which almost £200 million has been secured. An innovative
procurement package has been developed and put in place to deliver the Schools and
Centres 21 scheme which allows the Council flexibility on size of project selection,
appropriate contractor and a quicker contract award process. A successful bid has
been made to the Scottish Futures Trust for a project at Clyde Valley High School,
augmenting the estates resources further. Partnership working at various levels has
been highly effective and political approval has been secured for the first phase of
Schools and Centres 21 involving 11 projects. This includes six secondary schools,
four primary schools, two ASN schools, two community centres and one cultural centre.
Funding has been secured for almost all projects.
A key principle of the learning and leisure estate management plan is to continue the
rationalisation of facilities to achieve an improvement in service provision. This has
resulted in the successful amalgamation and/or closure of schools and centres by:
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reducing the number of secondary schools from 26 to 24;
reducing the number of primary school from 134 to 127;
creating eight shared primary campus facilities;
creating two integrated public libraries;
reducing the number of community information and learning properties from 107 in
2006 to 97 in 2010;
integrating nursery classes within primary schools; and
reducing the number of stand alone nursery centres from eight to two.
This session, 52% of North Lanarkshire primary schools are operating at occupancy
levels of 75% or above, compared to the national figure of 40%.
The Capital Repairs account ensures that establishments in neither of the above building
programmes continue to have their estate needs met, sometimes by substantial
investment running into millions of pounds. The LLS Capital Programme aims to achieve
synergy across its funding streams so that if, for example, an establishment is re-wired
then provision is also made for re-decoration and the renewal of floor coverings.
How well do we meet the needs of our stakeholders?
Financial efficiencies
There is clear evidence that LLS is clearly committed to protecting its frontline services
from the potential impact of efficiency savings. In order to achieve this the service
undertakes extensive consultation with key stakeholders prior to making important
operational decisions, with senior staff regularly attending meetings with a range of
stakeholder groups to discuss and explain important decisions.
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LLS has specifically and strategically focused on securing back office and structural
efficiencies which ensure adequate resources are available to support frontline service
provision. In accordance with Scottish Government Best Practice guidelines, resources
which can be devolved to schools are allocated on a fair, equitable and agreed basis
(including the targeting of resources on our most deprived schools), whilst other
resources are held centrally to ensure the needs of all pupils can be fully supported,
regardless of need. The needs of stakeholders are addressed by the use of effective
partnership working. Young people have benefited from the effective and targeted
deployment of staffing resources in P1-3 and S1/2 English and maths classes, with an
indication of growing trends of improvement in levels of attainment. Actions taken by the
service in the area of procurement have also allowed the needs of stakeholders to be
better met in terms of providing best value.
Estate management
In reviewing the efficiencies taken forward by the service and the commitment to
reinvesting in the service as a result of stakeholder reviews, there are indications that
there is an increased level of engagement from local communities and a higher level of
motivation from young people and adults in establishments.
Improvements to the learning and leisure estate have provided very high quality
facilities for North Lanarkshire communities. These facilities have been very successful
in meeting the needs of staff and learners from early year’s children through to adults.
The establishment of schools as community hubs has resulted in increased community
use and wider educational and sports opportunities. Some schools with new or
upgraded facilities have seen improvements in staff and pupil attendance, and almost
all have seen a reduction in pupil exclusions. Broader curricular choice has been
possible through the provision of vocational educational spaces. LLS has continued to
improve the specification for Schools and Centres 21, taking into consideration
comments regarding earlier projects from stakeholders through post-occupancy
evaluations, and HMIE inspections. Issues raised by stakeholders have been
considered and responded to in future designs, for example in the provision of more
flexible teaching and activity spaces in primary schools.
The learning and leisure estate DDA strategy has been highly effective in addressing
the issues of equality and inclusion within its major building programmes.
How good is our delivery of education processes?
Financial efficiencies
The Council has implemented a strategic and structured approach to delivering efficient
services which is fully embraced by LLS. Senior management have implemented internal
procedures and processes which ensure the service is able to meet corporate deadlines
for submission of efficiency, budget and service planning documentation and proposals.
