Association Of Directors of Education in Wales (ADEW) chair Richard Parry stated :
The Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to reject Cardiff Council’s proposals to reorganise secondary schools flies in the face of the need to continue to raise educational standards, reduce surplus places and meet the targets in the recently published Welsh-medium Education strategy, One Wales and the 21st Century Schools initiative.
The Welsh Assembly Government and Ministers have over the last few years made it clear to local authorities that they need to ensure efficiencies are realised and that they must reduce the number of surplus places. This decision from the Assembly Government is contrary to these requirements.
The outcomes of recent Estyn local authority inspections have been critical of progress by local authorities in addressing school organisation issues. The biggest impediment to reorganisation is the complex and bureaucratic processes in place at the Welsh Assembly Government which are required to achieve school closures and a reduction in surplus places.
There are numerous examples of individual Assembly Members opposing school closures within their own constituencies. This type of opposition merely adds to the difficulty of the process.
When a proposal goes through the statutory process even when there is only one objection, a very detailed report is required by the Welsh Assembly. Once it has been submitted to the Welsh Assembly, it can take up to a year to be processed and for authorities to receive a response. In contrast the initial and statutory proposal at local authority level, in often very hostile meetings consulting with the pupils, staff, governors, parents and the wider community, has taken a mere 4 to 5 months.
Whilst most proposals are eventually accepted, the rejection of the Cardiff proposals not only sets the authority back several years but leaves everyone questioning the level of commitment by the Welsh Assembly Government. If Cardiff decided to appeal this decision and proceed to a Judicial Review then ADEW would support the authority.
Now is the time to question several aspects of the current process.
The process needs to be speeded up and if it remains as currently, then there needs to be capacity to deal with proposals in a timely manner. Currently the time spent waiting is totally unacceptable.
In the past at least 10 local objections were required before the Welsh Assembly were required to rule on the proposal. Now it is one objection and this can be from someone with a very tenuous link to the schools. This needs to be reviewed.
More importantly, should the decision making process provide an approach which is independent of the political whim of the Welsh Assembly Government?
