RM

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• Adding Value through
• Partnerships for Learning
• RM Conference
• 29 April 2008
• Dr John Dunford
• General Secretary
• Association of School and College Leaders

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Adding Value through Partnerships for Learning

• Defining partnership
• The benefits of partnership
• The evidence
• Four phases of leadership
• Learning from other sectors
• Key partnerships
• Support federations
• Barriers
• The way forward

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Defining partnership

• An arrangement between two or more schools or
  colleges which has one or more of the following
  features
• A constitution or clearly defined written
  protocol
• A financial commitment or a shared budget
• Shared appointment(s) or shared use of staff
• Jointly commissioned or delivered activities
• And is overseen by an agreed set of management
  arrangements, such as
• A joint governing body or committee
• A management group of heads and principals
• An executive head
• Another transparent supervisory arrangement

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The benefits of partnership

• Economies of scale
• Increased efficiency
• Knowledge building
• Increased capacity
• Increased opportunities for students and staff
• Broader curriculum
• Extended services

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The evidence

• Improving performance
• (in supported and supporter schools)
• Improved inputs
• Professional practice and development
• Leadership development
• Improved outputs
• Increased participation in school sport
• Improved behaviour and reduced truancy
• Improved learner motivation and staying on rates
• Broader curriculum
• Improved outcomes
• Faster rates of improvement in attainment

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The evidence

• Partnership costs time and money
• The benefits take time to come through

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Four phases of leadershipPhases 1-3
Description of phase Approximate time period Government policies
Head-centric/collaborative Up to late-1980s Local authority coordination Few powers for governing bodies Technical and vocational education initiative
Head-centric/competitive Mid-1980s to mid-1990s Funding through Local Management of Schools Grant maintained schools Parental choice and open enrolment League tables. National testing
Distributed/competitive Early 1990s to mid-2000s Ofsted Specialist schools (early) Expansion of popular schools Academies (early)
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Four phases of leadershipPhase 4
Description of phase Approximate time period Government policies
Distributed/ collaborative Early 2000s to present London Challenge Workforce reform 14-19 Behaviour collaboratives Extended services Specialist schools (later) Academies (later) Federations/Trust schools National Leaders of Education and National Support Schools
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Learning from other sectors

• Private sector
• NHS
• Police
• Higher education
• Local government

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Key partnerships

• 14-19 consortia
• Behaviour collaboratives
• Extended services
• ICT-based partnerships
• Support federations

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Support federations

• These are most effective in three phases
• Early phase
• clear mandate
• saturate with leadership and systems
• confront problems
• Development phase
• build capacity
• strengthen curriculum leadership
• Longer-term
• sustainability

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Barriers

• Insufficient funding to pay for partnership
  working
• Too many partnership initiatives
• Schools and colleges funded on a differential
  basis
• Different pay and conditions frameworks for staff
  in different parts of the partnerships
• Variable admission arrangements
• Need to focus on schools own position in
  performance tables
• Lack of recognition for partnership working in
  inspection process
• No national system for monitoring and capturing
  added value in partnerships

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The way forward for the government

• Move to a culture of collaboration
• Fund partnerships
• Change accountability system
• Rationalise partnership programmes
• Produce coherent support strategy
• Encourage wider leadership
• Be patient

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The way forward for schools

• Create a culture of collaboration
• Deal with non-collaborators
• Be prepared to commit funding
• Be rigorous about quality assurance and local
  accountability
• Involve governors, staff, parents and students
• Define clear focus
• Embed values
• Develop joint CPD
• Distribute leadership
• Be patient and persistent
• Communicate, communicate

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