Essex Education authority has launched an action plan aimed at tackling 11 recommendations for improvements made by education watchdog Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education.

After a three-week inspection last autumn, Ofsted concluded that "Essex is a strong and well-led local education authority that has made significant improvements in the delivery of its services in the past three years."

However, there were 11 areas for improvement highlighted in the February report including the education of children in care, intervention in schools causing concern and dealing with racist incidents in schools.

In the Post Inspection Action Plan, the authority stated: "An important feature of the culture and ethos of the LEA (Local Education Authority) is the search for continuous improvement, and we recognise that the Ofsted report is something on which we must build and develop our services in support of the education of young people in Essex.

"This Action Plan is intended to demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement, and contains positive actions to take forward the issues identified in the Ofsted report."

Actions highlighted in the plan include creating an effective LEA database for recording racist incidents, setting appropriate targets for the educational achievement of children in care and establish a named link Child and Family Consultation Service (CFCS) worker for each school.

The recommendations by Ofsted were based on a survey of the county's 600 schools, interviews with county councillors, staff, and representatives from schools, including heads and governors, and a thorough appraisal of documents.

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