Last updated 11:59, Thursday, 27 March 2008

Councillor Jim Buchanan, Cumbria County Council's cabinet member responsible for children's welfare

LAST week Copeland MP Jamie Reed launched what this paper described as a “vitriolic” attack on the county council and the way it provides education in the county, accusing us of “harbouring low expectations of our schools and of our children”.

I am sure the glaring inconsistencies in his argument were not lost on readers.

When schools do well, the Government is the first to claim the credit. When schools perform badly, it’s everybody’s fault but theirs.

The education of children in Copeland is too important to turn into a political buck-passing exercise. What matters is the crucial challenge of making sure our schools improve. The county council can’t afford to spend its time playing the political blame-game. Instead it is meeting that challenge.

In the last month we have set up a Joint Performance Improvement Board, a collaboration between Cumbria County Council, the Government, local head teachers, business leaders and education experts. The board has one simple objective – to make rapid and sustainable progress in providing the young people of Cumbria with the best possible educational start in life.

In the last two weeks alone, two of the county’s secondary schools (including Ehenside) have come out of special measures, meaning there are now five, not the seven referred to by Jamie Reed.

Only last week we secured a £450,000 cash injection from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to be spent immediately on under-performing pupils so they can maximise their potential. We’re spending this money on the schools which really need it – two in Copeland (Millom and Ehenside) will be receiving large proportions of this cash.

The work being done by the county council to give our children the best start in life possible has not gone unnoticed. Earlier this month Cumbria County Council was named by Jamie Reed’s government as one of just three councils in the country to win Beacon status for its work on educating and training 14-19 year olds. This means schools in Cumbria are being held up as an example for others in the country to aspire to in the way we encourage our young people to stay in learning and prepare for the workplace or further education.

The name of the award given to the county council was ‘Building Brighter Futures’ and the Communities and Local Government Minister Parmjit Dhanda said Cumbria was “leading the way in their use of new ideas and methods, and is ideally placed to drive change”.

Regardless of this success, I will be the first to admit that all of us – government, county council and the schools themselves – need to improve educational standards in Copeland.

At the moment the county’s GCSE results are in line with national averages, but we want to be far better than average. The new West Lakes Academy is an example of our multi-million-pound commitment to that cause. The Academy will also help address the problem of surplus places which has polarised some schools through parental choice.

As our parliamentary critic knows, the county council cannot wave a magic wand to improve performance – a lot of the hard work has to be done in schools themselves. It does not operate in a vacuum but instead is reliant on the success – or otherwise – that this government and its MPs deliver for Cumbria.

The ability to ensure educational excellence goes far beyond the chalkboard. Perhaps Jamie Reed should have a long, hard look in the mirror before he starts finger pointing and buck passing next time.