Scrutiny committee welcome sixth form reorganisation plans

The restructure of sixth forms in Powys has been welcomed by a scrutiny committee that looks at education.

At a meeting of the Learning and Skills committee on Wednesday, May 12, members were given a presentation on the changes.

These will see three management boards created to run Powys County Council’s post-16 education.

A Strategic Management Board (SMB) will decide where the money received from the Welsh Government goes.

Beneath this board will be two Operational Management Board’s (OMB) for both north and south Powys.

They will deal more with the nuts and bolts of running the educational side of things and will be made up of the schools in those areas.

The reorganisation is partly a response to the loss of hundreds of students and the corresponding money to colleges in England and other parts of Wales, during the last decade.

Chairman of the Post-16 workstream, Huw Foster Evans, told the members: “We are hoping to establish the boards in the remainder of the summer term.”

He hoped that by Christmas these boards could list the courses they can offer to students from September 2022.

“We would at least put the offer out to our young people, which is parallel to what’s being offered in Shrewsbury, Hereford and NPTC (Neath Port Talbot College) group,” said Mr Evans.

Committee chairman, Cllr Pete Roberts (Llandrindod North – Liberal Democrat) said:  “I realise we have to run our own services but we’re not working in isolation, there’s an opportunity to work much more closely with the colleges.

“This does not look at all on the vocational side, how do they fit in?”

Mr Evans explained: “This is a recommendation for Powys schools, it has been developed with that in mind.

Mr Evans said that there had been talks with the colleges as well as Powys Teaching Health Board, Coleg Cenedlaethol Cymru and Mudiad Meithrin.

Mr Evans said: “At the moment all these providers have been having their discussions with 11 or 12 schools.

“There is no intention here to say that Powys is going solve all these issues by itself.

“The partnerships are crucial but at the moment this proposal is to deal with the Powys situation.”

Cllr Roberts pointed out that it would be expected that all sixth forms resources come up to the same standard and he asked what plans were in place to make that happen?

Mr Evans said that as part of this proposal they were not asking for funding for a building programme, but a review of facilities would take place afterwards.

Mr Evans said: “We would be asking for a review of the sixth form provision in terms of school facilities, working, common and quiet rooms, and to look at the cost of bringing it up to the standard of the best.”

Schools’ transformation manager Marianne Evans said that it could be possible to bid for money from the Welsh Government’s 21st Century Schools fund, or other sources.

But she did not expect that any major works could happen before September 2022 and believed it could be a rolling programme for around five years.

Cllr Roberts said: “We have an opportunity here, as a direct result of Covid we’ve seen a lot more pupils stay Powys compared to recent years, this gives us hope we will be able to retain that boost in numbers.”

He believed the changes could see sixth form teaching reflect University education with more than one teacher taking pupils through subject.

Cllr Roberts added: “The changes with e-learning over the past 18 months makes it possible for us to lead the way to get the best teachers in a particular subject delivering on their speciality.”

“This is something that I will be giving a warm welcome to when I speak at cabinet in a few days’ time.”

The reorganisation, officially known as: “Strategy for transforming education in Powys – strategic aim two, to improve learner entitlement and experience for post-16 learners,” will be decided by the PCC cabinet on Tuesday, May 18.