We move on to the next item on our agenda, which is the Education Workforce Council (Accreditation of Initial Teacher Training) (Additional Functions) (Wales) Order 2017. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Education to move the motion—Kirsty Williams.

Motion NDM6234 Jane Hutt

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales; in accordance with Standing Order 27.5

Approves that the draft The Education Workforce Council (Accreditation of Initial Teacher Training) (Additional Functions) (Wales) Order 2017 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 24 January 2017.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. If I may take just a brief opportunity to outline that the Order sets out the functions that the Education Workforce Council will undertake in relation to the accreditation of initial teacher education programmes in Wales through the accreditation of the initial schoolteacher training committee, the remit for which will be set out in regulations that will be laid before the National Assembly subject to the approval of this Order today.

The timing of this transfer of functions to the council will be aligned to the implementation plans for the new curriculum over the next three to five years. The arrangements for accrediting initial teacher training provision, however, will need to be in place by no later than the autumn of 2017 to ensure that all new courses of ITT delivered from September 2019 are accredited against reconceptualised accreditation criteria.

In 2015, the teacher education accreditation group, chaired by Professor Furlong, was tasked with developing the reconceptualised criteria for accrediting ITT programmes in Wales. The aim of the new criteria is to improve the quality and consistency of provision and introduce a new approach to ITT in our nation.

Central to the vision underpinning the new criteria for initial teacher training is the recognition that high-quality professional training and education necessarily involves a number of different modes of learning. Some dimensions of teaching can only be learned experientially while other forms of learning are intellectually based. However, the largest part of all teacher training and education should be based on learning that is both rigorously practical and intellectually challenging.

I want to encourage a partnership approach in the design of future ITT programmes, with higher education institutions working in close collaboration with a number of lead partnership schools. If truly collaborative teacher training and education is to be achieved, then HEIs working with partner schools must take joint responsibility for the contribution to the programme.

Also, Presiding Officer, I am pleased to announce a rare opportunity by which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development—the OECD—has offered their services as renowned leaders in education to work with our ITT partners through the development of a theory-based approach to ITT in Wales. This will be achieved via an international workshop to be held in the spring, during which an ITT framework will be designed, aimed at building capacity and a truly unique set of Welsh initial teacher education programmes.

Finally, Members will note that the council will be able to charge a fee in connection with providing the accreditation service, which will be subject to a separate consultation undertaken by them. I would expect a fee structure to be in place by 1 September 2018.

I call on the Chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee—Huw Irranca-Davies.

Diolch, Lywydd. I welcome the opportunity to speak very briefly on this Order—on a small point, but I think it is an important point—on behalf of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee. Our report to the Assembly identified one point of interest—it was a point of merit—related to the dependence of this Order on a set of regulations yet to be laid by the Welsh Ministers and yet to be scrutinised by our committee. So, in essence, the criteria for the accreditation of the initial teacher training, as described now by the Cabinet Secretary, which are referred to in articles 2 and 3 of the Order, will now be included in separate regulations if the Order is approved today. Now, while the Welsh Government acknowledges the need for these regulations in its explanatory memorandum, and as laid out today, it is, nevertheless, important to draw this dependency to the attention of the Assembly. We have had confirmation from the Welsh Government that these regulations are very close to being laid. Nevertheless, it would be helpful if the Minister today could simply explain why the two instruments couldn’t be laid together and considered as a package. As a final point, we acknowledge that this kind of scenario can occur occasionally. It is not unique. But, we wish to place on record our intention to monitor these situations quite closely and to report accordingly in the interests of good, efficient and transparent law making.

Plaid Cymru won’t be opposing these regulations—[Interruption.] We won’t be opposing these regulations, just for clarity, today, but I think it is important maybe that we do reflect on some of the concerns that have been raised, primarily by teaching unions but also by others in this sector, about the configuration of the Education Workforce Council. Now, clearly, it is currently made up of people appointed by Ministers, whereas we know of other models where the sector elects its membership. There is reference in one piece of correspondence that I’ve received to the Scottish GTC, where I think around 19 members of the board there are elected. Now, as the responsibilities and the remit of the Education Workforce Council are extended, as they are now, of course, through these regulations, ensuring that it does reflect the sector it presides over becomes even more important in relation to its ability to do its job, but also in relation to having the confidence of the sector as well. So, I just wanted to ask the Cabinet Secretary whether she was open-minded to that kind of development, and, if she was, at what stage she thought we should be looking again at that, so that we can make sure that some of the views presented to us as Members in relation to these regulations are actually ones that we consider and take on board.

