John EdwardsRegional Schools Commissioner - East Midlands and the Humber

@RSC_EMH @johnedsheffjohn1.edwards@education.gov.uk

Lincolnshire Learning Partnership Conference 2019

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08 March 2019

“As Secretary of State for Education, my simple ambition is for all children, whatever their background, to go to a good school where they are inspired to learn and can fulfil their potential.”

- Damian Hinds, Secretary of State, NAHT Conference, 4 May 2018

“Increasingly, becoming an academy also means schools coming together in a Multi Academy Trust, sharing expertise, working collaboratively, driving improvements.

Hundreds of schools every year voluntarily choose that route – to become an academy and join a Multi Academy Trust. And I want this to be a positive choice for more and more schools”.

- Damian Hinds, Secretary of State, NAHT Conference, 4 May 2018

Academies are part of a diverse school system

Positive choice to become an academy / join a MAT because of benefits to schools and pupils

We will not pursue conversions, other than in instances of school failure as judged by Ofsted

We will only mandate academy conversion, leadership change or re-brokerage on grounds of educational underperformance if Ofsted Inadequate

We will continue our work supporting MATs to share their expertise and drive improvements

School improvement support offer for 2018/19

Tier Eligibility Offer

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• Below floor or coasting and not judged as inadequate. or

• Judged as requires improvement in most recent Ofsted inspection if floor or coasting standards do not apply (special schools, AP, PRU etc.)

• Free schools (including studio schools) judged as requires improvement in most recent Ofsted inspection if they do not have relevant performance data.

Up to 3 days of free advice from a designated national leader of education (NLE) or equivalent. The NLE will work with senior school or trust leaders to help them identify and access school improvement resources.

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• Below floor or coasting and, in addition, judged as requires improvement in previous two Ofsted inspections.

• Judged as requires improvement in previous two Ofsted inspections if floor or coasting standards do not apply (special schools, AP, PRU etc.)

• Free schools (including studio schools) judged as requires improvement in most recent Ofsted inspection if they do not have relevant performance data.

Up to £16,000 of funded support to address the needs identified by the NLE

For the academic year 2018/19, the existing floor and coasting standards remain in place but are calculated solely for DfE to identify schools that might benefit from support.

There are two tiers of support:

This is an optional offer and schools will make the final decision about the support they want.

What do we expect funded support to consist of?

NLEs will spend up to 3 days with the senior leadership team reviewing the current school improvement plan and making recommendations for any further support the school could benefit from. Improvement activities recommended by the NLE could include:

• Existing DfE programmes and particularly where recommended activities are to address need in:

• Financial management• Behaviour • Leadership• Subject specific support

• Further system leader deployments• CPD developed by the school, trust, local authority or diocese• Other evidence-based SI programmes or activities in line with the DfE funding criteria

DfE consultation: School Improvement SupportDfE committed to consult on a single method of identifying schools for improvement support, on educational performance grounds, in order to reduce complexity in the system and provide school leaders with greater clarity on when they would be eligible to receive an offer of support.

The consultation proposes that: all schools judged as Requires

Improvement by Ofsted will be offered improvement support

schools with two consecutive Requires Improvement judgements will be offered more intensive support

We remove the existing floor and coasting data standards

Ofsted Framework

• Ofsted launched a consultation on its proposals for changes to the Education Inspection framework on 16 January.

• The consultation is seeking views on new arrangements for its inspections of early years, schools and post-16 education.

• The new proposals include a stronger focus on curriculum and on reducing workload.

• The consultation closes on 4 April.

The ESFA will move away from a reactive approach to assisting trusts with financial problems.

A more proactive strategy will see ESFA using cumulative balances and pupil number trends to forecast ahead, and begin an early dialogue with trusts that may need support

The aim of this strategy is to:• engage with trusts at the earliest

opportunity• collaborate with trusts to mitigate

potential financial risk• reduce the need for intervention at

a later date.

