Local authorities are vital to making partnerships between schools work, writes Robert Hill.And they will be even more important in future
Partnership working between schools is a growing part of the educational landscape. Schools and colleges still compete for students at age 11 and 16, but they are now also collaborating on an increasing range of issues.
Schools may, for example, be part of a sports college partnership designed to increase participation in PE and after-school sports activities.
Stronger schools are increasingly being paired with weaker schools as one way of driving school improvement. Extended schools, offering pupils and parents a range of study, childcare, health and other services before and after the normal school day, are being organised in local school clusters.
Joint professional development sessions for staff, where subject and teaching expertise from one school can be shared with another, are becoming commonplace. And consortia of local schools and colleges are coming together to deliver the new and much broader 14-19 curriculum.
The number of partnership initiatives is legion – federations, education-improvement partnerships, trust schools, leading-edge partnerships, learning communities, 14-19 consortia, creative partnerships, safer school partnerships and many more. Frequently, schools are involved in several different types of partnership at the same time.
So, what does this mean for local authorities and lead members and directors of children services? A survey of school and college partnerships by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) shows that, far from local authorities being squeezed out by this agenda, they are very much valued – if they offer the right type of support (see chart, right).
My visits to and discussions with leaders of these partnerships suggest that they are looking to local authorities to offer the following:
l strong local educational vision and leadership – based on the local children’s and young people’s plan – which provides a clear framework for school and college collaborative activity
l practical help with establishing collaborations in terms of being prepared to help fund partnership leadership and administrative roles
l a mature approach, if and when a school or a group of schools opts for foundation or trust status. That means authorities working with the schools rather than trying to thwart or undermine them in achieving their aims. If they follow this course of action it is much more likely that schools will invite their local authority to be part of the new arrangements
l a willingness to devolve resources and responsibilities to partnerships and affirm their collaborative value
l structures for involving leaders of school and college partnerships in developing local education policy and strategy on issues such as Building Schools for the Future, dealing with children at risk and excluded pupils and raising school attainment
l challenge and support in resolving specific problems that partnerships will from time to time inevitably encounter.
What makes life difficult here is that a local authority’s role in intervening in schools ‘causing concern’, under the Education and Inspections Act 2006, has the potential to derail relationships – unless partnerships and authorities have previously discussed and reached an understanding on how they are going to work together to tackle underperformance.
Some authorities are finding it easy to adapt to this role. It is noticeable that partnership working seems to be more embedded in those authorities such as Birmingham, Kent, Knowsley, Lewisham, Oldham and Tower Hamlets where there has been a deliberate policy decision to develop partnership working among all the secondary schools in the area.
For other authorities the challenge of moving towards this more strategic way of working is proving tougher. One of the other questions in the ASCL survey revealed that lack of local authority support can be a significant barrier to partnership working.
So, authorities need to develop the right enabling culture. And, if they need any further incentive, the new comprehensive area assessment is just round the corner. From 2009 authorities will be partly assessed on their capacity to partner with others on delivering change and improvement for their area – and schools and colleges will be one those important groups of partners. n
Robert Hill was an adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair. His book on partnership working between schools, Achieving more together: Adding value through partnerships, was published earlier this month by the Association of School and College Leaders
Schools may, for example, be part of a sports college partnership designed to increase participation in PE and after-school sports activities.
Stronger schools are increasingly being paired with weaker schools as one way of driving school improvement. Extended schools, offering pupils and parents a range of study, childcare, health and other services before and after the normal school day, are being organised in local school clusters.
Joint professional development sessions for staff, where subject and teaching expertise from one school can be shared with another, are becoming commonplace. And consortia of local schools and colleges are coming together to deliver the new and much broader 14-19 curriculum.
The number of partnership initiatives is legion – federations, education-improvement partnerships, trust schools, leading-edge partnerships, learning communities, 14-19 consortia, creative partnerships, safer school partnerships and many more. Frequently, schools are involved in several different types of partnership at the same time.
So, what does this mean for local authorities and lead members and directors of children services? A survey of school and college partnerships by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) shows that, far from local authorities being squeezed out by this agenda, they are very much valued – if they offer the right type of support (see chart, right).
My visits to and discussions with leaders of these partnerships suggest that they are looking to local authorities to offer the following:
l strong local educational vision and leadership – based on the local children’s and young people’s plan – which provides a clear framework for school and college collaborative activity
l practical help with establishing collaborations in terms of being prepared to help fund partnership leadership and administrative roles
l a mature approach, if and when a school or a group of schools opts for foundation or trust status. That means authorities working with the schools rather than trying to thwart or undermine them in achieving their aims. If they follow this course of action it is much more likely that schools will invite their local authority to be part of the new arrangements
l a willingness to devolve resources and responsibilities to partnerships and affirm their collaborative value
l structures for involving leaders of school and college partnerships in developing local education policy and strategy on issues such as Building Schools for the Future, dealing with children at risk and excluded pupils and raising school attainment
l challenge and support in resolving specific problems that partnerships will from time to time inevitably encounter.
What makes life difficult here is that a local authority’s role in intervening in schools ‘causing concern’, under the Education and Inspections Act 2006, has the potential to derail relationships – unless partnerships and authorities have previously discussed and reached an understanding on how they are going to work together to tackle underperformance.
Some authorities are finding it easy to adapt to this role. It is noticeable that partnership working seems to be more embedded in those authorities such as Birmingham, Kent, Knowsley, Lewisham, Oldham and Tower Hamlets where there has been a deliberate policy decision to develop partnership working among all the secondary schools in the area.
For other authorities the challenge of moving towards this more strategic way of working is proving tougher. One of the other questions in the ASCL survey revealed that lack of local authority support can be a significant barrier to partnership working.
So, authorities need to develop the right enabling culture. And, if they need any further incentive, the new comprehensive area assessment is just round the corner. From 2009 authorities will be partly assessed on their capacity to partner with others on delivering change and improvement for their area – and schools and colleges will be one those important groups of partners. n
Robert Hill was an adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair. His book on partnership working between schools, Achieving more together: Adding value through partnerships, was published earlier this month by the Association of School and College Leaders
