The report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of
Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2013/14
West Midlands regional report
2
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
Evesham
Stratford
upon Avon
Great
Malvern
Hereford
Warwick
Oswestry
Uttoxeter
Worcester
Shrewsbury
Telford
Stafford
Kidderminster
Rugby
Burton upon
Trent
Tamworth
Solihull
Coventry
Sandwell
Dudley
Telford
and Wrekin
Birmingham
Worcestershire
Warwickshire
Shropshire
Staffordshire
Herefordshire
Walsall
Wolverhampton
Stoke-on-Trent
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
3
www.ofsted.gov.uk
West Midlands regional report
Summary
The proportion of good or outstanding primary schools in the West Midlands
continued to increase in the 2013/14 academic year. As in previous years,
improvement in some local authority areas has been substantial. Almost eight
out of 10 children in the West Midlands attend a primary school that is good
or outstanding. Despite this improvement, almost 100,000 primary aged
children attend schools that are less than good.
The West Midlands performs broadly in line with England as a whole at
secondary level, with 70% of schools judged good or outstanding compared
with 71% of schools nationally. However, performance in secondary schools
is inconsistent across the region. This indicates that the chance of a child
attending a good school often depends on the local authority area in which
they live.
More than three quarters of children live in a local authority area where
safeguarding arrangements are less than good and more than a third of
children live in a local authority area where safeguarding arangements are
inadequate. More work to improve the performance of local authorities
is crucial to ensure that all children in the West Midlands are safeguarded
effectively and receive the care they deserve.
One in four children’s homes in the West Midlands are not yet good.
This weak provision is leaving too many children unprotected and unable
to achieve well. Urgent and targeted action must continue and increase in
this area to secure better services for children.
There has been a marked improvement in the performance of further
education colleges in the West Midlands, with 74% of colleges now good or
outstanding. Despite this improving picture, 12 colleges are still not good
enough. There is therefore no room for complacency.
4
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
The potential for the radicalisation of pupils and the narrowing of the
curriculum remain key areas of concern, particularly for Birmingham schools.
The ineffective governance and leadership that have been observed in a
number of schools may lead to the disassociation of pupils from the wider
community. Any such disassociation must be challenged and reformed
through our work.
This report advocates Ofsted’s continued work in the West Midlands by:
extending support and challenge for schools, headteachers and governors
developing further support and challenge work with local authorities
extending the work in further education and skills to include more robust
challenge to governing bodies, to rectify key issues in teaching, learning
and assessment
seeking greater engagement from local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in
supporting providers to model their provision so that it meets local needs
more precisely
in social care, supporting and challenging the leadership capacity of
the sector.
5
www.ofsted.gov.uk
West Midlands regional report
1.
Local authority interactive tool
, Department for Education; www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait. All attainment and
progress data is provisional data for 2014 unless otherwise specified.
State of the region
1. The proportion of primary school children now in
good or outstanding schools has improved since
2012/13 in a number of local authorities. These
improvements have been particularly marked in
Herefordshire, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Coventry
and Walsall, although Walsall and Wolverhampton
remain low in the overall rankings of local
authorities (see Table 1). However, children in
the West Midlands still have a lower chance of
attending a good or outstanding primary school
than in most other parts of England. Almost
100,000 primary-aged children do not yet attend a
good or outstanding school.
2. The proportion of good or outstanding secondary
schools is lower than the proportion for primary
schools, although it is in line with secondary schools
nationally. Only five of the local authorities have
shown improvement in this phase. In Worcestershire,
Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Stoke-
on-Trent, over 110,000 students now attend good
or outstanding schools – 6,000 more than last year.
In the case of Stoke-on-Trent, this improvement has
been from a very low base and the ranking of this
local authority remains low. In Sandwell and Dudley,
the ranking of secondary schools is very much lower
than that of primary schools. The quality of the
school or academy a pupil attends is still in many
cases a matter of chance.
3. Across the range of attainment measures shown
in Figure 2, the West Midlands is slightly below
national levels.
1
Just over three quarters of children
in the West Midlands achieved the expected level
of attainment in reading, writing and mathematics
at the end of Key Stage 2. Just over half (54.2%)
of pupils achieve at least five good GCSEs including
English and mathematics. However, there is too
much variation between local authorities when
considering the range of measures. Solihull performs
particularly well compared with its neighbours. Pupils
in Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-
Trent perform much less well than their peers in other
local authorities in the region and nationally.