Financial information, including budget monitoring reports, efficiencies and growth, is
considered and reviewed by the senior management team on a regular basis. Senior
management also consider the capital and revenue consequences of major projects to
ensure funding packages are in place to support the construction and operational costs of
new developments.
The service has developed and implemented quality financial procedures, systems and
controls which are very strong, robust and transparent. This has allowed LLS to very
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effectively and confidently operate a Devolved School Management (DSM) scheme with
schools whereby budget and spending decisions are taken by those officers and
managers best able to make them. LLS has formulated a rolling programme of Best
Value reviews which are clearly and appropriately linked to the service planning and
budget setting processes. This enables the service to regularly monitor and track the
actual achievement of planned efficiency savings and targets.
Estate management
High quality inclusive facilities have been established in all sectors to promote
attainment, achievement and lifelong learning. New facilities enable the Council to
pursue more effectively its 2008-2012 priorities of regeneration, lifelong learning,
environment and health and wellbeing. Future educational needs have been taken in
to account and LLS are in the process of rationalising the estate in order to reinvest
savings to meet those needs, as well as providing facilities which are flexible and
adaptable, and take account of usage and demographic change.
How good is our management?
Financial efficiencies
Managers at all levels are well supported by an excellent and comprehensive range of
policies and procedures. For example, there are very effective procedures in place for
the Council’s Financial Regulations, Standing Orders for Contracts, the Financial Scheme
of Delegation and the DSM regulations. Named individuals within the senior
management team have budget responsibility to ensure clear lines of accountability are
clear. Senior Managers are proactive in the identification and effective management of
financial matters within the service. Robust monitoring procedures are in place at
strategic and operational level with a full range of well-developed, articulated and regular
revenue and capital monitoring reports being submitted to the Corporate Management
Team and to the appropriate council committees such as Learning and Leisure and the
Scrutiny Panel.
Effective structures have been put in place to allow for the careful consideration, planning
and delivery of efficiencies. The service uses a range of communication channels such
as formal reports, team briefings, core briefs, service managers meetings and parent
council meetings both at school and service level. Risk Management, Options Appraisal
and Best Value practices are embedded within the management of efficiencies across the
service.
Estate management
There is evidence of excellent management of the estate. An annual estate
management plan is produced with clear priorities in line with national and Council
objectives. This plan contributes to the Council’s corporate management plan. There
is a highly effective process of prioritisation based on factual building information
(condition, suitability and utilisation), roll projections, demographics, housing
developments, rationalisation opportunities and co-location with other services.
Stakeholders have a good awareness of the plan and accept that it provides a fair and
rational approach to managing the estate, even if they do not always agree with the
order of priorities. Robust monitoring procedures are in place at strategic and
operational level with regular reports to the Learning and Leisure committee. Full
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consultation takes place with stakeholders on estate issues in line with current
legislation.
How good is our leadership?
Financial efficiencies
Excellent and consistent leadership is evident from the Chief Executive and the
Transformation Board who oversee the implementation of the Service and People First
programme. High priority has been given to the services provided by learning and
leisure, even in these difficult economic conditions. Some 52% (£379 million) of the
Council’s revenue budget is allocated to learning and leisure, with education services
alone accounting for 46% (£336 million) of the revenue budget. The senior management
team within the service is fully committed to and shares the very clear and strategic vision
of the management of efficiencies across the Council.
Strong strategic direction is very evident in the financial management of efficiencies within
the service with senior managers offering a clear rationale for the purpose of any
identified efficiency. They are fully committed to reducing any detrimental impact on
stakeholders while being fully aware of the current and future challenges and their
potential impact. Stakeholders report little or no awareness of any impact on frontline
services arising from the £10 million savings achieved so far. Challenges are very
effectively addressed and difficult decisions are made in order to maintain, sustain and,
where possible, develop the service.
