Thursday 27 August 2020
The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture has fulfilled its commitment to have an independent overseer of its review of secondary education models and to bring other independent voices into key roles in the review.
When the Committee secured States' approval to carry out the review, it made a commitment to ensure the review benefited from the involvement of several respected independent voices. This commitment was repeated when the Committee published the review's terms of reference. The Committee said it would create three independent roles as follows:
- Oversight - an individual to ensure that the review is conducted in a way that it is transparent, objective and consistent with the terms of reference and that any conclusions drawn are guided by evidence;
- Facilitation - A trained facilitator to run meetings and workshops with teachers, school support staff and union representatives to ensure full and frank debate is encouraged and all views are heard.
- Technical analysis - An independent specialist in education to verify the technical analysis of models and ensure the work is robust, accurate and comprehensive.
The Committee can now confirm the appointments to these three roles.
- Advocate Peter Harwood, who was formerly Chief Minister and who is currently a member of the Scrutiny Management Committee, as the independent overseer;
- Phil Eyre, Founder of Leaders Consultancy and Managing Director of The Learning Company, as the independent facilitator;
- Peter Marsh Consulting as the independent specialist in education.
The creation of these roles and the Committee's work to find the right people to appoint to them have been discussed during regular meetings between the Committee and union representatives.
Deputy Matt Fallaize, President of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, said:
"I'm delighted with the appointments to these important roles. Peter, Phil and Peter are respected as people of quality and integrity and they bring considerable independence to the review exactly as we pledged from the outset. I thank union colleagues for the productive conversations we have had about how best to fill these roles - in particular the independent oversight role. These roles are important to secure the trust and confidence of stakeholders that the review is fair and objective. Our Committee's aim is to provide our community and the States with as much relevant information as possible about the four education models under review so that an informed decision can be made about the future structure which then needs to be put into operation as swiftly and efficiently as possible to avoid further undue delay for students and staff."
Advocate Peter Harwood said:
"Like many in our community I have watched with interest as the debate around secondary education has developed during the current political term. It is in everyone's best interest for the current review of secondary education models to be completed with absolute impartiality by those involved and with transparency so that key stakeholders are reassured about the consultation process and the presentation of the outcomes of that before the States ultimately decides which of the four models under review is best for our community. I am pleased to be able to volunteer my services to provide independent oversight of the process."