In my last post I asked if I add value to the lives of children? In order to provide some context to properly consider that question I've tried to identify some of the key statutory responsibilities for education authorities.

The major Act which sets out the obligations for Education Authorities is the
Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 – (I’ve quoted the text insome of the most important parts of the act)

Duty of education authority in providing school education

(1) Where school education is provided to a child or young person by, or by virtue of arrangements made, or entered into, by, an education authority it shall be the duty of the authority to secure that the education is directed to the development of the personality, talents and mental and physical abilities of the child or young person to their fullest potential.

(2) In carrying out their duty under this section, an education authority shall have due regard, so far as is reasonably practicable, to the views (if there is a wish to express them) of the child or young person in decisions that significantly affect that child or young person, taking account of the child or young person's age and maturity.

Education authority's annual statement of improvement objectives

(1) For the purposes of their duty under section 3(2) of this Act, an education authority, after consulting such bodies as appear to the authority to be representative of teachers and parents within their area and of persons, other than teachers, who are employed in schools within that area and after giving children, young persons and such other persons within that area as appear to the authority to have an interest in the matter an opportunity to make their views known, shall, by such date in 2001 as the Scottish Ministers may, after consulting the education authorities, determine (one date being so determined for all the authorities) and thereafter by that date annually, prepare and publish a statement setting objectives.

School development plans

(1) For the purpose of securing improvement in the quality of education which a school managed by them provides, an education authority shall, subject to subsection (6) below, ensure that there is prepared for the school, by such date in 2001 as the Scottish Ministers may, after consulting the education authorities, determine (one date being so determined for all the authorities) and thereafter by that date annually, after consultation with the persons mentioned in subsection (2) below and after the pupils in attendance at the school have been given an opportunity to make their views known.

Review of school performance

(1) An education authority shall from time to time, after consulting such bodies as appear to the authority to be representative of teachers and parents within their area and giving such persons within that area as appear to the authority to have an interest in the matter an opportunity to make their views known, define and publish, as respects quality of education provided, measures and standards of performance for the schools managed by them; and different measures and standards may be so defined for different categories of such schools.

(2) An education authority shall, as respects each school managed by them, from time to time review the quality of education which the school provides; and if, having regard to the measures and standards of performance for the time being defined by them under subsection (1) above and relevant to the school, they conclude in any such review that the school is not performing satisfactorily they shall take such steps as appear to them to be requisite to remedy the matter.

Inspection of education authority

(1) On any occasion on which they are requested to do so by the Scottish Ministers, or at such intervals as appear to the Scottish Ministers to be appropriate, Her Majesty's Inspectors, or any person appointed by the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of this section (or Her Majesty's Inspectors and any such person), shall inspect an education authority so as to review the way in which the authority are exercising their functions in relation to the provision of school education.

Delegation schemes

(1) An education authority shall have a scheme for delegating to the headteacher of a school

(a) managed by them; and

(b) of a category of school which is stated in the scheme to be covered by the scheme, management of that share of the authority's budget for a financial year which is available for allocation to individual schools and is appropriated for the school; or management of part of that share.

(2) The scheme

-(a) shall delegate to the headteacher the preparation of the school development plan; and

(b) may also so delegate such other management functions in relation to the school as the authority think fit.

(3) The scheme shall require that the headteacher exercise the delegated functions in a manner consistent with the education authority's duties under section 3(2) of this Act.

Inspection of education authority

(1) On any occasion on which they are requested to do so by the Scottish Ministers, or at such intervals as appear to the Scottish Ministers to be appropriate, Her Majesty's Inspectors, or any person appointed by the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of this section (or Her Majesty's Inspectors and any such person), shall inspect an education authority so as to review the way in which the authority are exercising their functions in relation to the provision of school education.

Requirement that education be provided in mainstream schools

(1) Where an education authority, in carrying out their duty to provide school education to a child of school age, provide that education in a school, they shall unless one of the circumstances mentioned in subsection (3) below arises in relation to the child provide it in a school other than a special school.

(2) If a child is under school age, then unless one of the circumstances mentioned in subsection (3) below arises in relation to the child, an education authority shall, where they-(a) provide school education in a school to the child, provide it in; or (b) under section 35 of this Act, enter into arrangements for the provision of school education in a school to the child, ensure that the arrangements are such that the education is provided in, a school other than a special school.

Here’s a bullet point list of some of the other major responsibilities for Education Authorities set out in the 2000 Act :

· School Boards

· Home Education

· Pre-school education

· Home to school transport

· Education of children unable to attend school

· Rights of appeal against exclusion

· Placing requests

· Grants – clothing etc.

