Defence Support Agency (Hansard, 23 April 1991)

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton

The Service Children's Schools (North West Europe), within the British Army of the Rhine, will be launched formally as a defence support agency of the Ministry of Defence on 24 April. The agency comprises 86 schools in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sardinia. It is currently staff by some 1,300 teachers and educational administrative staff, and 1,200 other full and part-time employees; for the financial year 1991–92 it has a projected operating budget of some £40 million cash and over £60 million full cost. The agency's chief executive, appointed through open competition from outside the civil service, is Mr. I. S. Mitchelson.

The role of Service Children's Schools (North West Europe) is to provide an efficient and effective education service, comparable to good local education authority practice, for the dependant children of MOD personnel in north-west Europe. It must respond not only to the changes in the size and disposition of British forces in Europe as the result of the changing political climate, the Gulf situation and "Options for Change", but also to the requirements of the Education Reform Act and current developments in the management of education.

I am confident that the chief executive and his staff will meet those challenges, and will maintain the high-quality educational service that SCS(NWE) has traditionally provided. As an agency, SCS(NWE) will have greater executive and managerial freedoms, and there will be increased opportunities for the chief executive to improve the efficiency and value for money of his organisation.

Accordingly, the chief executive has been set the following key targets for the first year of operation as an agency: in 1991–92, to maintain at least current rates of pupil success at GCSE and A-levels; by 1 April 1992, to develop and introduce systems which will provide a comprehensive measure of pupil performance, in terms of both examination results and other school activities; to formulate policies which aim for a progressive improvement in pupil performance; and to formulate work and activity programmes designed to make residence in NW Europe an educationally beneficial experience; by 1 April 1992, to develop appropriate measures of the level of qualification and training of teachers, and to set targets both for the match between teacher qualification and post and for the further training of teachers; to establish, by 1 September 1991, a two-year cycle of teacher appraisal; to plan and provide, by 1 April 1992, a co-ordinated support service both to voluntary groups catering for under-age school children and children with special educational needs; to develop, and introduce by 1 September 1991, a system for assessing parental satisfaction, and to seek progressive improvements in the level of parental satisfaction; to develop, and implement by 1 April 1992, processes both to allow parents to take a more active involvement in agency activities and to inform them of relevant educational developments; 381W to adhere to the statutory timetable for implementing the requirements of the Education Reform Act; by 1 September 1991, to introduce improved management planning and information systems, including development plans for corporate services within the agency and school development plans; to keep within the agreed budget; by 1 April 1992, to develop a financial information system which captures the full cost of agency activities; permits in-year forecast, monitoring and reporting of expenditure; and allows publication of accounts to Treasury requirements; to achieve continuing improvements in efficiency over the next five years by making, in 1991–92, cash releasing efficiency savings equivalent to 1 per cent. of cash costs, and by developing, by 1 April 1992, plans for achieving further efficiency improvements over the following four years; by 1 April 1992, to develop and begin to implement plans for the restructuring of the agency and its services, in light of ministerial decisions on "Options for Change" and changes in the deployment of British forces in north-west Europe.