16.07.15
Councils call for ‘collective accountability’ on educational success
Council leaders have stated that student performance shouldn’t be judged on “short-term measures” such as exam league tables and Ofsted inspections, but instead on where people are finding employment or further learning opportunities once they have left school.
In last week's Budget, the government announced plans for a Youth Obligation to ensure all 18 to 21-year-olds are ‘earning or learning’.
To help achieve this, the Local Government Association is calling on government, schools and colleges to work with them to ensure every young person is well equipped to find employment or continue in learning when they leave post-16 education.
Cllr David Simmonds CBE, chair of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said: “Measures such as league tables and snapshot inspections are increasingly unfit for the modern age. They risk focusing schools and colleges on short-term 'tick-boxes' rather than how the education they deliver helps their students to make the most of the opportunities life offers.
He added that local authorities are “right behind” government's ambitions for improving this data, but services must reform to make the most of it.
“Rather than continuing the messy and fragmented accountabilities, government must enable councils to hold schools, colleges, and jobcentres collectively accountable for helping local young people to earn or learn,” said Cllr Simmonds.