Stakeholders' Meeting With the LEA / OFSTED Re-inspection Team 18/12/00
intro criteria assurances the team
The OFTED inspection team which will re-visit Islington today met a range of "stakeholders". This follows the 1999 inspection which led to the privatisation of Islington LEA and the contract with CEA@Islington. The visit will follow half-term and be from 26th February until 2nd March 2001. There will be feedback on the 29th March and the report will be published after Easter.
The team hopes to speak to all headreachers and focus groups of other education professionals and governors - but no actual teachers. There appears to be no intention to visit classrooms and little danger of them meeting any children or their parents, so there should be little impact in schools.
The criteria for the inspection are as follows:
The LEA should have a clearly defined strategy with identifiable targets and actions.
The identified action should be possible - and checked against "best value" principles.
Resources should be available and suitable.
Plans should have been followed up.
They should have an effect on pupil progress.
Statutory considerations, ie code of practice on LEA/school relations
Resources should have been deployed transparently.
Janet Mokades (Lead Inspector) said that "the contract [with CEA@Islington] would be used in the way an Education Development Plan (EDP) would normally be used. It doesn't matter [to OFSTED] who carries out them [the education policies] out; it is their effect on the children of Islington."
When asked what the effects of the report could be - if they felt there were still concerns about education in Islington, she said "that was a matter for the DfEE. The worst that an OFSTED could do is to say that they will return". [No argument there then]
Janet Mokades assured the meeting that the EDP, if in place, would be used
for the inspection and, if in place, would have been used to develop their
"hypotheses". The contract shows how needs are being met now and the EDP will
indicate plans for the future. She said that this would not be as difficult as envisaged
and in practice "would not be problemmatic".
This time there will definitelybe feedback on 29/3/01 and before the report is published.
Janet Mokades said "we have to make judgements about capacity. To do this we have to look forward. We must look at progress which has or hasn't been made against targets, we must balance strengths against weaknesses and decide whether there is capacity for particular functions to improve or not."
There may be some references to "best value" in the report, but as it will not be a full report there will not be a formal best value review. (In any case, that would not actually fit in with existing OFSTED frameworks)
Janet Mokades HMI (Lead Inspector)
Maurie Smith HMI
Dennis Morgan
Azhar Mobin (Audit Commission)
Roy Starrs (HMI) (Special responsibility for literacy and numeracy)