4. In 2012/13, half of the 14 local authorities in the
West Midlands were in the bottom 25% of all local
authority areas nationally for the proportion of
pupils achieving expected levels in reading writing
and mathematics at Key Stage 2. However, in
2013/14 things look more promising. Only two
local authorities in the West Midlands, Birmingham
and Walsall, remain in this bottom 25%.
Table 1: Percentage of primary and secondary pupils attending good or outstanding schools by
local authority in the West Midlands
* Rank refers to the 2014 placing in relation to all 150 local authorities in England (excluding Isles of Scilly and City of London, which each contain only one school).
Primary schools Secondary schools
Rank* Local authority (education)
2014
%
Change
from 2013
(%points)
Rank* Local authority (education)
2014
%
Change
from 2013
(%points)
24= Worcestershire 89
6 26= Telford and Wrekin 89 0
60= Solihull 84
1 46= Worcestershire 83 2
60= Dudley 84
12 46= Herefordshire 83 -6
68= Herefordshire 83
11 59= Solihull 80 0
74= Sandwell 82
0 59= Warwickshire 80 10
79= Shropshire 81
7 77= Shropshire 75 1
79= Telford and Wrekin 81
7 88= Birmingham 73 -5
91= Birmingham 80
1 92= Staffordshire 72 4
103= Warwickshire 78
5 109= Wolverhampton 67 -4
107= Staffordshire 77
6 111= Coventry 66 -22
119= Coventry 74
10 123= Walsall 57 -20
141= Walsall 68
8 127= Dudley 55 0
141= Stoke-on-Trent 68
-3 132= Sandwell 53 -21
141= Wolverhampton 68
11 134= Stoke-on-Trent 52 18
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West Midlands regional report 2013/14
Schools
5. Since 2012/13, there has been a small increase in
the proportion of primary schools where overall
effectiveness has improved and is now good or
outstanding. In contrast, the proportion of good
or outstanding secondary schools has declined
slightly, although it is still in line with the national
figure. This means that over 28,000 more primary
aged children attend a good or outstanding school
than last year. The focus on schools that require
improvement has seen 63% of schools that were
judged to require improvement last year judged
‘good’ when re-inspected this year. Senior school
leaders, governors and local authority officers have
welcomed improvement seminars and a range of
specific workshops led by Her Majesty’s Inspectors
(HMI). Ofsted’s West Midlands regional plan for
2014/15 targets local authorities where the number
of good or outstanding secondary schools is
too low.
6. The inspection of Walsall’s local authority school
improvement services highlighted a number of
concerns. The local authority does not know its
schools well enough and it does not act quickly
enough to challenge weak leadership and effect
improvement.
7. Senior HMI in the region meet regularly with
local authority officers, providing challenge
based on analysis of performance data and local
knowledge. The focused inspections of schools in
Wolverhampton and Staffordshire identified key
weaknesses in the capacity of these authorities to
monitor school performance effectively and identify
and support their failing schools. As part of the
first focused inspections of a multi-academy trust,
Ofsted inspected six E-ACT academies in the West
Midlands. These inspections highlighted the urgent
need for E-ACT to improve the quality of teaching
in its schools.
8. The number of academies in the West Midlands
has grown rapidly in recent years (see Table 2). By
August 2014, just over one in five of all schools in
the region were academies (21% of schools). This is
broadly in line with the proportion of academies
nationally, which stands at 20% of all schools.
At a local level, the extent of academisation varies
considerably across local authority areas, from just
9% of all schools in Dudley to 39% of schools in
Stoke-on-Trent.
Table 2: Number of primary and secondary schools that are academies in the West Midlands
Year 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Number of primary academies 0 18
61
170 245
Number of secondary academies 23 102 165 214 243
7
www.ofsted.gov.uk
Explore inspection data directly at dataview.ofsted.gov.uk. Data View is a digital tool that allows Ofsted inspection data to be viewed in a simple and visual
way. You can compare and contrast performance in inspections between regions, local authorities and parliamentary constituencies across all remits that Ofsted
inspects.
Figure 1: Inspection outcomes by proportion of pupils, children or
learners at 31 August 2014
Overall effectiveness of primary schools in the
West Midlands, latest inspection outcome at
31 August 2014 (% of pupils).
Overall effectiveness of colleges in the
West Midlands, latest inspection outcome
at 31 August 2014 (% of learners).
Overall effectiveness of secondary schools in
the West Midlands, latest inspection outcome
at 31 August 2014 (% of pupils).