Enhanced capability for effective financial management

Benchmarking

Smarter commercial and procurement

Dialogue with Trusts who face financial difficulties by 2020 or earlier

Guide, advise and support trusts to improve financial position and prevent need for intervention

Roll out School Resource Management Advisors to those schools and trusts in most need

Working with the sector – A proactive approach

Trust financial health – when things go wrongLeadership and governance

School efficiency and financial health

Benchmarking, guidance, and peer support

Trust financial health – when things go right

Leadership and governance

School efficiency and financial health

Benchmarking, guidance, and peer support

School Resource Management – further information sourcesArea Summary of existing offer and next stepsProcurement • Risk Protection Arrangement for academies. An alternative to commercial insurance. From Sept 2018, cover includes

overseas travel and cultural assets. Further improvements are planned for 2019. • Recommended deals for schools, to save time and money on purchases across facilities, IT, business services and

utilities.• Pilot buying hubs in the north west and south west. Regional advice and guidance services to help with buying.

Workforce • Agency supply framework - transparency on mark-ups, DBS checks, no temp-to-perm fees after 12 weeks.• Teaching Vacancies - free search and listing service. The service is being rolled out across England and will be

available nationally by the end of March.

Data & Transparency

• Schools Financial Benchmarking Service – allows schools / trusts to compare spend with similar schools / trusts. In early 2019, we will be adding additional functionality to make it easier for users to find comparable schools.

• School resource management self-assessment tool – providing academies with RAG ratings on their pattern of spending and helping them to identify where improvement may be possible. A version for maintained schools will go live in 2019.

• Efficiency metric – gives schools an indication of efficiency, based on pupil attainment and the money used to achieve it

• Guidance on Understanding Your Data for school governors and academy trustees.• Top ten planning checks for governors to help them manage resources effectively

Financial Skills & Support

• We have procured a longer-term, larger-scale cohort of School Resource Management Advisers to provide support to more trusts and schools. These are deployed by the Education & Skills Funding Agency.

• Support and guidance on Integrated Curriculum & Financial Planning including an explanatory video and signposts to tiered Financial Health Checks.

Official – Sensitive

Transform support for early career teachers

• Fully fund a transformation in the support given to teachers at the start of their career through a new Early Career Framework;

• Provide financial incentives to stay in teaching, not just to train; and

• Ensure early career teachers can access high quality curriculum plans and materials.

Support a career offer that remains attractive to teachers as their careers and lives develop

• Introduce specialist NPQs to support teachers to develop and progress their career without needing to pursue a traditional leadership route.

• Invest in creating the strongest development and progression opportunities for teachers working in the schools and areas that need them most; and

• Support schools to implement flexible working.

Make it easier for great people to become teachers

• Encourage and enable more potential teachers to try teaching.

• Design new digital systems to make it simple and easy to become a teacher –including a new one-stop application system to simplify the process; and

• Simplify and protect the vibrant ITT market and ensure it supports more schools in challenging areas.

Help to create the right climate for leaders to establish supportive school cultures

• Create a clear and transparent accountability system, which supports headteachers;

• Work with Ofsted to drive down workload by tackling the ‘audit culture’;

• Maintain a period of greater stability in curriculum, qualifications and assessments;

• Provide additional support to tackle challenging pupil behaviour; and

• Provide additional support to help headteachers to meet key challenges –including the launch of the Teaching Vacancies service.

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Teacher Recruitment and Retention – four key priorities

Pupil numbers within SAT

Size of SAT No.0-100 2

101-250 8251-500 12501-1000 14

1001+ 9

Number of schools by MAT size

Schools within MAT

No. of Trusts

1 202 33

3-5 516-10 3411-20 2921-30 630+ 1

MAT & SAT composition

Lincolnshire EMH National

No. of SATs45 196 1,394

(24 primary, 20secondary, 1 AP)

(104 primary, 80secondary, 12 other)

(560 primary, 746secondary, 88 other)

No. of MATs 34 174 1,403

No. of Schools in MAT119 1,076 7,054

(74 primary, 31 secondary, 14 Other)

(767 primary, 253secondary, 56 other)

(4831 primary, 1797secondary, 426 other)

% of Schools in SATs 27.4% 15.4% 16.5%% of Schools in MATs 72.6% 84.6% 83.5%

No. of LA Maintained Schools

190 ( 182 Primary, 3Secondary & 5 Nursery)

