Review of roles and responsibilities of education partners in Wales and delivery of school improvement arrangements: update letter to the Cabinet Secretary for spring 2025

Dear Cabinet Secretary

You will be aware that following my letter to the then Minister for Education, which was published on 31 January 2024, the review team was asked to continue our work by supporting colleagues in exploring school-to-school working at a local level, and across local authorities. This was described as Phase 2 of the review.

We were also asked to continue to act as a critical friend to Welsh Government’s Education Directorate as it considers the national level support structures and its role in national leadership. During Phase 2 we have worked closely with the Education Directorate within your department and Head of the new Education Improvement Team. 

I am pleased to share below an update from Phase 2 of our work.

What did we do during Phase 2?

Phase 2 has involved attendance at Programme, Delivery Board and National Coherence Group meetings. Online meetings were also conducted with local authorities during the Autumn of 2024, pre and post the submission of their plans in response to Phase 1 of the review.

During the Spring term of 2025 we held face to face engagement with Directors of Education, their teams, and Headteacher representatives. This extensive engagement has been particularly useful in coming to a shared understanding of the practicalities and implications of a school improvement infrastructure which is based on the foundation of collective responsibility and collaborative improvement.

What are the main messages we have heard during Phase 2?

The visits across Wales showed that the vast majority of local areas had made good progress in implementing a local system of collaborative improvement since submitting their plans in October 2024. We were particularly encouraged by the commitment to the change in culture and new ways of working that was evident in most conversations. There was strong overall support for the policy direction of collaborative improvement and a commitment from local authorities to continue working closely with schools to implement this policy.

There was strong support from both local authorities and school leaders for the opportunity to develop collective solutions for local issues, assuming collective responsibility for all local learners. There was a clear sense of grasping this opportunity to bring to bear the collective focus of the profession on the key enablers of learner progress where it has the greatest impact, which is in the classroom.

We had constructive and motivated discussions around teaching and learning and the ways in which high quality learning and outcomes can be achieved. We heard some really strong examples of local authorities and schools who have already developed a shared vision for collaborative improvement. Some planned to deepen this further through the agreement of more formal principles or parameters for local collaboration. In other cases, the vision was still developing, but it was clear from the discussions that there was an open and transparent relationship between the local authority and school leaders. As policy developments continue local authorities will benefit from ensuring their ongoing engagement with all their headteachers continues around their plans for local improvement.

The biggest positive from this exercise has been hearing about the number of excellent examples of existing deep and purposeful collaborative improvement which already have a strong focus on improving teaching and learning, strengthening self-evaluation, and driving forward work against clear improvement priorities which reflect national priorities. This provides a strong foundation for the development of collaborative working nationally and means that many local authorities have existing examples of more mature collaboration to draw on.

Whilst capacity and funding pressures have been raised as challenges by school leaders, we have also heard some positive examples of collaborative working helping to generate greater efficiency in schools’ work. There has been a strong sense in a number of conversations that, where investment had been made in building the appropriate collaborative culture, then there had been a reward in terms of the benefits of collaborative working and capacity building.

The biggest challenge we have heard from both local authorities and school leaders remains the need to align the whole system around a smaller number of national priorities. All partners, at local and national level, can play their part in establishing a clear focus on these national priorities and a collaborative improvement approach. Integral to this will be setting out a clear narrative around how the national priorities support each other. Colleagues have emphasised how a focus on teaching and learning, leadership and the foundational priorities of literacy and numeracy, need to be at the heart of everything they do. We have heard a strong argument that progress around the other national priorities such as Attendance, Behaviour, ALN and mainstream inclusion and Wellbeing will not be possible unless we make progress against these foundational priorities.

What should the focus be on in the next phase of the programme?

Following on from our constructive and encouraging meetings with colleagues, we would anticipate further progress in the development of the maturity of the local arrangements over the next 12 months. During our engagement we discussed with colleagues:

• how each local authority constructs and develops its infrastructure and governance to support its own local collaborative arrangements
• how each local authority supports and grows mature examples of collaboration
• how each local authority ensures that all schools and clusters engage in its collaborative improvement strategies for the benefit of all learners

It is to be expected that there will be some variation in the maturity of collaboration across the system. Each local context is different. There might be value in setting some system wide expectations for when a further review of the progress in the development of the maturity of these local arrangements is scheduled. We believe that the Welsh Government Policy Objectives can help in this regard. In October 2024, Welsh Government issued draft guidance to all local authorities entitled 'Enabling a self-improving system, a collaborative model between schools, Local Authorities (LAs) and Welsh Government'. 

This draft guidance contains some ambitious policy objectives which were established to provide the system with a clear understanding of the policy direction. I would hope that over the coming months and years, all partners within the education sector can support a collective effort towards achieving these objectives.

The policy objectives are:

1.  All schools in Wales are participating in purposeful vertical and horizontal collaborative approaches and structures focused on improving learning.
2. All local authorities are working in partnership with their schools, actively using this new school-based collaborative approach to know their schools and improve educational standards in their area, in the context of their responsibilities in relation to curriculum, equity, ALN, and school improvement, Welsh language, professional learning and funding.
3. School improvement capacity exists predominantly within schools by ensuring an appropriate balance of school-based expertise, secondments and any permanent LA based specialist resource.
4. All local authorities have clear partnership arrangements which are focused on improving learning through their collaborative local improvement system and which represent value for money for resources.
5. All local authorities have a robust transition plan taking them to summer 2025, along with a clear long-term commitment to meet the policy objectives by March 2026.

Partners at national level will no doubt want to consider and action how they support local areas in developing their collaboration at an appropriate pace and what else might be needed to strengthen the system in order to support this collaboration. We heard strong messages from local authorities and school leaders that the current educational infrastructure doesn’t always reward or encourage such collaborative working. At the end of Phase 1, we noted the need to explore “the role of funding, inspection, and governance in incentivising collaboration across schools and clusters”. We would suggest that there remains a question as to whether any further changes could be made at a national level to strengthen the incentives for schools and local authorities to focus more strongly on the development of collaborative improvement.

Historically, evaluating the impact of school improvement activity has been a source of challenge and tension. However, for collaborative working to provide the best for our learners, there must be a way of ensuring that our collective attention is rigorous in its focus on improving learner outcomes. We heard a consistent message that schools would welcome a more consistent approach to evaluating learner progress; including around the transition points for learners. This would be used most effectively and sustainably within a culture of collaboratively seeking to achieve the best outcomes for all learners.

School leaders consistently noted that they welcomed accountability for their learners’ progress as long as it was not punitive and narrow in its evaluation. One major challenge for the future is how this balance is struck and consistent methods established without reconceiving unhelpful practices. The consensus from the workshops, which aligns with the strength of the previous messages heard, is that improvement can be achieved best through effective collaborative working which is focused on effective self-evaluation and improving learner progress and outcomes. A productive balance can be struck between activities that are designed to inform and improve school improvement and those that are seen as ‘quality assurance’ and ‘checking’. The challenge now is how the system is supported to evolve to a place where an effective process of collaborative improvement allows for both, but which is primarily focused on improvement and impact.

I, Simon Day and his colleagues at Isos Partnership, would like to thank Welsh Government for this opportunity to lead and undertake this important review. We would like, in particular, to note our gratitude for the constructive and considered way in which colleagues across the Welsh education system have engaged with and supported the review during a challenging and busy time for all involved. We have been encouraged, and felt a sense of pride, witnessing the continued commitment and desire that exists to provide the best possible life opportunities for the young people of Wales.

Yours sincerely

Dylan E Jones
May 2025