Estate management
Very good leadership through the officer-member working group provides a clear
vision on improving the estate. The vision is based on three key principles: better
learning and teaching; best value; and community regeneration to meet the needs of
all stakeholders. This vision offers strong support in promoting the wellbeing of
communities by addressing social, economic and environmental needs in a holistic
way. The chief officers of the Council, led by the Chief Executive, meet regularly to
ensure synergy of national and North Lanarkshire policies. Officers contribute to the
formulation of national policy through involvement with ADES and other advisory
associations. Best value is demonstrated through the integration of school and
community services and other innovative, sector leading learning and leisure estate
developments, for example co-location of services and shared campus primary school
facilities. Senior managers effectively communicate and articulate their efficiency
strategy through formal reports, team briefings, core briefs, service managers’
meetings and parent councils. Very strong partnership links support and enhance the
Council’s vision and strategy for continuous improvement.
What is our capacity for improvement?
Financial efficiencies
Based on Learning and Leisure’s record of sound financial management and the
efficiencies achieved so far, it is clear that there is significant capacity for improvement
and that the senior management team is able to take forward the challenging agenda
positively and proactively, especially in the current period of national financial restraint.
Well-considered and systematic integrated planning, monitoring and tracking
mechanisms across the Council and within the service support senior management’s
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capacity to strategically deliver a full range of efficiencies. The effective financial checks
presently in place will support the service to confidently take forward the challenging
agenda ahead .The reflective and self-evaluative nature of the service will increase the
service’s capacity to make well-informed and effective decisions Staffing structures
presently in place include a dedicated budget senior officer, a dedicated Learning and
Leisure budget section, and cluster finance officers. These structures, along with
effective communication, monitoring and reporting systems, will ensure that there is a full
and shared understanding of the direction of the service and areas of future efficiency.
Continuation of the very positive working relationship between corporate finance and the
service and a range of effective partnerships will further enhance the service’s ability to
meet future efficiency savings and deliver Best Value and efficient services.
Estate management
Capacity for improvement in estate management is very strong, taking account of the
track record, the processes and the procedures of the estates team. There is strong
council support for improving the learning and leisure estate, though such ambitions
are limited by funding difficulties. A significant budget allocation from the Council’s
own resources will enable LLS to continue with estate improvement. The service has
learned valuable lessons from the PPP project Education 2010 and these will be
applied in the current project Schools and Centres 21. The service is aware of the
aspects of the estate that have still to be addressed and has the capacity and ability to
address these needs and priorities within current financial restrictions.
Areas for improvement
Financial efficiencies
•
•
•
•
Ensure comprehensive and robust processes are in place to effectively and
confidently manage the anticipated programme of efficiencies that is likely to be
required from financial year 2011/12 onwards.
Continue to implement a responsive, considered and strategic approach to the
planning and delivery of service efficiencies, while minimising any detriment to
existing service provision as a result of unprecedented economic conditions.
Ensure a strategic approach to encompassing clear and honest communication to
ensure that LLS continues to have the support of key stakeholders.
Continue to investigate and realise all potential internal and external sources of
synergies and efficiencies, including partnership and joint working initiatives.
Estate management
Many aspects of the estate still require improvement. We must find even more efficient
ways of managing our assets through rationalisation, shared occupancy, and the use of
schools as community hubs.
•
•
•
•
Continue to implement the priorities of the LLS estate management plan and explore
ways of increasing funding availability for estate management priorities including
Schools And Centres 21.
Increase the number of schools and centres graded category A or B for condition and
suitability to address the issues of a two tier estate.
Ensure greater compatibility of ICT with leisure properties to provide access for all
stakeholders.
Further develop the Learning and Leisure energy management strategy.
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•
•
Continue to look at ways of further improving engagement and communication with all
stakeholders on estate matters.
Explore ways of maximising the synergies between services which are co-located and
maximising access by specific groups of stakeholders such as young people, parents
with very young children, and the elderly when making decisions on whether to
co-locate on a campus with a primary or secondary school.
