East Lothian
Council
Department of Education & Children’s Services

FRAMEWORK FOR SERVICE IMPROVEMENT

2008-2011

(May 2008)

INTRODUCTION

This document sets out the framework that we will use to improve the educational outcomes for children and young people in East Lothian for the three-year period from session 2008-2011. Progress will be reviewed annually. This framework is intended to ensure that there will be continuity throughout this period.

The Framework emphasises the commitment to Social Inclusion through the targets for raising attainment and the emphasis on equality, creativity, enterprise and active citizenship. It recognises the importance of education to the health, wellbeing and economy of East Lothian and the need to promote environmental awareness.

This framework is founded upon the principle of integrated services which will be essential if children, young people and their families, and in particular those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged, are to be fully supported.

The plan will be supported by more detailed operational action plans showing how the Department, schools and other agencies intend to achieve the stated outcomes over the period covered by the plan.

All operational plans will include detailed success criteria and targets.

CORPORATE PLAN

VISION AND PRINCIPLES

In 2020 East Lothian will have an established reputation as having the highest quality of life in the United Kingdom and the quality of our environment will be recognised as amongst the best in Europe.

Our dynamic and flourishing economy will support strong, sustainable, safe and inclusive communities where: the demand for affordable, high standard housing will be met; our world class education service will encourage all our children and young people to achieve their full potential; and, all our citizens will have access to the highest quality public services and a modern integrated transport infrastructure.

In 2020 our citizens will be proud to live, learn, work and play in East Lothian.

We will deliver this vision and generally improve the quality of life in East Lothian by achieving our Corporate Objectives that identify our key policy areas which are to

• Provide Affordable Housing

• Keep Our Environment Clean and Green

• Help Build Safer Communities

• Raise Educational Attainment

• Encourage Enterprise and Skills

• Promote Healthy Living and Improve Social Care

We will ensure success of the vision and achieve our objectives through application of the following key principles.

Principles:

• Vision-driven Strategy – we will express a clear vision for East Lothian and its residents, which will inform all key decisions taken on behalf of those residents.

• Democratic Accountability – we will endeavour to discuss and decide all key matters in public after consulting with those people most affected.

• Community Orientation – we will devolve decision-making down to the ward level as far as it makes economic and managerial sense.

• Resource Maximisation – we will seek out and engage financial and human resources both within and outside of the Council that can help deliver and maintain the superior quality of life that residents enjoy in East Lothian.

• Customer Service Excellence – we will ensure that our services are accessible to all, delivered in a manner that is most appropriate for the customer, and providing services that give value for money.

Aspirations / Strategic Objectives of the Education and Children’s Service in East Lothian

The strategic objectives for the Department are contained within the Council’s Corporate Plan, and contribute to the Community Plan.

The Department’s vision is:

‘To make a positive difference to the lives of children, young people and their families’.

This vision is underpinned by a series of values:

  • To be a service that listens, and provides leadership.
  • To involve children, young people, carers, parents and all those involved in the services, in setting and achieving the goals set.
  • Continually monitor the quality of our services and address the areas for improvement.
  • To provide a wide range of high quality services to all, while giving priority to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and groups in our communities.
  • To build on the good practice already established in East Lothian so that we gain from the quality of our staff.
  • To be forward looking so that we can anticipate and plan for change.

Additionally, we aim to ensure that staff, Elected Members and residents of East Lothian are kept fully informed whilst working towards 3 of the key corporate objectives of East Lothian Council:

‘Help buildSafer Communities’ – through close liaison with key partners in the Police, Fire and Rescue Service Health, Parent Councils, Voluntary Organisations and Community Councils we seek to ensure that East Lothian is a safe place to live, visit and work. The Community Safety Forum and the network of Community Councils undertake this work, with additional links to the Community Plan and ad hoc working parties that in turn work with children and young people through a range of projects.

‘Improve Educational Attainment and Achievement – this is reflected more fully within the Integrated Children’s Service Integrated Plan (ICSP) which states that children and young people should be SAFE, NURTURED, HEALTHY, ACHIEVING, ACTIVE, RESPECTED & RESPONSIBLE and INCLUDED. Both attainment and achievement are critical to the Integrated Children’s Services Plan which will increasingly be the focus for Inspections by HMIe in the near future. Continuous improvement in SQA Examinations coupled with a wide variety of other school activities is necessary to enable all children and young people to have the best start in their life after school.

