Fears as Estyn stops checks

CONCERNS have been raised following a decision by Wales’ education watchdog to stop inspecting local authorities.

The move is likely to raise eyebrows within the schools sector, given recent criticism of Welsh councils by Estyn.

Six local authorities in Wales have required “special measures” – the highest level of support and monitoring – in the past five years.

All 22 local authorities are now free from Estyn categorisation, but there are fears they could slip back without sufficient scrutiny moving forward.

Estyn’s chief inspector Meilyr Rowlands explained the inspectorate’s approach in a meeting of the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee.

He said Estyn would continue to inspect Wales’ four regional education consortia, which drive school improvement on behalf of local authorities, but inspections of councils themselves would be put on hold.

Mr Rowlands said: “We are now working on the framework for the next round of local authority inspections – no easy task... because we don’t actually know what powers and duties those local authorities might still have, going forward.

“So, we’re looking forward to seeing what government policy is on that.

“Once we know what powers they have, we will immediately develop a local authority inspection framework so that we can carry on with that.”

In its annual report, Estyn said it would take full account “of the timetable for local government reform” before developing proposals for the inspection of local authorities.

A spokeswoman said the inspectorate was “currently in discussion with local authorities and other stakeholders on how we can support improvement in education services at the same time”.