Jeremy Miles MS, Minister for Education and Welsh Language
I am pleased to announce my intention to establish a company limited by guarantee (CLG) to oversee the provision and the commissioning of bilingual resources and materials to support Curriculum for Wales and its qualifications.
The provision of purposeful, high quality and timely educational teaching and learning materials, in Welsh and English, at the same time, is a critical element in ensuring the credibility of the curriculum, and in securing the necessary commitment from practitioners to realise it. Curriculum for Wales is innovative, ambitious and challenging and therefore demands a radically different and equally ambitious approach to the development of resources and supporting materials as it is embedded over the years.
Significant volumes of resources are currently commissioned but there is a need for this to be more strategically coordinated and there is also room for budgets and expertise available nationally to be used more effectively. Without a national strategic process, efforts can be duplicated, parity in provision in Welsh and English is not ensured and not all resources are quality assured. My officials have worked with a group of stakeholders from the education, creative and public sectors to explore new ways of providing educational resources and the best structure for delivery. The Group has proposed establishing a new arm’s length legal entity, with a Board accountable to Welsh Ministers, working within a framework provided by the Welsh Government. I agree that this is the best way to meet our ambitions.
This company will provide opportunities for us to work together, to share expertise and experience and develop the capacity of schools and practitioners in creating resources that support their local curriculum. It will be an easily recognisable ‘go-to’ service that will facilitate co-construction between teachers and other stakeholders, ensuring that talent is recognised, nurtured and developed. Linked to the work of the National Network for curriculum implementation, it will ensure that resources and supporting materials are developed in line with the principles and the ethos of the new curriculum and that they support the role of schools and practitioners as curriculum designers. It will also invest in skills and capacity within the publishing sector, ensuring a fully joined up approach.
I am confident this is the right approach for Wales and I have instructed my officials to put arrangements in place to commence the detailed work required to deliver this change. I have agreed to the commencement of a public appointments process to recruit a Chair and Board members as well as a Strategic Director. I expect the CLG to be fully operational from 1 April 2023.
However, work on ensuring materials to support the implementation of the new curriculum will continue in the Welsh Government’s Education Directorate until the company has been established. This work will include the publication of initial guidance for developing resources and supporting materials in the summer term.
I will update members on progress in due course.