Theme 4: Inclusion and Equalities
What key outcomes have we achieved?
Children, young people and adults are included and achieving in schools and
communities throughout North Lanarkshire. Vulnerable groups of learners, including very
young children who access nursery early, looked after children, young people from black
and ethnic minorities, young people with disabilities, young people at risk of offending,
vulnerable adults, those young people in the lowest performing 20% and young carers
are participating in a range of individual and group learning programmes. These learners
and their families clearly articulate their high levels of satisfaction with the benefits of a
range of interventions. Young people access a range of accredited learning opportunities
and progress their learning to improve attainment and enhance wider achievement.
In line with the overarching commitment to raise achievement and attainment for all
learners, the principles of inclusion and equality are positively evidenced in the following
key outcomes:
Achievement
In 2008-2009 pilots began to improve opportunities particularly targeted at young people
focusing on ways of accrediting more experiential learning. Twelve nationally recognised
alternative awards systems were identified and enabled schools to systematically record,
track and monitor these through adapting the SEEMIS Click and Go online management
information system. Of the schools that used Click and Go, a total of 332 young people
were recorded as having achieved alternative awards. Primary 7 to Secondary 1
Summer Transition Schools support targeted vulnerable young people at the transition
stage from primary to secondary school. During session 2008-2009, 23 out of
24 secondary schools participated and 850 young people achieved the ASDAN
accredited Dynamic Youth Award. Secondary 4 Outward Bound Week provides targeted
S4 pupils with a five day outdoor residential experience designed to raise confidence
levels, develop resilience and teambuilding skills and inspire and motivate young people
to achieve all they can both in and out-with school. Eight hundred and fifty six young
people from all 24 secondary schools participated, and all received the SQA ‘Working
with Others’ units at Intermediate 1 level. Forty-five young people with additional support
needs also participated in a bespoke residential experience in partnership with Outward
Bound at Loch Eil. Eight looked after and accommodated young people from the Flexible
Learning Initiative (FLI) participated in four stand-alone non residential outdoor learning
days with aims similar to that of the five day residential. 100 targeted young people
participated in the Achieving Goals Pilot designed to support them to achieve positive
school leaver destinations. Through the Prince’s Trust, approximately 200 young people
participated in the xl Programme. Children and young people with social, emotional and
behavioural needs accessed over 300 activity sessions at Kilbowie Outdoor Education
Centre.
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Evidence on attainment, attendance, exclusions and school leaver destinations are
reported within the Improvement through Building Capacity theme.
Attainment of looked after and accommodated children
Young people who are looked after and accommodated historically under-perform in
national qualifications. Targeted support, including direct intervention from the Flexible
Learning Initiative (FLI) has impacted positively on the attainment and achievements of
this group of learners. In 2009, 100% achieved SCQF Level 3 or better in English and
88% in mathematics.
Vocational education
Other successful examples include the rising number of young people involved in
vocational education. The total number of S3 and S4 pupils undertaking vocational
courses has risen from 1,566 in 2007 – 2008, to 2,035 in 2008 – 2009. The number of
schools offering vocational courses has risen to 22 secondary schools and four special
schools, including 43 specially adapted facilities. Vocational education attainment in
2009 represented the highest performance since the programme began with 86.3% pass
rate.
Supporting achievement in the community
Over 3,000 adults were involved in adult learning or family learning opportunities through
community learning and development. Across the community learning and development
partnership which includes local colleges and the voluntary sector, the number of new
adult literacy and numeracy learners has been increasing over the last three years, from
just under 2,000 learners to 3,000 learners. Over the same period the number of learners
undertaking courses in English as a second language also increased from just under
200 to nearly 700. This is further facilitated by the substantial community languages
collection across North Lanarkshire libraries.