1,369 (1,264 Primary, 54 Secondary, 36

Nursery & 15 PRU)

12,842 (11,377 Primary, 850 Secondary, 391

Nursery, 222 PRU & 216 plus)

% of Academies vs LA Maintained

46.3% Academies vs 53.7% LA Maintained

48.2% Academies vs 51.8% LA Maintained

39.7% Academies vs 60.3% LA Maintained

Lincolnshire: Trust data

Lincolnshire: Attainment & Progress – KS2 2016

Location No. of Eligible Pupils % of pupils Achieving expected standard

% of pupils Achieving higher standard

% Reaching expected standard in Reading

% Reaching expected standard in Writing

% Reaching expected standard in Mathematics

Lincolnshire 7,348 51.0% 4.0% 64.0% 71.0% 67.0%

EMH 68,114 51.5% 4.6% 62.8% 70.8% 68.6%

National 581,058 54.0% 5.0% 66.0% 73.0% 70.0%

2017

Location No. of Eligible Pupils % of pupils Achieving expected standard

% of pupils Achieving higher standard

% Reaching expected standard in Reading

% Reaching expected standard in Writing

% Reaching expected standard in Mathematics

Lincolnshire 7,550 57.0% 7.0% 69.0% 74.0% 71.0%

EMH 69,744 59.8% 7.8% 69.4% 75.7% 74.4%

National 594,346 62.0% 9.0% 72.0% 78.0% 75.0%

2018

Location No. of Eligible Pupils % of pupils Achieving expected standard

% of pupils Achieving higher standard

% Reaching expected standard in Reading

% Reaching expected standard in Writing

% Reaching expected standard in Mathematics

Lincolnshire 7,698 60.0% 8.0% 72.0% 74.0% 71.0%

EMH 72,068 63.6% 8.9% 73.8% 76.8% 75.2%

National 615,003 65.0% 10.0% 76.0% 78.0% 76.0%

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/statistics

Lincolnshire: Attainment & Progress – KS4

2016

Location No. of Eligible Pupils for Attainment 8

Average Attainment 8 score per pupil

No. of Eligible Pupils for Progress 8

Average Progress 8 score per pupil % Achieving Basics (9-4) % Achieving Ebacc

Lincolnshire 7,807 39.9 7,448 -0.11 62.3% 28.1%

EMH 63,883 49.0 61,628 -0.06 61.2% 21.2%

National 537,808 50.1 512,084 -0.03 63.3% 24.8%

2017

Location No. of Eligible Pupils for Attainment 8

Average Attainment 8 score per pupil

No. of Eligible Pupils for Progress 8

Average Progress 8 score per pupil % Achieving Basics (9-4) % Achieving Ebacc

Lincolnshire 7,549 46.4 7,150 -0.15 63.8% 23.8%

EMH 62,001 45.2 59,659 -0.04 62.1% 20.4%

National 524,932 46.4 498,904 -0.03 64.2% 23.9%

2018

Location No. of Eligible Pupils for Attainment 8

Average Attainment 8 score per pupil

No. of Eligible Pupils for Progress 8

Average Progress 8 score per pupil % Achieving Basics(9-4) % Achieving Ebacc

Lincolnshire 7,255 46.6 6,928 -0.14 63.5% 27.7%

EMH 61,275 45.2 58,921 -0.05 62.2% 20.6%

National 521,202 46.6 494,835 -0.02 64.4% 24.2%

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/statistics

Partnerships of Schools• Diverse and change over time• Governance is changing• Building school improvement

strategies / plans• Looking at ‘collaborative

convergence’• Becoming more efficient• Being scrutinised more• Working in partnership locally• Constantly exploring the benefits

and ‘dividend’• Develop Leadership• Staff retention and recruitment

Great governance: key in an autonomous system

• Strategic Leadership

• Accountability

• People

• Structures

• Compliance

• Evaluation

John EdwardsRegional Schools Commissioner - East Midlands and the Humber

@RSC_EMH @johnedsheffjohn1.edwards@education.gov.uk 18