Monday 7th November 2011
A message from Julie Weddell, County Manager, Education Welfare, School Attendance and Child Employment
You will be aware that the School Improvement division is undergoing a significant transformation. As an integral part of this process, the Children's Support Service vision of becoming an outstanding service remains, along with the need to continually adapt to the changing educational landscape. It is within this context that we are proposing to streamline the Education Welfare Service with the aim of delivering budget savings and at the same time increasing our workforce flexibility, without compromising our ability to achieve our vision. We remain committed to providing schools and families with a quality, best value, professional service which is fit for purpose.
A 90 day consultation period commenced with all EWS staff on 22nd September 2011, seeking views on the attached proposals, and we would also very much value your comments as our major stakeholders. To allow consideration of a suitable structure for the EWS, we need to have a good understanding of the possible requirements of schools in the future. With this in mind, it would be extremely helpful if you could complete the attached, short, questionnaire. The answers you provide are not binding and will purely be used to feed into the consultation. The consultation closes end of December but it would be very helpful if you could respond by 11th November, 2011 if possible as the mid consultation employee meeting will take place the following week.
In summary, we propose to build a flatter and more streamlined structure with a flexible and multi-skilled workforce, in order to improve our service delivery.
Please e mail to ews@essex.gov.uk or if you would like to discuss further please contact Julie Weddell on 07788745901 julie.weddell@essex.gov.uk
Pam Langmead