Supporting children and young people with complex Additional Support Needs
North Lanarkshire Council has 11 special schools, four of which include pre-school
provision. All have been inspected in recent years. HMIE reports on the schools have
been positive overall and very strong in the vast majority of cases. HMIE specialist
colleagues view practice in some of North Lanarkshire’s special schools for example
vocational education, as sector leading. North Lanarkshire provides a comprehensive
continuum of specialist provision (schools, units and integrated) to meet the needs of
pupils with a wide range of additional support needs.
How well do we meet the needs of our stakeholders?
North Lanarkshire has demonstrated a strong commitment to, and is very responsive in,
meeting the needs of stakeholders through a broad range of inclusive practices. All
learners are encouraged to participate in both formal and informal learning opportunities.
This is clearly illustrated in high participation rates for sporting, cultural, citizenship,
volunteering and youth-work activities which include children and adults with additional
support needs and disabilities. The Council and its partners meet the needs of
stakeholders through initiating, developing and implementing a range of innovative
programmes which have led to significant and measurable improvement in services for
the community. North Lanarkshire is a vibrant and pro-active authority, keen to learn
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from and influence national and international practice. Principles of equality and inclusion
in their widest sense are therefore upheld by a wide range of active teaching and learning
methodologies such as the active literacy and numeracy strategies and co-operative
learning, which are underpinned by national and international research. These
approaches are well established as authority wide policy and practice, impacting
positively on learners. With respect to active literacy, differentiated materials and
teaching approaches have been developed to ensure the inclusion of learners of all
abilities. More flexible and proactive responses to needs are promoted in the staged
intervention approach to meeting additional support needs. This allows children and
young people to receive appropriate levels of support. Managers at all levels serve on a
wide range of national advisory groups and committees including ADES, Youth Work in
Schools and Equalities and actively contribute to national policy. The Learning Hubs
have been a particularly notable example of how well LLS meets the needs of
stakeholders. In early years there has been considerable investment in joint learning with
parents and training for stakeholders such as independent, partnership nurseries,
childminders and early year’s workers. This together with the early intervention nursery
pilot provides highly effective support to hard to reach parents and vulnerable families
with capacity-building training and positive links to opportunities for training, employment
or further education. MARAC is a national award winning domestic abuse strategy which
developed in partnership with a range of agencies including police, social work and
Women’s Aid.
North Lanarkshire was the first and only local authority in Scotland to participate in the
Gateway Protection Programme, a resettlement initiative representing a partnership
between the UK Government (Home Office) and the United Nations High Commission for
Refugees. The integration process has largely been successful and where schools report
high levels of satisfaction parents and pupils described a wide range of benefits including;
high levels of social integration, and smoother transitions from primary to secondary.
How good is our delivery of education processes?
An appropriate range of up to date and relevant policies are implemented within all
schools and centres. Clear systems of staged intervention and clear and transparent
allocation of resources procedures are established to meet the additional support needs
of learners within schools and establishments, informing planning processes in place
across the authority for individual children and young people, such as the birth to
three process which has been highlighted by stakeholders as excellent practice. Views of
stakeholders are routinely sought within the context of the planning cycle, and
consultations are undertaken with a range of stakeholders to inform service improvement
planning. The active literacy approach, nurture groups and vocational opportunities
within schools exemplify our proactive, innovative and flexible approaches to the
curriculum for young people. Stakeholders have described the impact of these
approaches in terms of increased confidence and positive behaviour, improved
relationships and a growing understanding of a wide range of additional support needs
within the school community.
An audit of each school/establishment’s support for learning policy demonstrates
compliance with local guidance and statutory requirements. Relevant strategies and
policies in relation to inclusion and equality, are implemented within all schools and
centres. Current children’s services structures have facilitated the production of
multi-agency transitional planning guidance for children and young people. A review of
Support for Learning: Policy into Practice, to take account of GIRFEC developments, is
underway.
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North Lanarkshire is proud of and celebrates the achievement of its children, young
people and adults through a range of public events such as The Celebration of Learning
during Adult Learners Week, the Convener’s Award for Excellence in Attainment, the
Flexible Learning Initiative Awards Ceremony and a plethora of musical, sports and arts
performances which include children and young people of all abilities.
