Background...
David Scott: PERSONAL STATEMENT
Following a successful career as a primary school teacher and headteacher, I
was appointed to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate, which since 1992 has been
the professional arm of OFSTED. I took early retirement from that position in
2000.
Before the formation of OFSTED my main role within HMI was as district inspector
for Sunderland, the largest metropolitan borough in the north-east. This involved
monitoring the quality of education across all sectors of education and reporting
my findings at regular intervals to the Director of Education. A further important
aspect was the promotion of effective liaison between the LEA and the relevant
government departments and the interpretation and application of national education
policies at a local level.
Most of my assignments within OFSTED have been within the context of the LEA
Division. For several years I had a significant management role within the
LEA Re-organisation Unit leading, deploying and co-ordinating the work of up
to 20 HMI. I had responsibility for the final decision on proposals ranging
from changes to the status and age ranges of schools and colleges to complex
re-organisations across whole LEAs. Quality control was paramount as all submissions
had to be written and edited to the highest standard, commensurate with the
audience of senior civil servants and ministers.
Inspection was my second major role, both in respect of devising and refining
the criteria for LEA reviews and the inspection process itself in conjunction
with the Audit Commission. I have either been a team member or reporting inspector
for over 20 reviews. Apart from the organisation skills required, the main
ability needed is that of reaching a secure and accurate judgement on the effectiveness
and value for money of all LEA services relating to children, families and
schools.
My final position was as a member of the Primary and Nursery Division, a department
responsible for both the inspection of, and the provision of advice on, the
quality of education and standards of attainment in nursery and primary education.
Not surprisingly, a high priority was the evaluation of the implementation
of the national literacy and numeracy strategies and their impact on teaching
and standards. I assisted with the preparation of interim reports for the Secretary
of State which identified the strengths and weaknesses of both strategies arising
from our inspection evidence.
Other assignments in the Division were the inspection of Early Excellence
Centres for under-fives, good practice in disadvantaged areas and the production
of the primary section of HMCI’s Annual Report. I was also working for
other Divisions, including; the inspection of nursery, primary and middle schools
in Cyprus and Germany for Service Children’s Education; liaison with
appropriate authorities to improve special measures schools and monitoring
the progress of schools identified as having serious weaknesses or underachieving;
and the inspection of my specialist subject, religious education, for the Curriculum
Advice and Inspection Division.
I have worked full time on a diverse range of projects as an educational consultant
as outlined below.
Over the past three terms I have been employed by LEAs to evaluate the impact
of Education Development Plan priorities and to help prepare them for the next
round of Single Education Plans. I have presented reports on support for NQTs,
national strategy implementation, schools causing concern, middle management
and school self-evaluation. This work has been frequently linked to Best Value
reviews. My consultancy service has helped Sunderland, Sefton and Bury LEAs
to prepare thoroughly for their successful Ofsted inspections. These were based
on a model of validated self-evaluation which identifies areas for improvement
and development. Our methodology has been adapted to enhance LEAs’ pre-inspection
submissions taking account of the Children’s Services agenda and involves
the production of key policy documents.
I have simultaneously been commissioned by several Partnerships of headteachers
to monitor and evaluate Excellence in Cities (EiC). This has involved visiting
each school to determine the effectiveness of the learning mentor, learning
support units (LSUs) and gifted and talented strands. In conjunction with groups
of teachers and the EiC strand co-ordinators, I have developed inspection criteria
for LSUs and city learning centres. Since October 2000, I have been the programme
evaluator for Ashington, Gloucester and Sunderland Education Action Zones (EAZs)
and my contracts for each of these have been extended until their transformation
to Excellence Clusters. The main function has been that of quality assurance
and producing evidence of impact which enables the project directors to respond
quickly where there is a need to make adaptations to programmes. My colleague
Malcolm Craddock is currently evaluating Behaviour Improvement Programmes and
his reports are being recommended by the DfES as examples of best practice
in this area of work.
The rest of my time has been spent inspecting one school per term for the
Independent Schools Inspectorate for which I am an accredited reporting inspector
and trainer. I have been a part-time consultant for Tyne and Wear Connexions
which involved monitoring closely the training and deployment of personal advisers
and evaluating their success in working with young people facing a range of
barriers and needing in-depth support. A recent assignment with Capita SES,
as one of their associate education executives, involved a long-term placement
with the DfES School Inclusion Division, supporting LEAs in meeting the statutory
requirements for full time provision for permanently excluded pupils. This
complemented a parallel consultancy, evaluating two northern LEA’s SEN
provision and hospital and home tuition. I am a LIG consultant responsible
for brokering federations of schools. My main current assignment is that of
Regional Induction Consultant for the Teacher Training Agency, responsible
for improving the impact of induction on the professional development of teachers
across four government regions. This is achieved through working directly with
the schools to improve their practices.
I hope that at some point in the future I will be able to offer you a bespoke
service that will meet your educational requirements.
David Scott HMI MEd
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