Proposals to install a joint head teacher for Chryston Primary and High schools have been dropped, with North Lanarkshire councillors set to consider the wider proposals for the multi-establishment leadership model (MELM) in the new year.
The unpopular plans for the two Lindsaybeg Road schools have been abandoned on “business case grounds”, officially due to significant projected rises in pupil numbers over the next five years; with new council leader Jordan Linden previously noting he had “ensured officers ended the trial following representation from parents and councillors”.
Elected members agreed that the Chryston plan should no longer be pursued; and while they unanimously supported an additional recommendation that the education committee should be issued with a detailed report on future shared headship plans, a tabled amendment to “cease all pilot and consultation approaches” until then did not progress as the principle was agreed as recently as February’s budget.
New head teachers are now to be recruited for the vacancies at both Chryston schools, with the primary having been without its own leader since the previous postholder’s retirement in December 2020 and the secondary head moving on last November, meaning both have been looked after by one acting head throughout this year.
Councillors were informed that a report is due to be brought forward in January 2023 outlining longer-term MELM plans across North Lanarkshire; but that an amendment requesting all work on the proposal be paused could not be considered within six months of the last decision and that it would have implications for planned “savings linked to mergers, rezonings and changes to management models in schools which were approved as part of the budget”.
A statement from the SNP group this week on the “contentious” plans read: “The administration will consider the future of MELM once this six-month period has expired with a decision to be taken at a future meeting of the education committee.”
Labour councillor Heather Brannan-McVey called for a strategic plan and detailed information to be presented to councillors on which other schools might be considered for MELM posts, saying the policy to date “is going forward based on serendipity”.
She told members: “Chryston was in essence the only official pilot as there was no strategy defined or other schools highlighted for being involved, [and] no scrutiny or agreement of that was given at any committee.
“An opportunity occurred, the service seized it – the community responded articulately and we see the result of that today.”
She added: “Any one of us could have any school in our area going through the same thing. If a head teacher retires or is promoted, a school is potentially considered for shared headship; that’s no way for a policy to run.
“We need to make sure the plan that goes forward is based on education policy alone and not savings. We agreed shared headship, this morphed into MELM and it’s become a beast bigger than the committee agreed in the first place.
“It’s timeous to recall this policy, and I’m asking not [that it be] ceased indefinitely but until that review can be scrutinised, we’re able to pause, reflect, and create a plan that’s appropriate – our children deserve it.”
Councillor Linden said: “I don’t think any of us would disagree with some of the comments Councillor Brannan-McVey makes [and] the administration’s programme of work commits to exactly what’s been asked in so far as a committee report is concerned.
“We inherited MELM from the previous administration; we’re collectively working through it together and make the commitment today that we’ll always try and do right by those in our communities. For clarity, we’re absolutely committed to reviewing this policy.”
Conservative councillor Nathan Wilson said of the Chryston U-turn: “It’s certainly been driven by the parents and it’s their victory for fighting so hard to have the pilot discontinued.
“Executive headship is something that our group has long been sceptical about; we rejected it at the budgetary process in 2020 and agreed that Chryston shouldn’t be taken any further forward.”
He added that when the principle was agreed in an education paper in May 2020, “the committee system for elected members had been shut down due to the Covid emergency; only officials were part of that meeting [and] no councillors were part of the debates”.
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