Responding to the Cabinet Secretary for Education’s Statement in the Assembly Chamber this week on the National Strategy for Small and Rural Schools, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood raised concerns about the basis on which Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet took their decisions to close schools, including small and rural schools, in the county.
Speaking in the Assembly Chamber, he said:
“As you state, small and rural schools can provide real academic, cultural and social benefits. When I called on the previous Welsh Government to respond to concerns that Flintshire County Council was using old and inaccurate data and acting in breach of the School Organisation Code in respect of a number of proposed school closures there, including small and rural schools, Ysgol Llanfynydd County Primary School and Ysgol Maes Edwin in Flint Mountain, your predecessor said, ‘I can’t comment in terms of the School Organisation Code and the guidance, because, of course, this may come before Welsh Ministers.’
“Of course, in the context of small and rural schools, that hadn’t been the case since 2013. Now, although Councillors must only consider material evidence relevant to the School Organisation Code and the accuracy of the data used by the Council Cabinet as the basis of their recommended decision to close schools, when these closures came to Council, the highly political comments by the Council Leader were not material to the matters that the Council must consider, and this political point scoring on both occasions raised serious concerns about the basis on which his Cabinet took their decisions.
“You state you’re not going to revisit decisions previously made. Does that therefore mean that you’re bolting the stable door after the previous Welsh Government and current First Minister allowed the horses to bolt, or, in circumstances such as this, will you reconsider the evidence used to justify the closure to members and the public, in the context of what the School Organisation Code actually required?”
The Education Secretary, Kirsty Williams, said she is not prepared to reopen cases that have been already discharged.
She said: “I can only be responsible for the situation I find myself in now. This is not about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. This is a genuine opportunity to recognise the particular challenges of delivering education in a rural area and the barriers that may make it more difficult for that education to achieve absolute excellence.”
Mr Isherwood added: “Of course I welcome this change of policy, introducing a presumption against the closure of small and rural schools, but it’s too late for the pupils, governors and parents at the small and rural schools closed by Flintshire’s Labour Council.”