Focus on Wales - Interview - An Englishman abroad
Tristan Donovan
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
David Hawker, director for children & education, Welsh Assembly Government.
"I thought I ran the best music service in Britain when I was at Brighton & Hove City Council," says David Hawker, Brighton's former director of children's services, who this month took on the task of spearheading children's policy in Wales.
But Hawker's illusions were soon shattered once he arrived in Cardiff, just in time for the National Eisteddfod festival, a week-long celebration of Welsh language and culture.
"One night I listened to some of the young people and I haven't heard such good local orchestras and bands before. They were superb."
By the time CYP Now caught up with him in Cardiff two weeks on, it was the nation's approach to participation that was blowing him away.
"Wales has a fantastic story on participation. Everything is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, so children and young people have a right to have a voice in decisions that affect them," he says.
The range of involvement is wide, and includes giving children and young people a part in deciding who wins contracts to deliver children's services and senior appointments to the Welsh Assembly Government. That said, children didn't get a say on Hawker's own appointment.
"Children and young people were not involved in my appointment, though I would have been happy about it. Hopefully, that will change with my successor," he says.
But with Hawker having just joined the Welsh Assembly Government, that successor is a long way off and there's a lot to be done. Numerous children's policy initiatives are at crucial stages in their introduction in Wales, from the Foundation Phase curriculum for three- to seven-year-olds to the 14-19 Pathways agenda.
Hawker has a number of priorities (see box) that will keep him busy. One big challenge is Wales's smaller budgets (see Insight, p14), another is the declining number of school pupils. The issue of school places has already sparked controversy. In May's local elections, the residents of Gwynedd kicked out Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru in reaction to plans to close schools.
"We need to do more to remove surplus places from the system, as pupil numbers are decreasing," he says. But should schools stay open despite the decline, Hawker says initiatives such as community-focus schools could help keep them open without compromising education.
Another challenge is joint working. "Wales hasn't pushed anyone down the line of children's trusts and there's no intention to do so, but it does believe in collaboration through local partnerships," he says.
Hawker recognises that Wales could arrive at joint working informally. "Wales operates on collaboration not competition," he says. "It's a different dynamic to England and there's not a sense that we have to force people to do certain things."
But he does think Wales can benefit from adopting England's focus on accountability. "We must strengthen accountability and agree indicators to keep the system under review and get everyone to target improvement."
England could also learn a lot from Wales, he says. Not least in spending more wisely.
Despite just starting, Hawker has already become a fan of the Welsh language. "I know about 100 words now," he says. And while he concedes maintaining bilingual education takes resources from elsewhere, he says the benefits are more than just cultural.
"I'm firmly committed to a bilingual system, because I know children who are brought up bilingually tend to do better in life. It's also an interesting fact that the results of Welsh medium schools, tend to be better than our English medium schools."
BACKGROUND - HAWKER'S SIX PRIORITIES
Flying Start and Foundation Phase
- Develop a support package drawing together Flying Start, Sure Start and integrated centres
Children and young people
- Make Wales a great place to be by encouraging participation, tackling poverty and joining up services
School effectiveness
- Get the new framework in place and align Estyn inspections with this
Skills that work for Wales
- Introduce 14 to 19 reforms and establish the Welsh Baccalaureate
Reaching higher
- Improve university access and develop Welsh medium higher education
Capacity
- Work to develop the capacity and infrastructure of children's services in Wales and make sure local authorities are performing well.