Letter from the Secretary of prus.org.uk to Michael Gove
Dear Secretary of State,
We wrote to you following your appointment to Cabinet (our letter dated 28th May 2010) introducing ourselves and inviting you or your representatives to our annual conference in York last July.
We were disappointed that in the ten years of productive dialogue with, and contributions from, the Department at our well attended annual conferences we were unable to secure any representatives.
We appreciate that the coalition government has been at an early stage of detailed policy development in relation to education since March and had other priorities. We were, therefore, extremely surprised to find that you had made the decision to revoke the legal change of name without any consultation with PRUs about this. Given that our members and PRUs country-wide had been fully consulted about a name change this was a worrying sign and indicated a lack of appreciation of the healthy dialogue we have had with your representatives as well as an appreciation of the good and outstanding work present in PRUs.
We were somewhat reassured in being invited to contribute to the consultation and discussions your Department have initiated in relation to PRUs and alternative provision.
We were therefore additionally concerned at your reported views in an exclusive interview with the Guardian on the 1st October. You reportedly said that PRUs were:
‘the weak link in the chain, without an accountable person responsible for making sure these children progress’.
One of the aims of our Organisation is perhaps unique to those providing education to vulnerable pupils and that is to challenge negative views of the work we undertake in PRUs. We anticipated that the new name would ensure that those unfamiliar with our work would recognise that our core aim was to offer a high quality education to vulnerable young people and having ‘schools’ in the title would support this.
Our Organisation has succeeded in promoting the positive work we do, helping others to appreciate how varied this is; as well as sharing good practice; offering professional support in improving practice and striving to overcome the barriers which are placed in our way.
A small group of our Executive members were invited to meet with Christine Gilbert following her contribution at our last conference in York in July. The message that was given both at conference and reiterated again at this meeting was how well PRUs were achieving and improving in relation to overall standards, with a higher percentage of PRUs outstanding compared to schools.
It may be true that at a strategic level a small minority of Local Authorities do not see themselves as being accountable for pupil progress in PRUs. I can assure you, however, that from the many head teachers of PRUs that have contacted us since the article in the Guardian appeared, this is far from the truth and heads of PRUs see themselves as accountable for pupil progress to the young people, the schools in their area as well as the SIP.
Undermining the considerable achievements of PRUs over the last 10 years and given our Organisation's ability to assimilate the impact of current local authority actions to manage severe cuts in spending, we would also like to draw your attention to the immediate impact that this is having on vulnerable young people’s schooling. Teachers are being removed from vulnerable groups of pupils and classes through voluntary and compulsory redundancy as we write.
If it is anticipated that there will be more young people out of mainstream school then there needs to be some space for good quality alternatives to be sourced and quality assured by schools and local authorities.
We would like to have the opportunity of discussing with you your understanding of our work and explore what is more common ground in relation to ensuring all our children and young people succeed and achieve their very best.
Yours faithfully
Jacky Mackenzie, on behalf of the Executive Committee of The National Organisation for Short Stay Schools and PRUs in Wales.
Read the reply from the Secretary of State's Office