‘Deliver the best in Health & Social Care’ – Child protection and health promotion are key issues for us in East Lothian, and we have some very stretching targets, again reflected more fully in the Integrated Children’s Services Plan. Child Protection was inspected recently and the report on that was published in February 2007. This resulted in a rigorous action plan being published and this will be added to with the publication of the Social Work Inspection Agency’s report on Social Work Services in East Lothian in February 2008.

In relation to health, all Schools in East Lothian have now achieved Health Promoting Schools accreditation at Stage 1 and will continue to develop Stage 2 in 2008. In addition, the programme to improve School Meals – “Hungry for Success” continues with the implementation of the Schools Nutrition Act 2007.

KEY CHALLENGES

Getting it Right For Every Child There is an expectation from the Scottish Government that there will be a single plan in existence for all children in early 2008. This development involves the NHS, Children’s Services and Education/Schools in the main. In addition, Getting It Right also has a significant influence on the Integrated Children’s Services Plan (ICSP) and the delivery of all children’s services at front line level.

Child Protection The protection of all children, in particular those who are most vulnerable and disadvantaged, is a top priority. This continues to be a significant challenge in 2008 with there being a significant increase in the number of children referred in the last two years. This is closely linked with the allocation of resources for child protection which also remains a key challenge.

Educational AttainmentThe levels of attainment in SQA examinations continues to be a key challenge in that this has a direct impact on the life chances of all young people in East Lothian. Schools make a major contribution in this regard and attainment levels throughout the County have continued to improve over the years. However, there are still too many young people leaving School in East Lothian who do not immediately go into further or higher education, training or employment. Creating more chances and more choices for this group of young people is also a key challenge

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

CURRICULUM

  1. Work with Schools to deliver “A Curriculum for Excellence”
  2. Work with the available resources to deliver the Scottish Government’s pledge to reduce class sizes in Primary 1, 2 and 3 to a maximum of 18 pupils.
  3. Place sustainable education, enterprise, science, modern languages and technology at the heart of the County’s education provision
  4. Embed Scottish history, culture and heritage throughout school life and make every effort to support Scotland’s languages – both Gaelic and Scots
  5. Improve involvement in and achievement through increased involvement of children and young people in creative arts, sports, outdoor education and community volunteering
  6. Improve attainment for all young people, and in particular the lowest performing 20%
  7. Increase the proportion of school leavers in positive and sustained destinations (further /higher education /employment /training)

MORE CHOICES, MORE CHANCES

  1. Seek to improve attainment in examinations for all young people, and in particular the lowest performing 20%
  2. Increase the numbers of school leavers entering Employment, Further Education, Higher Education and Training
  3. Expand the number of School/College Partnerships and provide more opportunities for all young people to experience vocational education this is repeated from no 8 above

SCHOOL ESTATE

  1. Develop a strategy to support small rural schools, by June 2008
  2. Produce an update on the School Estate Strategy, by June 2008 and annually thereafter
  3. Work with the available resources to deliver the Scottish Government’s pledge to reduce class sizes in Primary 1, 2 and 3 to a maximum of 18 pupils, beginning in June 2008.

DEVOLVED SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (DSM)

  1. Continue to support the maximum devolution of management and budgets to Head Teachers
  2. Carry out a Review of DSM early in 2008.

CHILD PROTECTION

  1. Protect children from abuse, neglect and harm by providing further resources for child protection services and making support services available for families affected by drug and alcohol abuse.
  2. Provide the best of care for children who need to be looked after through improvements in foster care and residential care, more responsive support and delivery of corporate parenting.
  3. Improve support to vulnerable children, young people and their families by the development of family support systems including Kinship Care and Family Conferencing, particularly for the most disadvantaged children and young people.

EARLY YEARS

  1. Assist in the development of universal integrated early education, childcare and early intervention services in conjunction with NHS Lothian
  2. Provide Nursery Education at the level of 475 hours per year, including the Partnership Centres starting in August 2008

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

  1. Support children with additional support needs, provide quality training for all staff working in this area and improve support and access to respite care for families affected by disability.

CONSULTATION & INVOLVEMENT

  1. Ensure that our services take account of views of children, young people and their families in shaping policies and delivering all services
  2. Increase the number of positive inspection reports for pre-school centres, schools, child protection services and the authority.

