Every Doncaster Child Matters
An interview with Steve Chew

The last year has been a period of enormous change in Doncaster. It is impossible to live in Doncaster and not have noticed the physical changes that are taking place. Doncaster Education City (DEC) is now a reality and the newly built iconic College (the ‘Hub’) on the waterfront is testament to this achievement. What is not immediately apparent is the major re-organisation within the Council’s Education and Children’s Services, which has been necessary to comply with the new Government legislation, ‘Every Child Matters’.
Steve Chew is the Group Director for School Improvement and he met with us recently to explain how these changes affect families and young people in Doncaster.

Robin Hood Airport at dusk – Doncaster already has an Aviation Academy, which is a good example of how people have co-operated to produce vocational skills teaching to meet the needs of employers.

Can you tell us about developments within Education in Doncaster within the last twelve months?
There has been a considerable number of developments. We’ve had significant increases in attainment at the various key stages, which we’re delighted about particularly at KS4 where, subject to confirmation, we have had a 7% rise in 5A*-C GCSE’s, one of the best in the country. The Council has been restructured in accordance with the government’s national directive. We have a Director of Education Standards within the Council and that provides us with a very clear focus on raising attainment, and that has been a big bonus for us. We’ve also had significant enhancement of the Doncaster Education City project. Adult Family and Community Learning is now part of Education Standards Directorate and has gone from strength to strength as we’ve expanded our family learning activities and our community education activities. On the down side, we’ve had the demise of the Learning Partnership in Doncaster at the end of March of this year, although its activities are being delivered as part of the Children and Young People’s Partnership Trust and Doncaster Education City.

What is the Children and Young People’s Partnership Trust?
The Partnership Trust was established in July 2005 to ensure positive outcomes for the children and young people of Doncaster. The Trust is organised under five multi-agency Theme Boards, which are: Be Healthy; Stay Safe; Enjoy and Achieve; Making a Positive Contribution; and Economic Well-Being. The Theme Boards meet regularly and report to the Partnership Trust. I Chair the Enjoy & Achieve Theme of Every Child Matters and we work alongside colleagues with the four other Theme Board Chairs and Support Officers.

Who are the members of the Partnership Trust?
Members come from the key groups and agencies concerned with children and young people, including the Youth Council, schools, the Local Authority, health, police and the voluntary and community sector.

You say that the council has been completely restructured. How does that work?
The restructured Council now has six directorates, with the Neighbourhoods, Communities and Children’s Services (NCCS) directorate responsible for the delivery of services on a geographical area basis. NCCS has three ‘Community Directors’ who have a matrix of responsibilities. Each one is responsible for two areas plus one of the three Local Area Agreements (LAA) themes (they are Sustainable and Safer Communities; Healthy and Vulnerable People in addition to Children and Young People) at a strategic level. There are five ‘area managers’ and within each of the five geographical areas, there are three neighbourhoods, each having a neighbourhood manager and a neighbourhood delivery team. There is also a Town Centre manager to focus upon the particular needs of the centre of Doncaster. Neighbourhoods Communities and Children’s Services provides support to individual children, young people and their families. Alongside that we have the Directorate of Education Standards, which focuses upon Doncaster's drive to raise attainment.

What are the developments for the new Children’s Centres and Extended Schools programme?
There are currently fourteen Children’s Centres that are already designated and eight more are in the process of being designated. By the end of 2008 we hope that all parts of Doncaster will have access to Children’s Centres and family support. We are meeting our targets on Extended Schools where currently 29 meet the ‘core offer’ of services, with 33 others now part of the programme. We’ve been part of the national pilot of the National Remodelling Team which has been developed to support the local authorities and schools in developing extended services. The remodelling of the workforce has placed us in the forefront of developments nationally.

I understand that you’ve got a new initiative ‘Get that Grade’?
The Local Authority is trying to raise the awareness of students and parents of how important exams are and ‘Get that Grade’ teamed up with the Youth Council to front a campaign to help young people achieve their full potential. As well as publicising the essential requirements for exam success, such as using a well-structured revision timetable, local education consultants have issued advice to parents on how best to help their child during this very stressful time. Our town is 'on the up' and young people need the relevant skills and qualifications to be able to benefit. Mark Eales, Specialist Director of Education Standards wrote personally to every Year 11 pupil wishing them the best of luck in their examinations. We are already expanding what we are doing this year.

How are all these new initiatives impacting on pupils achievements?
It’s working well in that we’ve significantly improved the educational outcomes last year and this year, our GCSE are at their best yet. Importantly people are enthusiastic about raising achievement and want to do better.

What new developments are on the horizon?
We’re enthusiastically taking up our leadership role of 14-19 developments as part of Doncaster Education City, and have already involved schools in the first of the five areas of the fourteen new diploma areas for Vocational Education, which have to be introduced by 2010. That will lead to an individual personalised curriculum, for each young person, to enable them to achieve the qualifications most suitable for them. Doncaster already has an Aviation Academy which is a good example of how people have co-operated to produce vocational skills teaching to meet the needs of employers. We’ve progressed our two PFI projects and are close to commencing these projects to replace Edlington & Mexborough Schools. Rossington All Saints Secondary School has been successful in obtaining the targeted capital to rebuild the school, so things are really beginning to move. The Mayor has enthusiastically supported our bid to be part of the government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ which will enable us to have the new school campuses to deliver our educational vision. If successful, it will be worth over £150m for the Borough.

What responsibilities do the Local Authorities have for providing Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) for young people?
The Education and Inspections Bill is set to enhance responsibilities of the Local Authority for Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) for young people and for recreational and training activities. Already Connexions is to become a Borough level responsibility by April 2007 - Doncaster “Connexions” will be very similar to what exists now but with leadership and management at local level. We will be able to carry out new responsibilities for IAG efficiently and effectively.

It must be an enormous challenge for the Council to implement all the new changes.
It is, but the important thing is that standards are rising in Doncaster. We’re under no illusion about the scale of the ongoing tasks but we’re very keen as a Council to continue working closely with our schools and our key partners on raising standards further. We’re very conscious that at the end of the day, ‘School Improvement’ is about increasing the life chances of individual children and young people.

By Helen Chant