Effectiveness of local authority safeguarding
arrangements, last inspection outcome at
31 August 2014 (%).
Primary schools
Colleges
Secondary schools
Safeguarding
West Midlands regional report
Inadequate
Requires Improvement
Good
Outstanding
Primary Schools
4%
18%
64%
14%
Inadequate
Requires Improvement
Good
Outstanding
Colleges
0%
16 %
75%
8%
Inadequate
Requires Improvement
Good
Outstanding
Secondary Schools
7%
21%
48%
24%
Inadequate
Requires Improvement
Good
Outstanding
Safeguarding
34%
43%
23%
0%
Inadequate
Requires improvement
Good
Outstanding
Primary Schools
1%
15%
64%
20%
8
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
Figure 2: Pupil attainment at ages five, seven, 11 and 16
Data for 2014 is provisional
Benchmark levels: Early Years Foundation Stage – achieving a good level of development (%)
Key Stage 1 – achieving at least Level 2 in reading (%)
Key Stage 2 – achieving at least Level 4 in reading, writing and mathematics (%)
Key Stage 4 – achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent, including English and mathematics (%)
All attainment and progress data are provisional data for 2013/14 unless otherwise specified.
Source:
Local authority interactive tool,
Department for Education; www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.
Explore how children and young people performed in assessments and tests at different ages and in different
regions through our online regional performance tool; http://dataview.ofsted.gov.uk/regional-performance
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Key Stage 4Key Stage 2Key Stage 1 readingEarly Years Foundation Stage
Chart 3: Pupil attainment at ages 5, 7, 11, 16 and 19
EnglandWest Midlands
2012/13 England
2012/13 West Midlands
58
60
89
90
76
78
54.2
56.1
2.
Advice note provided on academies and maintained schools in Birmingham to the Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, as commissioned
by letter dated 27 March 2014,
Ofsted, June 2014; www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-provided-academies-and-maintained-schools-birmingham-
secretary-of-state-for-education-rt.
9. HMI carried out inspections of 21 schools in
Birmingham between March and May 2014. Fifteen
of these schools were inspected at the request of
the Secretary of State. Six were inspected because
of Ofsted’s concerns about the effectiveness of
safeguarding and leadership and management in
these schools. Following the inspections, Ofsted
published an advice note to the Secretary of State.
2
The evidence shows that:
‘…governors have recently exerted inappropriate
influence on policy and the day-to-day running
of several schools in Birmingham. In other schools,
leaders have struggled to resist attempts by
governing bodies to use their powers to change
the school in line with governors’ personal views.
Birmingham City Council has failed to support a
number of schools in their efforts to keep pupils
safe from the potential risks of radicalisation
and extremism. It has not dealt adequately with
complaints from headteachers about the conduct
of governors. Her Majesty’s Inspectors identified
breaches of funding agreements in a number of
academies. In several of the schools inspected,
children are being badly prepared for life in modern
Britain.’
West Midlands regional report
9
www.ofsted.gov.uk
10. The inspections have created a high-profile agenda for change and
have resulted in Ofsted reviewing the way it inspects the curriculum.
The issues identified in Birmingham remain a significant concern. These
inspections have called into question the nature and extent of the
accountabilities associated with the high levels of autonomy currently
enjoyed by academies. They also raise concerns about the effectiveness
of the local authority to hold schools and governing bodies to account.
11. HMI lead training on evaluating school performance and work alongside
senior school leaders and governors as they take a critical view of their
own schools. Much of this work has taken place in south Birmingham
and Herefordshire, which has increased management capacity in schools
and in the respective local authorities.
12. Given its precarious position in both the regional and national tables,
Stoke-on-Trent has been a major focus of HMI attention over the
past 12 months. HMI wanted to know why educational outcomes in
Stoke-on-Trent have been so poor for so long. Consequently, they
undertook a series of forensic inspection activities designed to get to the
bottom of what is going wrong in schools in this authority. They applied
a fourfold approach to promote improvement. This included a focus on:
the teaching of reading in primary schools
reading and literacy in secondary schools
mathematics in secondary schools
developing subject-specific and leadership capacity within schools
and across the local authority.
The findings have been shared with schools and the local authority to
aid improvement.
Initial teacher education
13. All initial teacher education (ITE) provision in the West Midlands is
good or outstanding.
3
The region is well served, with substantial higher
education providers of ITE. New school-centred initial teacher training
(SCITT) partnerships are proliferating in the centre and north
of the region.
3. The requires improvement provider listed in statistics about the inspection outcomes of ITE providers at 31 August 2014 has since closed.
