The
role of the Local Education Authority in school education
Part
2: Modernising methods of working
Identification
and dissemination of good practice
The
Government believes there is now wide agreement about these principles.
It is essential that we now move the debate forward to the much more
important issue of how the Local Education Authority’s responsibilities
can most effectively be discharged. Evidence from OFSTED and from
annual performance indicators suggests wide variation in current performance,
with some good practice and some serious weaknesses.
OFSTED
inspections of all Local Education Authorities will be completed at
the Government’s request by autumn 2001 and OFSTED has already started
to draw together interim conclusions from the reports published to
date (the draft Local Education Authority Support for School Improvement,
June 2000). The best reports offer evidence of good practice which
the Department and OFSTED will continue to publicise and draw to the
attention of all Local Education Authorities.
The Government
has also set in place some general activities to help improve Local
Education Authority performance and the sharing of best practice:
the Beacon
Council scheme allows all Local Education Authorities each year
to submit evidence of good practice linked to a selected theme;
successful Authorities are given Beacon Council status and helped
to share their practice with others;
the Government
intends to pilot local Public Service Agreements under which Authorities
will sign up to more demanding targets in return for local freedoms
and flexibilities and will receive extra grant when they meet
the targets;
the Department
and the Local Government Association are working together on the
induction and training of elected Members so that they can play
an effective role, including as the corporate parents of children
in care;
the Department
has set up a website of good Local Education Authority practice
[http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/lea/] and is working with Authorities
to ensure that it contains up to date and relevant examples;
OFSTED is,
with the agreement of Education Authorities, collecting annual
performance information which will in due course be used to provide
high quality benchmarked data for all Authorities.
The
Department intends to work with its partners to further develop ways
of identifying and disseminating good Local Education Authority practice.
Such good practice would include having clear arrangements for keeping
communications with schools to a minimum. Authorities should especially
avoid duplicating those from national bodies including the DfEE, QCA
and OFSTED.
