Revised schools review proposals to be published in September

A countywide review of all schools still needs to be carried out and schools, communities and council members need to be part of the discussions before proposals are put together. That's the message given at Herefordshire Council's children's services scrutiny committee this week when they met to discuss recently recalled draft proposals about the county's future education provision.

Council leaders accepted the need for a review but questioned the procedures used to put the proposals together and the way they were shared with head teachers before anyone else had been briefed.

Officers informed members that since the start of the review in March 2006, there had been a lot of discussion with head teachers concerning the problems schools face with falling pupil numbers and falling resources. Schools had asked council officers to come up with proposals, which could then be debated further. A representative from the Government Office of the West Midlands had been informed about the review, kept up-to-date of its progress and been present when proposals were shared with head teachers on 10 January.

Denise Strutt, head teacher at Whitecross Sports College representing head teachers on the scrutiny committee, told the meeting that head teachers had been involved in the debate about falling pupil numbers and lack of funding since the review began. She also commented that the head teachers had asked council officers to take a strategic view and put some proposals on the table for further debate. She added that it was right that head teachers should be the first to learn about proposals which could affect them and their school community.

Members of the committee were informed that negotiations have now begun with head teachers to agree procedures for carrying out the review over the next new months. They were also told that an independent assessment of the data used in the review is being undertaken.

A report will be prepared and presented to the council's cabinet at the end of February updating members of the council outlining the timescales of the review.

In the meantime, further discussion will take place with schools, rural communities and teacher associations. The meeting requested that revised proposals be taken to the children's services scrutiny committee before being issued for further consultation in September 2008.

Councillor Sally Robertson, chair of children's services scrutiny committee, said: "Scrutiny committee was not aware of the proposals until the information was released on 11 January. I regret the upset the draft proposals have caused to schools and their communities.

"As a council, we have some very difficult decisions to make over the future of our children's education. The council has been struggling financially for years, and now the government is pushing us into a review situation.

"We have been advised that if we don't address the surplus capacity issue, the government could take money away from us, but we need to make sure that all partners involved in schools have the opportunity to sit round the table and discuss solutions before a further set of proposals is issued.

"We have asked for members of scrutiny to be continually appraised of developments and to be issued with the revised proposals before they are considered by the council's cabinet."