10
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
Further education and skills
14. In Ofsted’s 2012/13 West Midlands regional report, the poor
performance of further education colleges was a key headline. Only
51% of colleges in the region were good or outstanding and the region
had the highest proportion of inadequate colleges in the country. The
approach of HMI to tackling poor performance started with supporting
and challenging colleges to improve through a programme of individual
improvement visits and an extensive seminar programme for college
managers and governors. This seminar programme was based on
common areas for improvement identified through rigorous analysis
of inspection reports and performance data. In addition, extensive
networking with the sector through stakeholder groups such as the
Association of Colleges has helped to communicate and share the key
messages and commitment to improve. This work has contributed to
notable improvements in inspection grades, as confirmed by feedback
from providers. At the end of 2013/14, 74% of colleges are good or
outstanding, and none of the colleges are inadequate.
15. In independent learning and community learning and skills providers,
performance has remained strong. Most providers (82%) were judged
good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. Of the 19 providers
inspected in 2013/14, 12 were judged good for overall effectiveness.
Six of these providers improved to good; five of these benefited from
direct support and challenge work with HMI.
16. In spite of the notable improvement in college inspection grades,
12 colleges were judged as requires improvement for overall
effectiveness at their most recent inspection. Inspection reports and
letters from support and challenge work with providers that require
improvement give a number of key messages. Where providers have
not improved quickly enough, several factors have contributed to this.
In a few cases, providers have taken well-conceived action to improve.
Unfortunately, this has not had a consistent impact across the range of
their work but rather has resulted in insufficient progress in improving
teaching, learning and assessment or outcomes for learners. In these
cases, quality assurance monitoring is not consistently rigorous in
rooting out the causes of continuing weaker performance and resulting
actions are not as sharply focused as they need to be. In other providers
where progress has been slow, boards of governors or trustees do
not always have the information they need to be able to hold senior
leaders to account for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment
or the performance of learners; they do not know what the gaps in
their information and data are. In other cases, governors do not have
the appropriate skills and expertise to enable them to fulfil their roles
appropriately and governing bodies have not evolved to match the
changing needs of the provider.
West Midlands regional report
11
www.ofsted.gov.uk
17. In smaller providers, inspectors raise questions about the capacity of the
provider to improve. Leaders and managers struggle to find the time to
step back from day-to-day problem-solving to seek out and act on the
issues that are holding them back from improving the provision.
18. In teaching, learning and assessment, the main area for improvement
continues to be teachers not planning well enough to challenge all
learners to improve based on their prior skills and learning. Teachers do
not make enough use of targeted assessment in learning activities to
be able to measure individuals’ learning and progress with sufficient
precision. In work-based learning, challenges for providers persist
around the coordination of on- and off-the-job learning, resulting too
often in learners making slow progress.
19. The influence of LEPs is growing. However, further education is still
under-represented on LEP boards in the West Midlands. Providers
that have re-modelled their offer based on local employment needs
are getting little practical support from LEPs. This is because LEPs’
strategic priorities are broad and do not focus sufficiently on learners
who need provision below advanced level as a first step. They have little
focus on learners who are not in employment, education or training
or who have left school with fewer than five GCSEs at grades A* to C
including English and mathematics. They have been slow to reinforce
the messages from the introduction of 16 to 19 study programmes.
These include improving the availability and quality of work experience
for learners and raising standards in learners’ English and mathematics
skills to enable a smoother transition into employment. These aspects of
study programmes are significant areas for development for the further
education sector overall.
Social care
20. More than three quarters of children in the West Midlands live in a local
authority area where safeguarding arrangements are less than good
and one in every three where they are inadequate. This performance
is unacceptable and a significant number of children and young
people are not receiving the good services they require to be well
protected and cared for. Most local authorities require improvement.
In recent inspections, Coventry and Birmingham were both judged
to be inadequate. Recent successes can be seen in improvements
in Staffordshire where provision is now good. In Herefordshire the
provision is no longer inadequate but still requires improvement.
12
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
4.
Report into allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from the ‘Trojan Horse’ letter,
July 2014; www.gov.uk/government/publications/birmingham-
schools-education-commissioners-report.
5. Independent review into corporate governance at Birmingham City Council, Department for Communities and Local Government, due to publish December 2014;
www.gov.uk/government/news/independent-review-into-corporate-governance-at-birmingham-city-council.
21. The West Midlands region has the second largest number of children’s
homes in the country, offering approximately 1,260 places, yet more
than one quarter of homes are not yet good. This means that there are
approximately 500 places available for children in provision that has
not yet met the required standard. Since February 2014, we have taken
action to close three children’s homes. Helping to improve services for
children and young people who need help, protection and care is our
highest priority and we are doing this through providing challenge and
support to local authority senior managers and their staff.
