Senior members at Monmouthshire County Council have been accused of being 'unwilling' to accept the findings of a report on its education service for a whole year, according to a letter from Estyn.

Estyn representatives made the comment after undertaking a monitoring visit where it assessed the council's efforts on one of its report recommendation which related to the council's self-evaluation on educational performance.

In a letter to the authority Estyn describes how 'senior leaders were initially unwilling to accept the findings of the 2012 inspection', adding 'it took around a year for them to fully appreciate the gap between Estyn's judgements and the authority's own evaluation of its service'.

Leader of the Labour group at Monmoutshire County Council, Councillor Dimitri Batrouni (pictured), said, "It appears the Conservatives were in denial about their failure for a whole year.

"This displays their breathtaking complacency on education. They have scandalously wasted a year in addressing the problems Estyn highlighted.

"They have blamed everyone else, rather than themselves.

"Despite Estyn's independent analysis showing the Conservatives have systemically let down the children, parents and teachers in Monmouthshire with poor educational leadership, they have spent the time worrying and protecting themselves. That says it all really."

Sarah McGuinness, Chief Officer for Children and Young People said, "Since the original inspection in October 2012 Estyn inspectors have recognised that the authority has made good initial progress and positive steps have been taken.

"We have newly defined teams in place and we are confident that we are moving in the right direction following regular reports from frontline staff, team meetings and close liaison with all concerned.

"We look forward to the construction of new secondary schools in Monmouth and Caldicot with Chepstow and Abergaveny to come as well as a new Raglan Primary School. 

"This year's exam results were extremely positive and we continue to work in partnership across the region to ensure that Monmouthshire's pupils achieve their full potential."