Zero schools in Estyn special measures or the requiring significant improvement category is the ambition of a Powys education chief.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee on Friday, July 3, councillors considered the performance report for education for quarter three, 2025/2026.

The Corporate and Strategic Equality Plan Scorecard (CSEP) shows performance measure trends over time, along with further information about how the council has been delivering the ambitions of the Corporate and Strategic Equality Plan through its wellbeing objectives and supporting actions and measures.

Cllr Angela Davies said: “I’m interested in measure 306 on the number of secondary schools, all-age schools and pupil referral units (PRUs) in an Estyn category. A low number is better.”

Following a school inspection, education watchdog Estyn can give a school one of four categorisations.

These are: no follow-up, which means the school is doing well; Estyn review, which means there are areas for improvement which Estyn want to keep an eye on; significant improvement, which means a school has important weaknesses that require rapid and substantial improvement; and special measures, the most serious category, used when a school is failing to provide an acceptable standard of education and has limited capacity to improve.

Cllr Davies continued: “I’m curious as to how we set these targets.

“The target is 10, which is about two thirds of (these) schools.

“So I wonder how these meet objective three and our work to tackle poverty, inequality and support the wellbeing of the people of Powys, because if we’re willing to accept effectively 10 high schools in Estyn category, that can’t be called educational equality.

“How is 10 acceptable as a target in that measure?”

Director of education Dr Richard Jones said the figure of 10 was an “error.”

He said: “I’m not sure if it’s a formatting issue. I’ll need to check that at source because something has gone wrong with the data.

“The target is clearly zero.”

Cllr Davies asked for clarification that the target is zero.

Dr Jones said: “The absolute target is zero and the ambition is to have no schools in a statutory category.”

He added that due to the cycle of Estyn inspections and re-inspections, it could take time for this ambition to be reflected in performance reports.

Cllr Davies welcomed the ambition and asked how many Powys schools are currently in an Estyn category.

School improvement manager Mark Wakeley said: “We have four schools in special measures and four schools in the significant improvement category.”

The four schools currently in special measures are Llangors Church in Wales Primary School, Llanidloes High School, Welshpool High School, and Ysgol Maesydderwen in Ystradgynlais.