8. Debate: The Estyn Annual Report 2016-17

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:29 pm on 6 March 2018.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 5:29, 6 March 2018

I'm grateful to Estyn for their substantive annual report. Reading through it, I wasn't always clear whether Estyn is a mechanism through which Welsh Government seeks to secure its policy objectives, or whether it's more of a law unto itself, its degree of autonomy and independence, and the extent to which it may be judging the implications of its own assessment criteria. So, for instance, the assessment and how Estyn assesses schools is of huge significance in terms of what teachers do and how schools prioritise different objectives. I just wonder the extent to which those objectives are those of the Welsh Government, or whether Estyn, at least in some areas, ploughs its own furrow. I hope this review that we are having will clarify some of those issues—whether there's the right degree of autonomy or independence for Estyn, whether there is an argument for, Cabinet Secretary, you having more powers subject to this Assembly to set down what the priorities should be for Estyn, and I think, in some areas at least, there may be some sense to that.