A Liverpool Council cabinet member was hauled in front of headteachers to explain his comments on racism in city schools.
Earlier this year the ECHO revealed, Cllr Tom Logan, cabinet member for education and schools, told a meeting of the same select committee that every school in Liverpool “has aspects of institutional racism” and leaders were “shying away” from the problem. Cllr Logan made the remarks in a report scrutinising his portfolio, as it was revealed that from the start of the new term in September, schools would be asked to report racist incidents to the local authority.
Answers to questions submitted to the education and skills select committee on Tuesday also identified that advice in 2012 from the UK Government to schools that they were not obliged to report incidents of racism made it difficult for Liverpool Council to “understand the prevalence and tackle the issue” owing to “not having reliable data”.
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In his written update to the committee ahead of its meeting next week, Cllr Logan said the chairs of three Head Teachers Associations wrote to him two months ago to explain his remarks. He said: “On 23rd October I received a letter from the 3 Chairs of the Head Teachers Associations inviting me to meet with them – because of a newspaper article that quoted a number of my comments.
“The article was quoting my report to Select Committee on 26th July and focussed on comments about racism in schools. This was all discussed cordially, and I will now be sharing my Select Committee reports with the Chairs of the HTAs once the report is public, prior to Select Committee meetings.”
Cllr Logan’s report to the committee, which was not discussed in the public session, said the city’s education sector needed to “move forward” and support schools on a journey to change. It said: “Every school in this city, to differing extents, has aspects of institutional racism.
“This should be an uncontroversial statement, as all of our schools have majority white leadership (and always have). However, we still have school leaders shying away from accepting they have a problem.
“In order to begin addressing this, and the symptomatic issues affecting children and parents, we need to move forward as an education community, supporting schools on a journey to change.” In a bid to action this, Cllr Logan said in his report a meeting was held to determine what can happen and Liverpool Council ’s role.
He wrote: “There was a clear consensus that Liverpool Council should have a coordinating role in this journey. With an emphasis of sharing best practice (as there is some excellent work happening across the city) and data collection and presentation.” A race equalities officer in education post has subsequently been made with the individual to take up the role next month as the council responds to the city’s race equalities taskforce.
Among the responsibilities of this role will be working with schools to increase black teacher representation according to answers to questions put to the committee. It was also said that should a crime be committed in a school related to racism, it would be reported to police, but Liverpool Council cannot determine a school’s sanction policy.
“This is for the governing body of each school,” the response said. Cllr Logan’s report said the taskforce “needs full attention and commitment and cannot just be a 'bolt on' to current structures and systems” as more than a third of its recommendations related to the local authority.
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