Lancashire Education Strategy 2022-2025

Foreword

County Councillor Jayne Rear
Cabinet Member for Education and Skills
Lancashire County Council

Lancashire is a large and wonderfully diverse county, with more than 177,000 pupils at 628 schools. Lancashire County Council is the fourth largest local authority in the country, with a plethora of opportunities and our fair share of challenges.

Lancashire County Council’s vision is to help make Lancashire the best place to live, work, visit and prosper, and our new Education Strategy sets out how we intend to make that happen for our children and young people.

We have high aspirations for all our children, whatever their starting point. Access to quality learning from childhood through to adulthood enables children to thrive and develop the life skills that will support them into a productive and happy adulthood.

The Education Strategy for 2022-2025 sets out our ambition for our children and young people and how we intend to fulfil our responsibilities in providing them with everything they need to go forward and do fantastic things with their lives.

We are making it our mission to improve access, quality and outcomes for all children and families in our county in the next three years. By working with our partners, we will do all that we can to drive educational excellence and get all schools to, at the very least, an Ofsted judgement of ‘good’.

We want to ensure sufficient childcare for all children who meet the criteria and school places for all children, as well as aligning services, schools and settings to address barriers to learning and recognise the individual needs of both children and communities to tailor the educational support we provide.

Mission Statement

‘In Lancashire, we have high aspirations for all our children and young people, whatever their starting point. Access to a quality learning pathway, from childhood through to adulthood, enabling them to thrive and develop the life skills that will support them into a productive and happy adulthood, is at the root of our council ambition to ensure that children of all abilities do well in our schools and colleges gaining important skills and expertise for life.’

Our Purpose

There are key elements that the Local Authority has to do regarding education, and these are set out within The Education Act.  In summary, the statutory duties can be summarised under three key headings:

Our improvement priorities

We will continue to focus on addressing the inequity of experience across the County by adopting a warranted variation locality approach. Using data intelligently, working with schools and settings, support will be targeted to ensure that there is a partnership approach to delivering 5 key priorities aligned to the 4 corporate priorities.

Five key priorities:

Priority 1

Improve take-up and outcomes in early years

Priority 2

Further reduce exclusions, both permanent and suspensions

Priority 3

Address rising numbers of Elective Home Education (EHE) where this is not in the best interests of the child

Priority 4

Improve outcomes for vulnerable groups including those eligible for Free School Meals, Children In Need, children with a Care Plan, and Children Looked After, as well as those with SEN support and those with an EHCP

Priority 5

Increase the number of children and young people in Education, Employment or Training (EET)

Our Corporate Priorities 2021 - 2025

Our Vision

Here at Lancashire County Council we are helping you to make Lancashire the best place to live, work, visit and prosper.

Our Values

Supportive, Innovative, Respectful, Collaborative.

Our Partnerships  

Through collaboration with partners and the sharing of ideas, assets, skills and knowledge, we will create a future for Lancashire that better meets all our needs.

Our Communities 

We value local communities and will help them to provide care and support to their families, friends, neighbours and colleagues.

Our Accountability

We will ensure good governance, strong performance management, prudent financial control and transparent decision making for  the taxpayer.

Delivering better services

• Provide services that are effective, efficient and appropriate to local circumstances.
• Improve services by changing the way we do things.
• Help people and families live healthier lifestyles and enjoy a better quality of life.

Protecting the environment

• Lead on environmental improvement schemes and renewable energy initiatives.
• Work with businesses and communities on flood prevention, decarbonisation projects and climate change resilience.
• Promote more recycling and better waste management.

Caring for the vulnerable

• Protect, safeguard, support and enable the most vulnerable residents  in our society.
• Challenge and reduce areas of inequality and provide opportunity for all.
• Ensure children of all abilities do well in our schools and colleges, gaining important skills and expertise for life.

Supporting economic growth

• Develop and build effective infrastructure and transport networks, to help people and businesses connect and grow.
• Secure inward investment, to boost and level up the county.
• Invest in skills and innovation, to secure economic growth and maximise Lancashire’s potential.

Seven pillars

There are seven pillars which make clear the interdependencies across parallel pieces of work that will help to drive a joined-up approach to education in Lancashire. These seven pillars underpin the Education Strategy and have their own aims and objectives to support the delivery of this strategy.

The seven pillars are:

• Multi-Agency Early Help
• Early Years
• SEND Improvement
• Alternative Provision
• School Effectiveness
• School Place Planning
• Preparation for Adulthood

What will success look like?

• Locality gaps and underperformance will be addressed through strengthening local area prioritisation and planning in relation to school improvement and outcomes.
• Governors are confident that Education Improvement and Governor Services are supported and have effective development opportunities to ensure strong and robust leadership and accountability across schools and settings.
• Improved family engagement in learning will be achieved through Team Around the School and Setting approach to support early years uptake and learning.
• Parents are confident that local mainstream schools are identifying and meeting their children’s needs through the early identification of SEND and ensuring timely access to relevant support and intervention.
• Commercial services to schools provide a coherent traded offer which reflects the changing needs of schools and reflect increased academisation.
• The prevalence of pupil from vulnerable groups suspended or excluded will be reduced.
• The number of pupils who are suspended or excluded will reduce through the review and development of inclusion hubs and specialist support/ Alternative Provision  outreach.
• Families new to Lancashire report that they are supported in making a positive start to their life here to gain a sense of belonging and the opportunity to settle.

How will the Education Strategy deliver improvement?

Working in collaboration, the services within the Council combined with the services and partners within the Team Around the School and Settings (TASS) locality groups will listen to the voice of children, young people and their families in order to deliver the aspirations articulated within this strategy and realise the shared ambition for all children and young people set out within the vision statement.

The Education Strategy sets out the aspirations for education in Lancashire but the context in which the strategy is delivered will shift year on year. For this reason, the Education Strategy will be supported by an annual delivery plan. The priorities within the annual delivery plan will be informed by data, local intelligence and the lived expreiences of children young people and their families. They will be agreed with sector representatives across early years, primary, secondary, post 16 and special schools at the Lancashire Education Partnership Group.

The Education Scrutiny Committee will receive a copy of the delivery plan at least annually to scrutinise and challenge performance against the targets agreed at the Lancashire Education Partnership Group.

The Education Strategy itself will be reviewed on a three yearly basis and so the term of this strategy is from 2022 to 2025.