TRANSLATING PRIORITIES INTO ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES

The Scottish government has moved away from using National Priorities as a means of providing funding and reporting on the progress of education in Scotland. The model, which has been adopted, uses Outcome Agreements that will be negotiated with Local Authorities.

In line with this model the Education and Children’s Services Department has realigned its method of Improvement Planning. In common with all other agencies who contribute to the East Lothian Integrated Children’s Services Plan we are using the United Nations Convention’s Rights of the Child as the organising framework, these are: Safe; Nurtured; Achieving; Healthy; Active; Included; and Respected and Responsible.

School Development Plans should reflect the Outcomes identified below within the Service Improvement Framework but in a manner which will vary from school to school dependent upon the effectiveness of their existing practice.

Please note that a single action point could relate to a number of outcomes, i.e. it is not necessary to have an action point for every individual outcome.

Cluster development Plans will also target specific Outcomes that are of relevance to their own community.

The Education and Children’s Services Department will devise an action plan to address the Outcomes which we seek to address.

EAST LOTHIAN EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 2008-20011

Safe and Nurtured

  1. We will improve the outcomes for Looked After and Accommodated Children.
  1. All children and young people will know how to use technology in a manner which protects their own and others safety.

Achieving

  1. Every school will achieve a very good level of performance in Learning and Teaching.
  1. All children will be literate by the end of P6 unless the have identified specific learning difficulties or severe and complex needs.
  1. All children will be numerate by the end of P6 unless the have identified specific learning difficulties or severe and complex needs.
  1. All children and young people will report that they have had opportunities to fulfil the four capacities of A Curriculum for Excellence.
  1. We will close the gap between the attainment of the lowest attaining 20% of pupils and their peers
  1. All children and young people will report that their wider achievements are recognised by their school.
  1. All children and young people will be able to demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of Scottish culture, history and heritage at key stages in their school careers.
  1. All pupils will match or exceed their predicted progression levels against national comparison levels, e.g. PIPS, MIDYIS and SQA.

Included

  1. All children, young people and staff report that they feel they are treated with equity and fairness.
  1. The number of young people leaving school and not entering employment, education or training will be reduced
  1. All external agencies that work with schools and the education service will report that we are open, accessible and committed to partnership working.

Healthy and Active

  1. We will improve children and young people’s health and their attitudes to health.
  1. The number of children and young people participating in physical activity outwith school will increase.

Respected and Responsible

  1. Children, young people and members of staff will report an improvement in behaviour.
  1. All children and young people will be able to give an example of how they actively contribute towards sustaining the school's, community’s and global environment.
  1. All children and young people will report that they feel safe in school.

Service Improvement

  1. We will collect and systematically use relevant and focused information and data to support this Service Improvement Plan through analysis of outcomes.
  1. All stakeholders will report that they have had an opportunity to be involved in the development of policies.
  1. All leaders within East Lothian education service will achieve Good, Very Good or Excellent for Leadership in an externally validated self-evaluation.
  1. All users will report that they find the Education Service’s website a useful resource.
  1. All CPD opportunities will have a positive impact upon employees’ capacity to do their jobs

Monitoring Progress – An Outcome Approach

This, and future plans, will form the basis for the Standards and Quality report for the authority. It is therefore important that due attention is given to the development of outcome measures and the subsequent monitoring of progress towards these outcomes. It is also vital, at school level, that we have the means of knowing whether we have been successful or not. However, it is also important to be clear about the status of any quantitative targets that we set.

We have made clear statements about the way in which we will approach the process of monitoring.

The Department will: -

  1. Agree clear policies and procedures with schools.
  1. Agree outcomes that must be contextualised within the school and its community and must make sense to those who are responsible for achieving them.
  1. Monitor progress towards agreed outcomes on an ongoing basis, recognising the importance of school self-evaluation.
  1. Develop systems to enable the authority to know its schools in-depth to ensure that pupils experience a consistently high standard of teaching and learning within all our schools.
  1. Develop a proportionate approach to support for schools and use this as a means to give additional support to those schools who are having difficulty in meeting agreed outcomes
  1. The Department will continue to develop and implement the quality improvement framework set out in “Achieving Excellence”.

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2008 -2011- 1 -