Additional Support for Learning

“Each education authority must make adequate and efficient provision for the needs of each such child or young person, and must have in place arrangements for ensuring that the additional support being provided remains adequate to meet those needs” (ASL Act 2004)

Integrated Children’s Services

Section 19 of the
Children (Scotland ) Act 1995 places a statutory duty on each local authority, in consultation with other relevant agencies, to prepare and publish plans for the provision and development of children'sservices in their area. The local authority is also required to publish information about the full range of children'sservices that it provides or purchases, including early education and childcare, social work, adoption, fostering and residential care. The plan should also cover youth justice and youth services.

In my next post I''ll start to consider if any of these responsibilities might be discharged by either schools or another body.

I attended the
Virtual Staff College Summer School on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The theme of the school was: Leadership in a Changing Environment.

The course was aimed at senior officers working in the delivery of local authority education and children's services. It gave us the chance to meet, share practice and reflect on the challanges and solutions cunnrtly facing those of us who work in such positions.

I really enjoyed the Summer School and it must rank as one of the best forms of personal development that I've ever experienced. I was certainly challenged and in the course of the three days I experienced something of a transformation in my thinking about my role and its contribution to developing education and children's services in East Lothian.

The last task we were given was to reflect upon what we would be taking away from the event – these were mine:

1. Much clearer about my future role as a leader in developing the delivery of integrated children's services.

2. Confirmed my belief that we should use shared quality indicators for all agencies involved in children's services as a lever for change.

3. That we should be much more proactive within the corporate setting in terms of the future model of integrated children's services.

4. That we should develop models of funding which drives decision making down to a local level.

5. That we should have faith in the need for a new model and the fact that it will benefit children.

I'll put up a number of posts in the next few days to eleborate on the background to some of these ideas.

All day yesterday and some of today was spent interviewing candidates for the vacant Staff Development Manager. The quality of candidates was very high – we have identified our preferred candidate and await the completion of the formalities prior to announcement.

I met David Gilmour this morning and things are well on the way towards some significant changes to exc-el – watch this space.

Met with Karen Robertson, our ICT Development Officer, to discuss our plans for the coming session. Karen has an excellent grasp of the big picture and allies this with an acute eye for detail – particularly in budgets. It seems that every time Karen meets me she leaves the room with a barrowload of work and today was no exception – I'm sure she will soon start to avoid me. Karen will no doubt update her version of events on her own
weblog.

I then met a member of staff from one of our schools who is employed as a counsellor. These are relatively new positions in schools and it struck me that we need to clarify the role such people play in our school support systems – as things stand they have developed in a pretty ad hoc manner – yet can perform a very important function.

Met Raymy Boyle, our Integration Team Manager, Raymy updated me on the attendance review report – it semed to us that this is an area we could really make a point of focus for integrated working in the coming term – I know Sheila Ainslie is keen that we take this course of action.

Jim Stevens of the Scottish Executive, came into the office to meet with myself, Alan Blackie and Alan Ross to discuss our Integrated Children's Services Plan. In the course of a very worthwhile meeting it became clear to me that we need to use the
Quality Improvement Framework for Integrated Children's Services as the key document to guide our planning process and that we should link this with rigorous self-evaluation – something akin to the
Child at the Centre document I'd been working on prior to the holiday.

Followed this with a Directorate meeting then just managed to catch a a strategic meeting being held with Ewan McIntosh, Karen Robertson, David Gilmour and Ian Graham. It was great to sit on the sidelines and see things taking off – it put me in mind of the the
release element of the child rearing metaphor. Nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing that things are developing a life of their own and don't need my direct involvement.

Exam results came out today for pupils – both my sons got their envelope and did well (certainly better than their dad ever did!!) I'm very proud.

Back to work today and spent a lot of my time getting on top of e-mails and correspondence.

Pauline Sales had analysed our examination results – they go out to pupils tomorrow. I'll comment on them later this week.

I met
Ewan McIntosh this afternoon to discuss his position as New Technologies Research Practitioner. Ewan will be integrating blogging, podcasting, wikis, gaming and other emerging technologies into classroom life from nursery to secondary school within East Lothian Council, while providing an ongoing set of frameworks, policies and practical examples other Local Authorities and national bodies can adapt for their own situations. This post is supported by Learning and Teaching Scotland.

We used the
multiple metpahor model to give some shape to our discusssions and I was pleased with the outcome. Ewan will be writing up a detailed narrative of the change strategy we hope to implement over the course of this week.

I was contacted by
Margaret Wright about appreciative inquiry who had come across my blog. I hope to meet up with Margaret in the near future.