The recent report on Herefordshire Children’s Services by Commissioner Eleanor Brazil read in the context of the latest OFSTED monitoring report sadly indicates that all is not well. The Commissioner writes that the Council is still struggling to address long standing problems following the Ofsted grading of inadequate. She reports some progress but too little to make the degree of change needed. The Council consistently fails to address issues at pace with clear direction and leadership so everything takes so long. Support from government and other local authorities as well as extra funding has brought varying impact and success. Yet amidst such damning words the Cabinet member turns on the spin generator to say that the Council is pleased that reports show positive signs of improvement – that surely tells our readers all they need to know.
Some of our readers might ask what is this to do with the Robert Owen Society whilst others may say that this car crash has surely gone on for long enough. Well let’s take the first part of that head on. In 1992 an inspired group of Herefordshire high school headteachers working with the inspirational Principal of the then Herefordshire College of Agriculture looked over the hill into the future and saw a number of significant challenges approaching. These challenges , in their far sighted view, would be compounded by the extreme rural nature of their environment. They shared their concerns with the then Hereford and Worcester local authority who, in general, agreed and drew in the Hereford and Worcester Training and Enterprise Council to help analyse the challenges and forward plan. Coopers and Lybrand consultancy was bought in and the rest is history as they say.
The Coopers and Lybrand final report was radical, far sighted and regarded by many as revolutionary. It saw that the local authority going forward had to be an equal partner with the schools rather than a top down hierarchical controller. The notion of creating the Herefordshire schools and colleges as a self managing cooperative which would be a legal entity able to attract its own funding, plot its own course, managed by its share holding members but sitting with the local authority as a family of schools was born . In 1993 the Marches Consortium was launched which a decade later metamorphosed into the Robert Owen Society. The business model was taken from the Coopers and Lybrand report and honed by the pioneer high school headteachers and college principal with extensive support from the then local authority – Hereford and Worcester County Council. A board of directors comprising the founding schools and colleges was assembled with regular meetings , share holders invited, with an Annual General Meeting to receive and agree the accounts together with the business plan for the year ahead. The Marches Consortium formed as an Industrial and Provident Society was required to produce a rule book and agree it with Companies House and seek exempt charitable status from HMRC.
Over time the shareholding base expanded to include primary schools, universities , local authorities, community groups, trade unions and businesses, with all members only allowed to hold a £1 share which afforded one vote at all meetings of the Society. So the little primary school up in the hills and the large urban Russell Group university had equal voting rights and thus equal control of affairs. It worked and the model generated enthusiasm, excitement, funding and projects for schools and colleges and most importantly a sense of ownership. At it’s height the Marches Consortium generated £7.5m per annum for the member schools and colleges. The range of projects run over a 25+ year period was , by today’s standards, mind blowing. The Herefordshire based cooperative Marches Consortium was seen as a model for the future and the great and the good came to this rural back water from all over the UK and beyond to dip a metaphorical toe in the revolution. In turn the nation’s movers and shakers summoned our people to Parliament, to national conferences etc to share the quiet Herefordshire revolution.
So what went wrong and what is the relevance to today and the poor state of Herefordshire Children’s Services? In one word power. New headteachers and college principals were appointed who wanted to rule their own worlds and not work cooperatively because working together was seen as loss of autonomy. So institutions did their own deals egged on by leaders who believed they were, in the spirit of the times, chief executives of businesses. Academisation of course hastened this process and the movement towards multi academy trusts just created more disparate groupings divorced in part from statutory responsibilities. At the same time the Herefordshire Local Authority officers fell into a dual trap of circling the wagons in fear of losing their jobs in a diminishing role whilst losing sight that children’s services needs to be a holistic provision which must involve schools, local authority departments, parents and carers, the third sector and other statutory bodies.
We in the Robert Owen Society ran head first into this destructive power game when we set up the Robert Owen Academy in 2012 as a vocational school cooperatively owned by the Herefordshire family of schools, colleges and the local authority. Some key local authority officers failed to understand the radical nature of the project and destructively briefed key elected members and actively supported those headteachers with limited insight to campaign for its closure. There was also an alleged link with Ofsted which sealed the fate of a radical model which had the very real potential to save our failing children’s services . We in the Society learned some very painful and bitter lessons at that time.
So where do we go now and what advice would we offer the failing Herefordshire Children’s Services? Well, accept that your current model is bust and is letting down generations of our children. Think how you may reset the service as a cooperative owned by the schools, colleges, families, the local authority, the third sector and a couple of partner universities, at the very least. When you have a model make sure that the management structure is flat, responsive and fit for purpose. Share the new organisational structure and management model with the community and listen to feed back and make changes where necessary. Rest assured that we in the Robert Owen Society are on hand to work with you .
What if we ignore the repeated warning signs that we are failing our children? What if we continue to hide behind the spin doctor’s mantra of ,”signs of improvement”. Well the reality is that our children are being failed and you cannot put a number on that . Success is only achieved when year on year every child has the support and service delivery appropriate to their needs. This clearly is not being achieved nor does it seem likely to be achieved in the immediate future. Thus the only conclusion can be to instigate urgent reform or risk losing control of Children’s Services. This is not some hideous power game, this is about caring properly for our children. Be radical and bright and innovative staff will want to come and work here.
The Robert Owen Society
Interested in becoming a member of the Robert Owen society? Then please sign up for our newsletter and details of membership.
