Argyll and Bute Council is one of eight local authorities across the North and West of Scotland that are working together to ensure that children and young people are given the best educational opportunities.
Known as the Northern Alliance, the partnership is a Regional Improvement Collaborative (RIC) set up to secure excellence and equity in education.
RICs bring local authorities together, alongside Education Scotland, with the key aim of engaging a range of professionals to provide education staff with support to improve the educational attainment of children and young people. There are six RICs in Scotland, each one involving between three and eight local authorities.
At a meeting of today’s Community Services Committee, members were presented with an interim review of the Northern Alliance to look at how it is progressing.
The council’s Policy Lead for Education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: “Every local authority that makes up the Northern Alliance has the same goal - to improve the educational and life chances of our children and young people.
“We want to build on the strengths of shared service development, create professional networks and deliver continuous professional development.
“Argyll and Bute Council is well represented within the Northern Alliance, with three speakers in attendance at our most recent meeting in Aberdeen.“We have just finished phase one of our initial improvement plan and, although we still have a lot of work to do, we are committed to working together to remove barriers to learning and improve children’s outcomes. We all want the same thing – the very best educational opportunities for Scotland’s young people.The eight councils that make up the Northern Alliance are: Argyll and Bute: Aberdeen City; Aberdeenshire; Eilean Siar [Western Isles]; Highland; Moray; Orkney Islands; and Shetland Islands.