First Meeting of the Strategic Education Partnership Board
The Strategic Education Partnership Board held its inaugural meeting on 8 March 2018, at which its members were welcomed by the chair, Gill Steward, Chief Executive of the London Borough of Bexley. Gill Steward stated that this partnership was very important to the local authority and she welcomed the opportunity to work with external colleagues for the benefit of all Bexley children.
Members received a draft Terms of Reference, heard reports from the five sub-groups which have been tasked with addressing priorities in the areas of: Education Performance and Achievement; School Places and Planning; Special Educational Needs and Disabilities; Inclusion; Workforce Development, Succession Planning and Governance.
Key themes from all of the sub-groups were that there was a need for all head teachers to come together at the Head Teachers’ Forum; that a Memorandum of Understanding should be produced to show explicitly how all parties will work together; that co-chairs should take the lead in their sub-groups, supported by lead officers from the local authority; that Bexley would provide funding to develop a website to communicate the work of the partnership; and that the partnership would always be transparent in the way it asked for, and used, data and information requested from schools.
