Joint Highland Council / HMIE report on aspects of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Service.
A joint report by HM Inspectorate of Education and The Highland Council on the validated self-evaluation of The Highland Council is published today 29 June 2010.
The Highland Council worked in partnership with HMIE to evaluate aspects of the Education, Culture and Sports (ECS) Service in the Highland area. This was undertaken as a result of an expression of interest from the Council in participating in this developing national process of self-evaluation. The report provides an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Education, Culture and Sport Service in improving the impact and outcomes for children, young people and families.
Previous self-evaluation by ECS indicated that a central challenge for Highland lies in improving outcomes for those young people who are vulnerable and who underachieve. In consultation with HMIE, The Highland Council identified four key themes which they wanted to evaluate more closely to determine the impact for children and young people.
The four themed areas were:
ECS service managers set up four groups to look at each of the themed areas and one group to focus on how performance is improving and the impact for learners. Each group had broad membership including representatives from partner agencies, Highland Youth and elected members. Members of these groups, including HMIE, undertook fieldwork including interviews and observations. They gathered, analysed and evaluated a wide range of evidence. Their findings are reflected in the published report.
HMIE concurred with the range of strengths identified by ECS staff and their partners and from these, jointly selected a number of key strengths. These were:
As a result of the work undertaken within the process, The Highland Council and HMIE have agreed broad priorities for action. These are to continue to:
Councillor Bill Fernie, Chairman of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Service said: “I am pleased to see that this voluntary process of self evaluation between the Council and HMIE has provided valuable feedback on the quality of education in the Highlands.
Hugh Fraser, Highland Council’s, Director of Education, Culture and Sport added: “I am very pleased at the outcomes of the voluntary self evaluation process.”
The report concludes that: “HMIE are confident that The Highland Council has identified appropriate areas for improvement and how these improvements will be achieved. The Highland Council has a sound capacity for improvement.”
The report concludes that: “HMIE are confident that The Highland Council has identified appropriate areas for improvement and how these improvements will be achieved. The Highland Council has a sound capacity for improvement.”
A copy of the report is on the council’s website.