Ambition for Mid-Wales education to become the best in Wales

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday, April 18 councillors were given an update on the work to establish the Mid-Wales education partnership which supports schools across both Powys and Ceredigion.

The partnership was set up in September 2021 and sees Powys and Ceredigion County Councils pool resources, as well as receive funding from the Welsh Government.

This year, based on the number of pupils in schools, the Welsh Government grant gave Powys £1,107,064 and Ceredigion £708,330, which goes into the partnership funding pot.

Some of the money will go directly to schools which will fund a partnership officer to come and help them in a specific area.

Welsh and bilingual education could be given a boost in Powys with help for schools in the county coming from Ceredigion based staff, who have more experience and expertise to share.

Education portfolio holder Councillor Pete Roberts: “I would like to commend our officers in pulling this together.

“When the changes happened with ERW we were in a position where we could have lost access to significant resources and our children could very easily have been left behind.”

“We could have faced a situation where both our authorities were a place that you didn’t come to teach if you wanted to develop because the opportunities weren’t there.”

He added that setting up the partnership which will work to help new teachers and those in leadership roles will allow those in the profession to see a “development path” without the need to move elsewhere.

Cllr Roberts added: “So that we end up jointly with Ceredigion getting the best education service in Wales and have a model that other organisations will be looking at.”

Council leader, Councillor James Gibson-Watt said: “It’s got us out of a hiatus and into a new and more settled pattern.”

Mid Wales Education Partnership strategic lead officer, Anwen Orrells stressed that “school improvement” services will remain within Powys and Ceredigion councils’ education departments and her partnership’s remit is:

support for curriculum reform, Middle, Senior and Headteacher leadership development, induction for newly qualified teachers, support for early career teachers, development for teaching assistants and reducing the impact of rural deprivation, ensure equity for all learners and improved well-being.

Councillors noted the work being done and agreed the scrutiny arrangements for the partnership up to 2026.

In 2013 the Welsh Government agreed a new model for helping schools improve and set up four regional consortia which included ERW.

ERW was the education consortium for created to deliver school improvement services across Mid and South West Wales.

ERW disintegrated in 2020/2021 as local authorities including Powys and Ceredigion pulled out of the consortium.