Community learning and development provides a highly effective continuum of support for
parents from when their children are very young through to post school, which helps
parents and carers get more involved in their children. Parents can articulate the impact
of these interventions in relation to their children’s progress. Where targeted additional
support is required for children and young people, the authority provides a range of
effective services through peripatetic teams. These include English as an Additional
Language (EAL) Service, Pre 5 Support for Learning Service, Sensory Support Service
and the Support by Assistive Media (SAM) Group. Support is also targeted at our very
young children who access nursery early, children who require education in hospital,
gypsy travellers, looked after and accommodated children, young people from black and
ethnic minorities, young people with disabilities, young offenders or those at risk of
offending and vulnerable adults. In addition, comprehensive support is provided by
six Additional Support Managers and the Educational Psychology services, which are
organised on a locality basis. Parents praise the joint working across services and report
that they feel involved in the process and describe the trust they have in the staff’s ability
to meet children’s’ needs.
The authority is proactive and highly effective in addressing the health, safety, security
and wellbeing of learners and other key stakeholders. In the HMIE inspection report on
inspection of services to protect children and young people, published in September
2008, it was concluded that, ’Inspectors were confident that children in need of protection
received help promptly to keep them safe.’ A range of current guidance, including that
related to Health and Safety, is accessed by all schools and centres.
The authority has supported the development of the SEEMIS system which offers all
schools an ICT based solution for tracking and monitoring pupil progress in their learning.
In addition, effective tracking systems have been established for a range of learners
including those achieving alternative qualifications, children and young people with EAL,
supported placements at nursery stages and children and young people who participate
in alternative curricular opportunities. Young people report the benefits of such tracking
systems as, for example greater recognition of both formal and informal learning
achievements and higher levels of attendance.
How good is our management?
Revised structures have been developed in the area of children’s services planning to
ensure multi-agency working which provides a strong platform for local delivery and
monitoring of effective services to promote inclusion and equality. There are clear links
between the single outcome agreement, corporate and community plan priority themes,
the service improvement plan, the work of the integrated children’s services partnership
board, the work of the themed sub-groups and locality planning groups. There is a
consistent commitment to the creative, ongoing development of the GIRFEC agenda
across Lanarkshire with staff actively promoting high quality multi-agency working with a
focus on ensuring rapid intervention to meet the needs of children and families.
Excellent partnership working is well-embedded with a range of partners including
Colleges, training providers, the voluntary sector and other agencies. These are very
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focused and provide significant benefits to all stakeholders but in particular the most
vulnerable young people and families.
How good is our leadership?
Highly effective strategic leadership within the Council demonstrates a firm commitment
to the inclusion and equalities agenda represented across the strategic themes of the
Council’s Community Plan for 2008-12. This is exemplified in North Lanarkshire’s
development of the first single equality strategy in Scotland, launched in November 2009.
The RAFA 3 policy reflects the nature of the ‘joined up’ services of Learning and Leisure.
This visionary approach realises the potential for the achievement of inclusion and
equality for all learners.
What is our capacity for improvement?
As a result of the skills, knowledge and strong commitment of the authority and its
stakeholders, North Lanarkshire continues to demonstrate a very strong capacity for
improvement in the areas of inclusion and equality. Staff are of a high quality and
demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and challenges that face children and
young people in North Lanarkshire. The amalgamation of LLS has increased the capacity
of the service to meet the needs of all learners. The education function has been
extended through this restructured model to encompass the provision of an extended
range of enriched learning experiences for all members of the community. This allows
further development of a more inclusive approach, affording more learners the
opportunity to achieve positive outcomes. The authority has recently undergone a review
of the children’s services planning framework to incorporate new structures and
governance arrangements for the newly formed children’s services partnership board, the
improving children’s services group, locality planning groups and themed groups. These
new structures, built on a firm foundation of very strong partnerships enable integrated
working in response to local priorities and needs. The work of these groups
demonstrates clear links to corporate planning and service improvement planning. The
authority’s well established quality improvement processes facilitate regular review of
policy and practice in the areas of inclusion and equality within our schools and centres.