Can I put on record that we will also be supporting these regulations, notwithstanding the reservations of the legislative affairs committee in terms of the further regulations that are yet to be published for scrutiny? One thing, however, that I am a little concerned about is that, obviously, within the remit of the EWC are also responsibilities for FE lecturers, for example. I just wonder why regulations around PGCEs and initial training for further education lecturers aren’t being laid today. In addition to that, Cabinet Secretary, this Education Workforce Council also now has responsibility for youth workers and a whole host of other professionals. I think it is very important that the responsibilities of the Education Workforce Council are expanded to allow them to actually set the professional standards, in the same way that similar organisations are able to elsewhere around the UK and, indeed, around the world. Why is it that the Welsh Government feels that it is the responsible organisation to set those professional standards, rather than the body that people will have to register with? I wonder whether you could tell us where you are up to in terms of setting new professional standards for the teaching workforce, for FE lecturers and for youth workers, now that that is also within their remit. Everybody is looking to you, as a Welsh Government, to ensure that these things move at pace. I have to say, I think that had these responsibilities been with the Education Workforce Council, they would have been published a long time ago.

I noted with interest your announcement during your opening remarks about the OECD and the work that they're going to be doing to try to enhance initial teacher training here in Wales. I'm very pleased to hear that they are involved and, hopefully, it will add some value to what’s already taking place. Can you tell us when you expect to receive some sort of outcome from the workshop? I think it was just a workshop that you announced. Is there going to be anything else on top of that? Is this going to be some continuous work with the OECD, or is it just that simple workshop from which you are hoping to glean something? Thank you.

I call on the Cabinet Secretary to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Could I say I'm very pleased to hear that Plaid Cymru and the Conservative Party will be supporting the Order today? That is in line with the vast majority of the responses that the Government received in relation to its consultation. Over 80 per cent of the respondents to the consultation believe that it is the EWC that should accredit teacher training as we move forward in our initial teacher training reforms.

If I turn to the point raised by the Chair of the CLAC committee, just to reassure him that my officials did place a copy of the accreditation criteria in the Members’ library for their consideration. In addition, paragraph 1.1 of the explanatory memorandum made clear that the regulations would follow, subject to the Order we are debating today receiving the approval of the Assembly, and, as you have heard from officials, that is imminent. This approach was taken in order to ensure that we were not presuming the will of the National Assembly by pre-empting any decision to grant the council the functions of accrediting the programme of study of initial schoolteacher training. In addition, if the Assembly determined in a vote that the council should not have had the powers set out in this Order, the regulations setting out the requirements of the council to establish the accreditation of the initial schoolteacher training committee would have been superfluous. It's a question of timing, and we expect full scrutiny of the regulations that will come to pass.

At present, I have no intention of changing the way in which the EWC is currently constituted, but, as you know, Llyr, the role and responsibilities of the EWC are developing. It's a new institution and we are constantly looking to see what the future will hold. So, as things develop, there may be opportunities to look at whether the body is constituted in a way that is fully reflective of all its roles and responsibilities. To be clear, this Order would require the EWC to set up a teacher training committee underneath those, and I would expect that to have a broad range of representatives who can really add value, and to ensure that the accreditation process is robust, and I would expect a wide membership of that.

Can I assure Darren Millar that the professional standards for both teachers and school leaders will be published later on in the spring? I can assure you that they have been done in full collaboration with the teaching profession itself—not with the EWC, but actually with teachers. They're currently being trialled in some schools at the moment to receive feedback, and we're making progress in that regard. I'll give way.

I'm very grateful for you giving way, Cabinet Secretary, and very grateful for the clarification in terms of the timetable for the publication of those. But do you accept that it is very unusual for an organisation like the EWC not to have responsibility for developing those standards, and that it is unusual that it sits with the Welsh Government? Why is it? What's the argument for retaining those responsibilities with the Welsh Government, rather than giving them to the EWC, as the proper body, to develop these things?

Well, Darren, I believe that we are well placed to be able to work with the profession to establish a set of professional standards. I don't think that they have been produced as quickly as perhaps they should have been. It was a commitment within the Furlong report to look at these issues, and part of previous announcements, but we’re making quick progress now, and, as I said, we have developed them in close collaboration with the profession itself. They've been road tested in schools and refined as a consequence of that, and they will be published in the spring.

Presiding Officer, I’m grateful for Members’ support for the principles that are contained within the Order.

The proposal, therefore, is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? No, so the motion is therefore agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.