Devon ‘not doing best’ for school children amid another senior reshuffle

Devon has been criticised for failing to have a comprehensive plan to tackle underachievement in the county’s schools as the senior leadership team overseeing education undergoes another reshuffle

Newly released data shows that key stage 2 (KS2) pupils in Devon – the second stage of primary school taught between ages seven and 11 – are not performing as well as the national or regional averages.
While Devon’s KS2 pupils performed better in reading than peers across the country, their performance in maths and writing was lower.
Crucially, there is a larger attainment gap in Devon than nationally between disadvantaged children, such as those with additional needs or in care, and their peers who don’t face such challenges.
This attainment gap is 26 per cent for KS2 pupils compared to 22 per cent nationally.
The data was presented to the Devon Education Forum (Wednesday 20 November), prompting criticism from some members due to a perceived lack of strategy to try and fix the problem, and pointing to fears that progress will be hampered due to the departure of various members of Devon’s education team.
“We talk about being up for the challenge and working together, but unfortunately this is the third year in a row where it’s so-called ‘early days’ and we have a new person overseeing the department,” said Paul Walker, the chief executive at First Federation Trust, which oversees 29 primary schools.
“The previous head of education communicated that a strategy had been written to address the challenges, so has that strategy gone with them, or if not, what is the strategy because as schools we have massive underperformance in a number of areas but no strategy as a collective to do something.”
He added: “These children get one chance at education, and we collectively are not doing our best.”
Mr Walker’s comments came as senior staff who oversee Devon’s education department have left their post with others taking on their roles.
The forum heard that Stuart Collins, the director of children and young people’s futures, is due to leave this month having only joined Devon County Council in May last year.
Mr Collins’ hire was hailed by the council given he had taken Kent’s children’s services from ‘requires improvement’ in 2015, through to ‘good’ in 2017 and then ‘outstanding’ in 2022. He is now moving to Croydon Council to become a director in that authority’s children’s services department.
Devon’s was rated as inadequate in 2020.
Julian Wooster, who was the interim prior to Mr Collins joining, will take on the latter’s role.
Besides Mr Wooster, Keri Denton, the current director of performance and partnerships, will be taking on the lead in overseeing education and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as well as work around the council’s education bailout from government through the Safety Valve scheme.
Furthermore, Kellie Knott, who has been leading SEND transformation on secondment from the Department for Education since July 2023 is now permanent SEND strategic director and Phill Adams has moved from the council’s economy directorate to become SEND improvement assistant director.
Jack Newton has joined the team on an interim basis to lead the council’s inclusion and learning service as Ceri Morgan finished his role as interim deputy director of education and learning earlier this month.
One member of the Devon Education Forum criticised the new leadership team for failing to attend the meeting.
“None of them are here and we have all given up half a day, and some of us are volunteers,” he said.
“We have turned up and none of the four leadership team has. I accept there are difficulties, and I have spoken to one of the team, Jack Newton, who I know wanted to be here, but the fact none of them are says so much about Devon.”
Coincidentally, Ofsted has recently visited the council to conduct an inspection, although the outcome has not been made public yet.
However, a Devon County Council spokesmen said the reshuffle and the watchdog’s visit were unconnected.
“These changes within children’s services are designed to help us deliver our priorities and to continue our journey of improvement,” he said.
“They are not linked to the recent Ofsted inspection, and we are waiting to see Ofsted’s draft report prior to it being published.”
He added that Mr Collins’ new job would “enable Stuart to be based much closer to his home”.