‘So let us not return to what was normal, but reach toward what...
As many will know from my work with the ADCS Educational Achievement (EA) Policy Committee, my passion for levelling up and enhancing the role of education is undimmed even after a number of decades of commitment to the cause. Having experience of several White Papers and the legislation that follows I know that there will be opportunities this year to make real change in the places we serve if we seize them and they are suitably funded by national government.
As Chair of the EA committee and alongside the ADCS President and Vice President, we have been robustly engaged in discussions about the future role of the LA in education to help inform the upcoming Education (Schools) White Paper. We are continuing to stress the importance of our place based leadership, the moral purpose and our extensive statutory responsibilities. We know that form follows function such that the focus should be on high quality educational outcomes rather than only on organisational form.
There have been several recent announcements presaging the White Paper and, along with the linked SEND Green Paper, we expect to find out more soon. One of these announcements was the School Attendance consultation launched last week and the other is the announcement of a register for electively home educated children (children not in school), the need for which ADCS has long raised with government.
In my own local authority in Brent, we recently held our Children and Young People Department staff conference, which focused in part on our ambitions for 2022. We used the Amanda Gorman poem quote “So let us not return to what was normal, but reach toward what is next” as the basis for video inputs from a range of staff about their work and ambitions. These included setting up Family Wellbeing Centres (Hubs) with a multi agency approach to ensure a better future for families and from more than one colleague the benefits of The Staff College’s Black and Asian Leadership programme was highlighted. I was delighted to be told that I was just keeping the seat warm for the next generation of Children’s Services leaders!
I am determined that an outcome of our current work must be to secure for these future DCS’ an explicit and valued role for them in place based collaborative education leadership in the best interests of all children and young people, wherever they are educated.
Related Blog Articles
Earlier this month Edward Timpson’s long awaited review of school exclusions...
In General
If this pandemic has done one thing, it has allowed us the opportunity to...
In General
Cast your mind back to January 2021, the country is in its third and most...
In Education
Education systems in England have changed radically over the past few years with...
In Education
“Stay at Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.” It couldn’t be simpler, could...
In General
It truly is a privilege to be a public servant, and together with colleagues and...
In Care
I want to use this blog to shine a spotlight on children who are not visible to...
In Education
Recently, I chaired the North West’s School Improvement Group and also led a...
In Education
The West Midlands ADCS has been quietly unifying over a small but significant...
In General
Next week, the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, will announce spending plans for public...
In General
In these emotional roller coaster times there is a lot to make sense of but it...
In General
The National Children and Adult Services Conference 2019 opened on Wednesday 20...
In General
During this last turbulent year, our commitment to supporting our children has...
In General
Well, that was the year that was, to paraphrase a famous satirical TV programme....
In General
This blog was first due a couple of weeks ago, but the small matter of an ILACs...