Key Facts
The City Council's Education Services manages its responsibilities with services organised around the key areas of:
Locally, education services are provided through:
-
126 early years’ establishments (includes nursery schools/classes, Family Learning Centres, mobile crèches);
-
54 Additional Support for Learning Schools/Units/Centres;
-
149 primary schools; and
-
30 Secondary Schools, including the Glasgow Gaelic School.
Education Services also funds work in partnership with the other providers from the voluntary and independent sectors, (e.g. partnership nurseries, specialist day provision and residential school provision) in order that a wider range of services and alternative curriculum options are available. Establishments have been organised into five Strategic Planning Areas (these are the same as Community Health & Care Partnership areas). Services are provided to approximately 74,000 children and young people, with services to parents and carers as appropriate. The council also funds some services from the voluntary and independent sectors, e.g. partnership nurseries, specialist day provision and residential school provision.
Other School Facilities
In addition to public sector provision, the City has a number of independent educational facilities such as Glasgow Academy, High School of Glasgow, Kelvinside Academy and Hutchesons’ Grammar School. The Council works in close collaboration with Jordanhill School, a local school directly funded by the Scottish Executive.
Residential Education Centre
The Council currently operates an outdoor centre at Blairvadach on the shores of Gareloch, Argyll approximately 45 minutes from Glasgow. The centre offers an ideal base for a variety of activities, including canoeing, sailing, hill-walking, orienteering, Nordic skiing, off-road and trail cycling and rock climbing.
Further Education
Close partnership exists between the Council and the Further Education/Higher Education Sector. There are 3 universities in the City (Glasgow, Strathclyde and Caledonian), 11 further education colleges and a number of special education facilities, such as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Piping Centre and the Glasgow School of Art.
The 3 universities account for almost 50,000 students. Further education colleges had around 100,000 students on a variety of full-time, part-time, sandwich and block release courses in 2007-08.
Careers Scotland
The Council works closely with Careers Scotland to provide guidance and advice on careers and job opportunities for people of all ages, especially young people about to leave school. The Council also co-operates with Careers Scotland to provide enhanced liaison and co-operation between business/industry and schools.
Glasgow’s Vocational Training Programme
The programme offers quality vocational training opportunities to young people throughout Glasgow’s secondary schools. In addition, vocational training programmes have been further developed and targeted to meet the needs of other groups identified by the Council to ensure that the young people in Glasgow of secondary school age have the opportunity to flourish into the world of work, further education or training.
Current & Future Projects
The Child and Family Services Plan
Education Services will continue to work in partnership with children, young people and their parents and carers as well as with key agencies including Social Work Services; NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; Culture and Sport Glasgow; Strathclyde Police; Glasgow Community and Safety Services; The Children’s Panel; the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and the voluntary sector. The Child and Family Services Plan aims to ensure that children and young people have the best start in life, enjoy their childhood and are supported to develop as responsible citizens, effective contributors, confident individuals and successful learners, in line with national policy as captured in “Getting it Right for Every Child”.
Along with our partners, our commitments include:
-
For children, young people and their families/carers to have equal access to services as they require them;
-
Information and expertise sharing across agencies for the benefit of the child and/or their family;
-
Minimising duplication of effort between agencies to provide the child/their family with seamless support;
-
Sharing responsibility in supporting children, young people and their families; and
-
Including Children and their families in the development of policies and services.
Full detail on how the key partner agencies will work together and improve outcomes will be presented in the Glasgow Child and Family Services Plan 2009-2012. The implementation of this next plan will include a workforce development strategy to ensure that all partners have a shared understanding of the desired outcomes and have staff equipped and trained to deliver on commitments. It is important to note the links between the work around the Plan i.e. working to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. These links are crucial to the social renewal of the city, in terms of improving the wellbeing and life chances of children and young people, assisting them to become ready for further education, training and employment and to make positive contributions as citizens of Glasgow.
Child and Family Services Review Group
Work is currently being led by the Chief Executive of the Council to review some elements of child and family services which are currently delivered by Council services and its arms length companies. The outcomes of this review will likely impact on the Education Services and the ways in which we support children, young people and families.
Education Estate Strategy
In addition to the ongoing progression of Phase 4 of the Pre 12 Strategy (the last phase in the programme to deliver 34 new build campuses for children of early years and primary school age by 2010) further development of education establishments will take place under the recently agreed Education Estate Strategy. This strategy was agreed by Committee in January 2009 and covers the 2009-2012 period. It has been developed with the aim of further improving the condition and quality of the education estate and reducing the number of children and young people accommodated in establishments which are in poor condition, and to do this by merging a number of establishments. It takes account of a number of key factors including the numbers of children registered in establishments and anticipated as enrolling in the coming years, the capacity of the establishments, the condition of establishments and maximising the use of resources to best meet the needs of children (The strategy involves 22 specific proposals relating to primary and early years establishments). The strategy implementation will release funding by improving occupancy rates in buildings and vacating those buildings in the poorest condition. This will permit the redirection of resources to enhance the learning and teaching environment in the remaining education estate, and make a direct contribution to the social renewal of the city.
Learning Centres
Following from the recommendations in July 2007 of the Education Commission, two learning centres have been established, one early years’/primary-age service and one secondary-age Learning Centre. The key role of Learning Centres is to support vulnerable children and young people so that they are able to continue learning in a mainstream school. The Centres have been created in the context of integrated working in each of the 5 strategic planning areas. A key challenge is how to extend the Learning Centre provision without additional financial resources. Work is continuing to develop this service through consideration of alternative use of accommodation as well as appropriate deployment of staff.
Early Childhood and Extended Services
The Early Childhood and Extended Services Strategy was approved by committee in September 2008. Implementation of the strategy will improve access to Childcare in the city, which will enable more parents to access training and employment, as well as supporting parents already in employment. A range of pilot programmes will be developed across the five strategic planning areas which will create a range of new flexible childcare places, develop new employability practices, raise awareness of the employability agenda, increase engagement with parents (i.e. work with them in designing solutions) and build on the strengths and further develop the capacity of the workers within Early Years’ establishments. This strategy clearly supports the Council commitment to social renewal, notably through focus on employability.
Every Child is Included
‘Every Child is Included’ is the revised policy for the implementation of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. The policy, based on a review of the Act, was undertaken by a key stakeholder group which included parent representatives. This is of particular importance when considered against the level of need referred to above (under financial pressures). The aims of the policy are to ensure that all children and young people are provided with the necessary support to help them work toward achieving their fullest potential; to promote collaborative working among all those supporting children and young people and to ensure that children and young people and their parents and carers are central to all that we do to help them. Critical to achieving these aims is integrated working across all services to children and families in the city.
Secondary Strategy
In February 2009, a draft Secondary Strategy was agreed by Committee and is currently out for consultation. The strategy builds on the good practice in the city, especially the lessons learned from the Schools of Ambition programme (seeks to raise the ambitions of secondary schools and pupils). The Strategy highlights that over the next three years, priorities applicable to the secondary sector have been identified for review and improvement, these being: A Teaching Profession for the 21st century, Quality in Every Classroom; the relationship between colleagues and Team working and Partnership working with other services and agencies.
The overall aim of the Strategy is to bring about improvements in the learning experience and outcomes for young people in Glasgow. The Strategy sets out an ambitious and challenging learning programme for Glasgow’s young people, encourages creativity and innovation in our schools and maximises partnership working with other learning providers in the city.
Useful Links