This afternoon I attended the Leeds Children's Services Improvement Board...

Interestingly during the last week we have had a visit from the DfE to look at our 'Great Schools' and a session where 200 primary colleagues came together and wherever I go at the moment The messages are the same. As we all brace ourselves to face the changes that are coming we have a huge shared commitment to building world class provision, safeguarding, 'Think Family' and making things better for children and their families. Everyone I speak to understands the need for us to develop schools at the heart of comunities with a shared and common geography which enables all partners to work together more powerfully. We all understand that we must embed, develop and resource targeted support within the universal services and build the team around the child and the team around the family as part of the team around the school. I know that colleagues talk about where the universal services are and it is vitally important that we all understand that many partners do make a universal offer but schools are our only universal settings where our children and young peiople are required by law to be every day. We need to continue to develop our workforce, our leadership and our culture to support this new and exciting world. And importantly to build relationship and understanding and understanding across the partnership we need to develop a learning academy within children's services where across all our practice we share and showcase what brilliant looks like... in social care, in early years in youth, in the health service and the police as well as in our schools.
Chris