Education on the island.

A recent Estyn report on the quality of local authority education services for children and young people in Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn concluded:

Overall judgement: Unsatisfactory

The local authority’s education services for children and young people are unsatisfactory because:

• standards for children and young people are below what could be expected at all key stages;
• attendance rates in secondary schools are unacceptably low;
• the school improvement service is inadequate
• not enough progress has been made in planning for school places;
• operational leadership in the delivery of education has not driven improvements in areas of under performance and schools and officers have not been held to account; and
• business planning and risk-assessment processes have not been robust enough to identify and address the slow pace of progress in education services and schools.

Capacity to improve: Unsatisfactory

The local authority has unsatisfactory prospects for improvement because:

• there has been long-term under performance at service level;
• the pace of action to bring about improvement has been too slow in the past to assure inspectors that improvement can follow this inspection without external challenge;
• self-evaluation processes have been patchy and progress against recommendations made in previous inspections has been limited;
• school leaders have not been held to account; and
• service level lines of accountability are unclear.

There is only one thing you can say - it's another damning indictment of the piss poor leadership the Councillors of the island have given us. I for one think that since power was taken away from the under performing councillors things have actually started to improve at the council. It's less me me, and more about us.

Want more evidence as to the lack of leadership - Mike Barton in his report to review the future management strategy of property assets says:

An ongoing programme of revisions to condition surveys indicates a worsening situation with regard to building conditions and the maintenance required to retain premises in good order.. .. And...

No budget allocation is available to cover other categories of maintenance, for example painting and decorating.

Yes 'what the fuck' indeed, oh and don't forget that many of these so called Councillors are Governors as well, and that many of them are still prancing around as if this had nothing to do with them.

I think Councillor McGregor got it right, when he said this morning that this was another nail in the coffin of Ynys Môn Council.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the next logical step is a merger with Gwynedd County Council and possibly others, as we were in the good old days, when someone standing as councillor did so for the benefit of the community and not as it now seems to gain advantage for themselves and friends.