Through systematic self-evaluation and consultation processes the effectiveness and
impact of partnership working is regularly monitored and reviewed across agencies.
Against this background, North Lanarkshire is very well placed to continue to develop
opportunities for children, young people and adults to achieve and attain within the
broader context of Curriculum for Excellence.
Areas for improvement
•
•
•
•
•
Further develop flexible approaches to vocational and alternative education
programmes.
Afford further scrutiny of the findings of the VSE process to further inform and ensure
consistency of practice across the authority, for example in the areas of the English
as an Additional Language Service within the secondary sector and in the
development of effective multi-agency planning systems (MAST).
Continue to pilot, deliver and evaluate the GIRFEC programme with all partners.
Continue to support the mainstreaming of the Equality Development agenda across
Learning and Leisure.
Improve rates of pupil attendance and continue to reduce rates of exclusion with a
focus on the special sector.
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Theme 5: Partnership and engagement within the Lifelong Learning Strategy
What key outcomes have we achieved?
Strength of the partnership has allowed us to report improvements across almost all
actions and indicators contained within the Corporate and Community Plans. LLS have
contributed to 34 out of the total of 60 actions. Seventeen of these were included in the
Single Outcome Agreement. Despite the dramatic economic downturn which impacted
particularly badly upon North Lanarkshire, impressively the service met 83% of the
Lifelong Learning targets. As reported in a previous theme, LLS has improved and
personalised the curriculum, including working closely with key partners to expand
vocational education opportunities and to promote wider achievement. LLS has improved
learning through the development of the ‘log into learn’ facility in our libraries. It has
developed a partnership learning portal detailing post 16 learning programmes in
Lanarkshire. As a result, the community can access information regarding learning
opportunities throughout Lanarkshire and, in addition, can access associated information,
advice and guidance. The RAFA 3 strategy has also contributed significantly to better
outcomes for learners as detailed throughout the other key themes.
How well do we meet the needs of our stakeholders?
Through the Lifelong Learning Action Plan, community members have access to
high-quality services which meet their identified needs. Members of the community,
including learners at all stages, have effective opportunities to engage with, and comment
upon, service delivery through well established locality-based structures which reflect
strategic structures. Community representatives, including those from the voluntary
sector, are fully informed about, and able to influence, the activities and services being
provided in schools, early years centres and other authority services in the community.
As a result, community members are actively involved in the development,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of community planning objectives. Excellent
partnerships with public, private and third sector organisations increases capacity and
helps ensure highly effective service delivery and high quality opportunities for those who
live, work or study in North Lanarkshire. This ensures that the Council is successful in
achieving very high levels of engagement with community organisations on issues of local
concern and on wider policy issues. These partnerships encourage stakeholders, and
partners, to engage in supporting children, young people, adult learners and community
groups. Many partnerships are sector-leading: School-College links, Community
Learning and Development provision and the 16+ Learning Hubs have been identified
nationally as strong examples. Members of the community consider that the high quality
provision offered by the authority has led to a positive impact on the motivation and
engagement of children, young people, adult learners, families, disadvantaged groups
and the community. Systems are in place to monitor stakeholders’ satisfaction with the
services provided and through the use of these systems members of the community have
expressed a consistently high level of satisfaction with the services provided by the
Council and its partners.
Staff improve their practice and professional competences through multi-agency
joint-training and professional development activities. By developing the workforce to
provide efficient services of a high standard, staff are empowered, supported and
expected to seek out and develop innovative practices – and, where necessary, take
appropriate risks to engage most effectively with stakeholders. Staff engaged in
partnership activity are meaningfully involved through service planning allowing them to
design and deliver innovative projects. Effective and productive partnership with the
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trade unions results in solutions which enhance learning opportunities. These have been
recognised nationally as best practice.
