14 November 2017 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Matt Dunkley, the new Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Education, takes up his new role in Kent on 27 November. Matt is a former Director of Children’s Services in East Sussex and is currently interim Director in Norfolk. He is a past President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. I am sure you will give him a warm welcome as the person who will now take forward children’s services and education in Kent, building on the positive outcomes achieved in recent years.

I will step away from my current role as Corporate Director in December after a short period of handover. I have been in Kent for just over six years and I would like to thank all our colleagues in schools for the positive partnership in the county and the willingness to collaborate to improve the lives of children and young people. I am also grateful to all my very able colleagues in KCC who do a great job to achieve continuous improvement in our services and for being forever mindful that we are here to support schools and early years settings and to make a difference for children.

Education Services Company; The Education People

At the the EduKent Expo on 8 November we launched our new education services company, The Education People. It was a well attended event and included speakers David Laws, former Schools Minister and Chair of the Education Policy Institute and Roger Black, Olympic medallist. David Laws gave a good overview of the current education landscape in this country and spoke powerfully about what needs to be done to improve outcomes for vulnerable learners supported by the Pupil Premium.

I would like to thank everyone who attended the EduKent Expo and hope you all had an enjoyable and informative day. It was the best attended Expo since it started in 2012 and there was a very positive feeling around the venue.

Some of the initial feedback has been very positive especially in respect of schools being able to source the services and solutions they need. This highlights the importance of creating an event like the Expo that is open to all schools to come along to see not only our own services but also hear about the latest working practices and resources, including the latest technologies, all in one place.

We are making good progress in setting up the new Company. Our aim has been to establish a new way of providing some of our services to ensure their long term sustainability and to allow them the freedom to become ever more responsive to the needs of the schools and early years settings that they serve. We see this as an essential part of Kent’s overall strategy for supporting schools and other educational partners. The company will be wholly owned by KCC but will be able to invest its operating surplus into the services and support on which schools depend.

The company will be the new home of the following services that currently sit within the Children, Young People and Education Directorate:

• Early Years
• Educational Psychology
• Education Safeguarding
• Governor Support
• Outdoor Education
• School Improvement
• Schools Financial Services
• Skills and Employability

The company is being set up in such a way that we could choose to move other services into it at a later date if it makes sense to do so. Over 500 staff will move across to the company in April next year. The services currently deliver activity worth over £20 million and KCC is making a serious investment in the company, in order to support education services going forward, with support for set up and running costs for the first three years totalling £6 million.

The company - called The Education People - will be taking over the functions currently performed by EduKent with effect from its ‘go live’ date of April 2018. The Education People will be a direct provider of the services above, bringing its own new products and support packages to the education marketplace in Kent and providing services beyond Kent also.

We are very excited by this development which has the full support of the Kent Association of Headteachers. We see it as key to the continued success of our work in partnership with schools and we want schools to view The Education People as a resource that they can turn to and rely on to provide high quality advice and support services which deliver good value for money. The company will be working closely with schools, further developing the good relationships that exist now.

The company will be strongly influenced by and driven by the views of Headteachers and governors. Headteachers are on the company board as non executive Directors and it will be overseen by a new Partnership Stakeholder Group, which also has representation from KAH, Governors, employers, FE colleges and the Early Years sector.

The company website will be available shortly but in the meantime if you wish to know more about The Education People, please contact us at hello@theeducationpeople.org.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director
Children, Young People and Education