National Coherence Group: letter to Cabinet Secretary

National Coherence Group

9 December 2024

Dear Cabinet Secretary,

Thank you for the invitation to chair the National Coherence Group (NCG) to support the review of roles and responsibilities of education partners in Wales and the delivery of school improvement arrangements.

The NCG brings together representatives of key partners and provides the opportunity for constructive conversations about the future of our education system. The different perspectives are valuable, and members appreciate the opportunity to be able to review the wider proposals being developed as part of the School Improvement Partnership Programme.

We recognise the considerable amount of work that has been done across the sector in partnership with national, local and school colleagues to reach this position and the progress that’s been made since the review undertaken by Professor Dylan Jones. We also recognise that this is a point in time on the journey and represents a check point rather than an end point.

On 4 December, the NCG discussed the proposals for the future school improvement system in Wales with the School Improvement Partnership Programme team. 

The NCG supports the principles of the proposed approach and agrees with its intention to clarify and simplify the school improvement system in Wales. The NCG notes that continued progress will be possible as budgetary clarity emerges. 

Recognising that responsibility for school improvement lies with each local authority, we acknowledge the need for flexibility in how the proposals are implemented in local areas. However, there should be a focus on ensuring clarity about the outcomes that are expected from this process. This will enable coherence of the system across the country but this will require ongoing monitoring. We recognise that there are potential risks to the delivery of the changes in terms of funding and professional capacity to engage and deliver, and maintaining focus on the objective of improving education standards. We would encourage such risks continue to be appropriately managed.

Collaboration will be key to the success of the changes to the school improvement system and there must be a common, shared understanding of the meaning and purpose of collaboration across the system: true collaboration supports others and enables improvement. We recognise further work to ensure this shared understanding is planned and add our view that this is crucial to our success moving forward. We welcome the creation of the Education Improvement Team within the Welsh Government. This Team needs to be agile and responsive to the needs of the service, and the Welsh Government will need to ensure coherence between the National Support Programmes, the Professional Learning and Leadership organisation and the collaborative model.

We recommend that local authorities continue to have conversations with each other about their planned approaches to school improvement and to both share with and learn from others. It is clear that good data will be needed to underpin the system, so local authorities and school collaboratives should be encouraged to share both qualitative and quantitative information and evidence. We recognise that the need for data is not without its own challenges, so it needs to be clear that it is a tool for improvement at both local and national levels.

We also recognise that education cannot improve only through the work of schools and suggest that there is a wider conversation needed with all local authority functions and other public services about how they can support learners and schools. 

The NCG considers that clarity of understanding across the system and knowing the role of individuals and the constituent parts is critical. In particular, it will be essential that all partners are clear about their roles and responsibilities in relation to each other. A strong and effective communications strategy will be needed and implemented to ensure this shared understanding.

The NCG is reassured with the current governance to support the proposed changes. We consider the proposals to be going in the right direction and that there are multiple levels of assurance in the system.

The NCG recognises the importance of getting the proposals for a new school improvement system in Wales right as this will be a significant culture change for many partners within the education system. We look forward to continuing to engage with the Programme Team and to sharing in this journey towards greater collaboration at all levels for the purpose of school improvement.

Yours sincerely,

Kirsty Williams CBE