More responsibility, less support - The quiet shift in Welsh school improvement

Finola Wilson

There has been a quiet but significant shift of power in education in Wales – one that is set to place yet more responsibility on already overworked and under-pressure headteachers.

New guidance, released by the Welsh Government on the first day of the new term, makes clear that schools will now be entirely responsible for leading their own improvement.

Until recently, this responsibility was shared with the regional education consortia: bodies that grouped local authorities together to drive school improvement across their regions.

Under this system, schools were supported by specialist improvement partners and advisers who helped them identify priorities, plan what support they needed, source that support, and then implement and evaluate it.

That shared responsibility has now been removed. All of it has been handed back to schools.

Where schools previously undertook annual self-evaluation exercises, they are now expected to engage in continuous self-evaluation, leading to constant improvement across all areas, and particularly in the quality of learning. This represents a substantial expansion of responsibility for schools and their leaders.

Crucially, however, there will be no additional time, resources or capacity provided to help schools shoulder this increased burden. That is a significant amount of pressure to place on schools, and especially on senior leaders, at a time when many are already grappling with deficit budgets, curriculum reform and recruitment challenges.

The impact of this shift on pupil outcomes could be profound. Time spent analysing data, identifying needs and searching for appropriate professional support is time not spent focusing on high-quality teaching and learning. There is a real risk that this will increase variation between schools and further widen the disadvantage gap, particularly in the most deprived areas of the country.

A mess

This risk is compounded by the current professional learning landscape in Wales, which is, quite frankly, a mess.

The funding model has changed dramatically, with money now routed through local authorities who decide how much, if any, is passed on to the regional consortia. One consortium – GwE in North Wales – has been disbanded entirely, while some local authorities have withdrawn from their consortia altogether. As a result, schools now face very different support arrangements depending on where they are in Wales – the very definition of a postcode lottery.

At the national level, the newly established professional learning body, Dysgu, is still in the process of setting up its services during this ‘transition year’. Alongside this, the Welsh Government’s new Education Improvement Team has begun working with all 22 local authorities to improve educational provision and professional learning across the country.

While few educationalists would argue against schools, leaders and teachers taking responsibility for improvement, the shift from externally supported professional learning to schools leading their own improvement is a significant one. Headteachers and schools have moved from being recipients of support to becoming the primary agents of improvement. With that power comes substantial responsibility.

Additional work

The implicit message is clear: if schools do not successfully take on the additional work of analysing need, identifying provision and brokering professional learning support, it will be schools themselves that are held accountable for the consequences.

For a government that has repeatedly stated its commitment to reducing workload for teachers – and particularly for headteachers – this new school improvement guidance appears fundamentally at odds with that ambition.

Finola Wilson is a former teacher and a Director of Impact Wales, which works with schools across Wales and beyond.