A new Equalities Team has been formed as part of the 2010-11 service transformation process at Northumberland Local Authority and will start working with schools from 1st April 2011.

The strategic aim of the team is to contribute to the school improvement work of the Early Years and Schools Service by providing services to improve the life chances of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of children and young people with a focus on raising educational attainment.

We are currently building a comprehensive new website at www.northumberland.gov.uk/equalitiesandschools which will hopefully be live before July 2011.

Details of our offer of support through the Early Years and Schools service level agreement can be found here: http://www.northumberlandlea.net/sla.

We will continue to support schools with their statutory equalities duties free of charge.  For further details of this support please contact the team.

In the meantime the content of this site remains relevant although changes are pending as the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, Education Bill 2010 and revised Ofsted framework (from January 2012) are introduced.