Education boss asks for more time

3:25pm Thursday 15th January 2004

'Give me a year to improve' that's the message from cabinet member for education Lynne Hillan after Barnet's performance as a Local Education Authority (LEA) fell to unsatisfactory' in yesterday's Ofsted report.

Barnet scored a lowly five out of seven (where one is the top mark) in the report, which rates the efficiency of Barnet Council's bureaucracy behind the borough's schools rather than of the schools themselves. It was judged to be particularly poor in cleaning and caretaking as well as the strategy for Special Educational Needs.

It was also officially weak in a number of areas, including challenging schools to improve; supporting school management and supporting gifted pupils.

The report said: "This is currently an unsatisfactory LEA. Too many areas have declined in quality since the previous inspection. There is currently limited added value from the LEA to schools' overall performance."

Ms Hillan claimed the Conservative administration had not yet had time to implement recommendations from the previous Ofsted report in 1999, which was satisfactory'.

She said: "Give me a year. In 18 months of administration we can't change everything and provide evidence."

She said the council had asked Ofsted to carry out another assessment as soon as possible.

Labour's education spokesman Barry Rawlings said: "Ofsted may come back again later but the kids in schools don't get that second chance."