22. Educational outcomes for looked after children and care leavers at Key
Stages 1 and 2 are merely in line with national levels. At Key Stage 4
they are just above the national level.
23. Ofsted will be publishing its Social Care Annual Report in spring 2015.
This will set out the challenges for the sector and the priorities for
improvement. For this reason we have not looked at the social care
issues for the region in any detail in this report.
Regional priorities
Schools
24. Birmingham will remain a focus of our work in the region. Ofsted has
created an additional Senior HMI role in the region to enable a more
urgent and sustained focus on Birmingham schools. HMI will work
closely with the local authority to ensure that the single integrated
plan, developed following the recent Ofsted, Clarke and Kershaw
reports, delivers better outcomes and a safer learning environment for
Birmingham pupils.
4,5
25. The success of peer-to-peer review, where headteachers develop
their knowledge, skills and understanding of effective self-evaluation,
indicates that this strategy should be extended to all local authority
areas. This work has increased management capacity in schools and
in the respective local authorities, giving confidence that leaders and
managers have the skills and experience to improve the provision.
West Midlands regional report
13
www.ofsted.gov.uk
26. Ofsted has put plans in place to extend existing training and support
for schools. The programme of ‘Getting to good’ seminars, which has
proved so successful and has been welcomed by the sector, will provide
the foundation for more focused improvement workshops. This will
encompass specific themes or subjects identified through the scrutiny
of inspection reports, by the ongoing scrutiny of performance data, or
by local knowledge of schools’ needs. We will deliver training to support
school leaders at all levels to drill down into their data to gain a better
understanding of how to improve school performance. Specific work
with headteachers will enable senior leaders to gain a better grasp of
self-evaluation. We will continue to work alongside particular local
authorities in support and challenge.
Further education and skills
27. The strategies adopted to date in further education and skills have
proved very successful but have not eliminated provision that requires
improvement. Individual visits to providers that focus specifically on
the provider’s key development areas from their most recent inspection
have been collaborative and challenging. A regional seminar programme
began in earnest in September 2013, with themes common to providers
across the region. We will continue these throughout 2014/15 and
will develop seminars already delivered on aspects such as improving
the provision of English and mathematics and integrating the use
of information learning technologies into teaching, learning and
assessment.
28. For the remaining requires improvement provision to move to good,
providers need to ensure that self-assessment and quality assurance are
ruthless in rooting out the causes of continuing weakness. Providers
must ensure that resulting action plans are fit for purpose in setting
targets that allow them to make progress and establish the impact of
actions. Governors need to identify what they do not currently know,
ensuring that the information they receive enables them to take a
forensic overview of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment
and its impact on outcomes for learners. They need to ensure that they
hold senior management fully to account for the quality of provision.
29. In teaching, learning and assessment, teachers need be supported
to plan learning that ensures that all learners make progress in their
learning according to their potential. Initial and diagnostic assessment
and prior attainment information they receive on learners are often
excellent, but teachers too often fail to make sufficient use of these.
Weaknesses in the use of targeted assessment mean that teachers do
not always know very clearly what progress their learners are making.
In work-based learning, on- and off-the-job learning is still not
coordinated well enough in too many cases, so that learners do not
make the progress they are capable of.
14
West Midlands regional report 2013/14
30. All LEPs need to ensure that further education is represented on
their main board, so that they are not being held ‘at arm’s length’.
They need to concentrate more on provision below advanced level
for those learners who are not in education, employment or training
or who have left school with fewer than five GCSEs at grades A* to
C including English and mathematics. LEPs need to engage with the
further education sector to help it model provision more closely to local
employment needs and to work with employers to make available a
range of high-quality work experience and apprenticeship opportunities.
Social care
31. Helping to improve services for children and young people who need
help, protection and care is our highest priority. We are doing this
through providing challenge and support to local authority senior
managers and their staff. Currently, too many social worker posts
are vacant and too many poor quality managers move between local
authorities without being challenged or supported to improve their
professional practice. This has a significant impact on the quality of
the children’s services workforce in the region. Through inspection,
our improvement role and work with the West Midlands Association
of Children’s Services, we will continue to offer support and challenge
and broker information-sharing regarding good practice. We continue
to challenge the sector to raise standards through ensuring that
appropriate and targeted regulatory action is taken when providers fail
to meet the standards required for children and young people who are in
care provision.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects
to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners
of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and
Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based
learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other
secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,
safeguarding and child protection.
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