Under the tri-level arrangement, the Welsh Assembly Government is responsible for setting strategic policy direction. This means that it must make sure that all of its departments work together for the benefit of our children and young people.

The Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) has a special responsibility to make sure that all of its policies and funding contribute to the aims of the SEF and to the wider aims for children and young people. DCELLS needs to be constantly evaluating its work to make sure that it is benefiting our children and young people. DCELLS must use the data that it collects to ensure that local authorities and schools improve and must also provide the right level of challenge for schools and local authorities to make sure that improvement is sustained. Working with local authorities, DCELLS will develop outcome agreements to set priorities for improvement at the local level. Those authorities with a good track record in improving outcomes for their children and young people will have more flexibility in the way that they work.

DCELLS must also make sure that it helps to get rid of any barriers to improvement. This means that it has to make sure that resources can get where they are needed most and that policy and even the law supports the commitment to continuous improvement.

For more information about how WAG will take responsibility for the SEF, see Developing a National System For Education In Wales by Embedding the School Effectiveness Framework