BLAENAU Gwent has become the first Welsh local education authority to be put under 'special measures' after a report found the authority guilty of systemic management failures

Estyn, the Welsh education inspectorate said that an authority should be placed in special measures when it fails to give pupils an acceptable standard of education, and the people responsible for leading, managing or governing it do not have the ability to make the necessary improvements.

In light of the measures Welsh Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant has also asked the auditor general for his opinion on the council's wider corporate management.

The Estyn report, which was published last week, found that children and young people in Blaenau Gwent were not making good progress and that education standards were well below what is expected.

The report has already had an effect on the authority with Blaenau Gwent's executive member for education Stephen Bard stepping down from his position and an emergency special council meeting called to consider the issue.

In his report the inspector, Stephen Lamb said: "Performance in all key stages has been among the lowest in Wales over the last four years. In 2010, Blaenau Gwent did not meet any of the three Welsh Assembly Government expected benchmarks for performance in secondary schools."

The inspector observed that the percentage of Blaenau Gwent learners leaving school without a recognised qualification remains the worst in Wales.

He added: "Since 2007, pupils' attendance in Blaenau Gwent primary schools has slowly got worse and remains amongst the worst in Wales. In secondary schools, attendance levels are below the Wales average by 0.5 percent."

Mr Lamb said that the number of young people in the youth justice system was reducing, with more young people successfully avoiding offending or re-offending.

He added: "However too many young people who have been involved with the Youth Offending Team do not continue into education and training after they leave school at 16."

The inspector noted that in primary schools, there were no robust challenges given to boost standards and he observed that even though the authority provides a range of data to schools that the targets the authority set were not challenging enough.

The leader of the council Des Hillman said the Blaenau Gwent was already working to raise standards but admitted that progress had been slow and more needed to be done.

Leighton Andrews, the Welsh Government's Education Minister revealed that a task force led by Neath Port Talbot council would be brought in to shake up the education provision in the county's 34 schools.

He said: "It is with real regret and concern for the education of our young people in Blaenau Gwent that in the light of serious service shortcomings Estyn is of the opinion that special measures are required in relation to this authority."

Mr Andrews said the shortcomings were unacceptable and that the authority had failed to provide an acceptable standard of education, adding: "Senior leaders and elected members have also failed to secure the necessary improvements. It appears that education officers and headteachers have not been held accountable for poor performance, effectively letting them off the hook."

He admitted that much of Blaenau Gwent was severely deprived and added: "This is a council that faces significant challenges across all of the services it provides. But that cannot be an excuse - there can be no excuses for letting children and young people down this badly."

Estyn's recommendations:

The authority should:

• Raise skills levels and secure better outcomes for learners at all key stages and in the youth support service

• Challenge schools more robustly and provide prioritised support for schools according to need

• Identify and challenge under performance in schools;

• Evaluate the effectiveness of provision both within the education service and across partnerships serving children and young people;

• Increase pupil attendance rates in all schools;

• Secure sustainable improvements in the percentage of post 16 learners in full time education, training or employment;

• Improve the function of scrutiny of holding the council executive to account for the performance of local authority services and holding headteachers to account for the performance of individual schools;

• Improve provision for learners with additional learning needs by establishing clear rules for allocating support and the need to plan ahead.

Blaenau Gwent County Council has 50 working days to produce an action plan showing how they intend addressing the recommendations.