Education in Powys is changing, and it desperately needed too, writes councillor Aled Davies.

The Estyn report of 2019 was bad, but it was only the latest in a succession of poor reports the council had received over many years.

Real improvement was desperately needed and at that point in 2019 my cabinet colleague and friend Phyl Davies took over the reins as Powys CC Cabinet Member for Education and he has made a big impact.

Estyn reports of the past pointed to a long history of unwillingness to take important decisions to transform the life chances of our young people. And if it falls to the Welsh Conservative Group within Powys CC to take the lead on those difficult decisions, so be it.

Estyn returned to Powys in the Autumn term 2021, two years on from the disastrous 2019 report, and published a highly positive report, that reflected on the significant and strong changes made to improve our support for schools and learners.

We now have curriculum support and leadership support in place, and our schools are collaborating well. School budgets are now stable, and future planning has a clear direction.

Headteachers comment very favourably on the leadership now provided by the local authority, which is a significant change from the previous decades, Phyl Davies is singled out within the report for his leadership.

We have investment programmes underway, and an excellent strategy for supporting learners with Additional Learning Needs. What we now need is for all of our politicians to put their ambitions for children ahead of their own personal ambitions.

The former Minister for Education Kirsty Williams was passionate about her vision and actively promoted her ‘National Mission’, which was lauded internationally as a coherent and appropriate vision for an education system for the 21st century, which chimes with our own Vision here in Powys.

This is in sharp contrast to her successor the current Lib Dem MS and also the Lib Dem Council group who try every trick in the book to stymie progress at every turn.

The current Lib Dems have zero ambition for our children and young people.

I will not turn my back on problems that others before me have refused to take on.

Welsh Conservatives are ambitious for our children in Powys and we will work with our communities and schools across Powys to make sure that by the age of 19 every young person in Powys is equipped to Live, Learn, Work and Play here in Powys, or wherever in the world they choose to make their way.