Council could quit region’s school improvement service

Caerphilly County Borough Council is preparing to withdraw from regional school improvement service the EAS.

The local authority said there is support among headteachers to bring decision-making back “in house” and for “taking back control” of school improvement.

The Gwent-wide Education Achievement Service was set up in 2012 as a joint venture between Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen.

But in 2023 a Welsh Government-commissioned review found “strong support for a move away from consortia-based arrangements, in favour of a strengthened relationship between schools and local authorities”, according to a Caerphilly Council report.

Keri Cole, the authority’s director of education, said meetings with school leaders found “headteachers were very clear and united” in favour of the council providing governor support services.

They were also “united in their view there should be core local authority advisers to oversee clusters” of schools, Ms Cole wrote in the report.

At a meeting of Caerphilly’s education committee, on Tuesday April 22, members heard there has been “extensive dialogue” between council officers and their counterparts in the EAS’ four other local authorities.

Those other councils have a “clear steer… that they wish to continue in partnership with the company model”, a committee report notes.

The education committee voted to support the proposed withdrawal from the EAS, which will now go to cabinet members for a final decision.

If approved, the notice period for leaving the regional service is likely to run from August 2025 to August 2027.

The council accepts there are “costs attached to exiting the company” but also anticipates further Welsh Government funding to support the withdrawal, if it goes ahead.

It is hoped a new model will also bring “higher-value school improvement services at a lower cost than the historic arrangements”.