How good is our delivery of education processes?
The authority and its schools and services, work collaboratively with community
organisations, further education colleges, social, health and care professionals to ensure
priority needs are being met. The authority and its partners have a shared vision,
recognise the need to use resources effectively and are committed to improving the
communities they serve. Through effective partnership planning and targeting of
resources the highest priority is given to socially excluded groups and communities. The
Scottish Government recently highlighted the provision around More Choices More
Chances and 16+ Learning Choices Activity Agreements as being innovative and sector
leading. In both cases partnership working was highlighted as an area of best practice.
The service and partners plan to continue to develop the More Choices, More Chances
provision: systems for supporting early engagement of young people at the transition into
activity agreements will be strengthened. Strategies to support this improvement will
include joint staff development programmes (CPD), awareness-raising sessions and
improved communications amongst partners.
Sector-leading developments around supporting the wider achievements of young people
and adult learners have been developed. These allow a broad and diverse range of
achievements to be recognised, and celebrated, alongside national qualifications.
Effective partnerships facilitate the flexible delivery of learning opportunities. These
partnerships, policies and systems have been developed and implemented to ensure
effective transitions for learners. LLS will continue to ensure contributions of all partners
add genuine value to best support the needs of learners.
How good is our management?
North Lanarkshire Community Plan has four key themes: Health and Wellbeing,
Environment, Lifelong Learning and Regeneration. Each theme is managed through
partnership working groups. The Executive Director of LLS chairs the Lifelong Learning
Working Group. Working with its key partners, LLS has established a strategic
framework for the theme of Lifelong Learning. Joint working is a central tenet of the
Lifelong Learning Plan 2008 - 2012. The framework ensures that all key partners have a
shared vision and clarity of purpose and that the aims of the partnership are clearly
communicated and understood. LLS and its key partners, also contribute to the three
other themes of the North Lanarkshire Partnership. LLS representation in all groups is at
the appropriate level of seniority. Senior staff are proactive in seeking opportunities for,
and the development of, joint working.
Comprehensive reviews within LLS including Museum Services and Children and Young
People’s Library Services have developed a strong culture of continuous improvement.
LLS will continue to ensure the Sport and Outdoor Education Strategy impacts effectively
upon all aspects of our service. By promoting access to opportunities for physical
education activity it will promote the health and wellbeing of all members of our
community. Strategic measures of success are monitored and evaluated on a regular
basis using evidence gathered at an operational level. LLS has contributed to the
development of a range of national and local performance monitoring and reporting
systems to improve the reliability, speed and accessibility of information for managers
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and officers with related responsibilities to make performance management more
effective across all services.
How good is our leadership?
LLS is committed to the holistic development of the full potential of all learners. Working
with its key partners, LLS has established a strategic framework for the theme of Lifelong
Learning. By working within the framework, LLS ensures that all key partners have a
shared vision, and clarity of purpose, and that the aims of the partnership are clearly
communicated and understood. With a strong reputation for innovative and creative
working, and building effective partnerships, the service has been able to impact upon,
and significantly influence the shape of national policy and practice.
Through embracing a culture of artistic, sporting, creative and citizenship initiatives, LLS
have ensured a richness in the breadth and diversity of experience, for children, young
people and adults within North Lanarkshire communities. LLS has developed links and
opportunities necessary for equipping learners of all ages with skills for learning, life and
work in the 21st century.
What is our capacity for improvement?
Highly effective partnership working exists at all levels within LLS. There is a strong
culture of continuous improvement and effective structures and processes for identifying
improvement priorities. The improvement framework ensures change is managed
effectively and that resources are targeted towards these priorities. Senior managers
demonstrate strong leadership in this area and have a strong capacity for improvement.
Areas for Improvement:
•
•
•
Through robust evaluation, develop even stronger links between strategic and
operational planning of both LLS and its partners.
Continue to develop management information systems used by LLS and its partners.
Increase the capacity for engagement with those children, young people and adults
who are ‘hard to reach’.
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