Education ImprovementPartnerships

local collaboration for school improvementand better service delivery

ForewordThere has been a long history of schools and other agencies working together to improveoutcomes for children and young people. Focused and good quality collaboration between schools,FE colleges and other educational providers, and with other statutory and voluntary sectororganisations, has proved an effective way to improve the delivery of services and raise standardsof education within communities.

The Government attaches great importance to learning from effective partnership working. Highquality collaboration is a key complement to the working of strong autonomous institutions.Confident schools want to collaborate with others in their community to drive a shared agenda forimproving standards, to share resources and good practice, to ensure high quality provision for allyoung people and to underpin community cohesion.

School networks can take many forms and serve many purposes. The concept of EducationImprovement Partnerships introduced in this prospectus is designed to give some unity andsharper purpose to the idea of collaboration in the education service. We hope the idea of EIPs and this prospectus will stimulate:

● the expansion of high quality collaboration● the rationalisation of partnership activity where appropriate● the devolution of responsibilities and resources from local authorities to groups of schools

and other partners

We see EIPs having potential in a variety of contexts, including:● 14-19 provision● behaviour improvement and alternative educational provision● the development of childcare and extended services

Please tell us your plans for partnership and where these will add greatest benefit. Later in the year,we will host a special conference for learning providers and local authorities making real progresswith collaborative working of this kind.

sEducationImprovementPartnerships

Localauthoritystrategy

Schoolsleadingreform

Localcommunity

needs

Nationalpriorities

Purpose

Principles

An Education Improvement Partnership should set out its aims within the followingframework of objectives:

● school improvement: raising attainmentand improving behaviour and attendance inall schools within the partnership;

● personalisation of provision for children andyoung people;

● delivering on the outcomes of Every ChildMatters in all schools and through childcareand extended services.

● In these cases, it must be clear how this jointagreement fits into the wider Children’s andYoung People’s Plan for improving children’sservices across the area – and within thechildren’s trust arrangements which willunderpin it and deliver improved outcomes.

● The members of the partnership will bemutually accountable for shared functionsand for the outcomes it delivers inconnection with those functions. Thepartnership will want to develop a strategywhich is broad-based, raising attainmentamongst learners, promoting efficiencythrough workforce reform, and combatingbureaucracy to maximise the benefits ofcollaborative working for teachers. It couldbenchmark itself against other partnershipsthrough self-evaluation and peer review tomeasure the impact that partnership workingis making on learning and teaching across thegroup of schools and other partners.

● The Education Improvement Partnershipshould define the common purposeunderpinning its joint activities and how itintends to pursue its over-arching aims.

● The Education Improvement Partnershipwill often serve a defined local communityof learners and should operate on aninclusive basis. Every school in the definedlocality should be encouraged toparticipate.

● The members of an Education ImprovementPartnership should be equally committed tosuccess for all children and young people.This commitment could be demonstratedboth through the partnership’s inclusivityand through mutual accountability, andcould be supported through theestablishment of a shared partnership fundto which each member contributes aspecified sum.

● Where functions are being delegated from alocal authority, the Education ImprovementPartnership should have a joint agreement(by way of a protocol or service levelagreement) with that authority to deliver anagreed, specified set of functions.Appropriate funding would be devolvedfrom the local authority to the partnershipin accordance with those functions.

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Partnership dividendSuccessful partnership working can take timeand effort on the part of schools, colleges, andother providers, particularly in the early stagesas the partnership becomes established.However, evidence from existing partnershipworking shows powerful gains where learningproviders collaborate effectively.

Collaboration strengthens leadership across apartnership. Teachers and their support staffare motivated and stimulated by opportunitiesto work with colleagues in other schools oncommon issues whether it is their subjectspecialism, issues around literacy or numeracy,or behaviour and attendance. Peer support is apowerful method of continuous professionaldevelopment. Teachers also benefit fromworking with colleagues more widely onbroader issues, such as transition into andbeyond school or family support.

In the closest networks we are seeing a muchwider curricular choice being made availableto students, with a more co-ordinated andfocused approach to learning and teaching.This is enhanced by shared expertise in theuse of assessment for learning, to create amore personalised offer.

In some parts of the country issues aroundchildcare, child protection, and extendedservices for children, young people and theirfamilies are already achieving better outcomesthrough strong collaboration between schoolsand children’s services working in partnershipwith local authorities. Schools and other

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The partnership dividend for schools –better outcomes for pupils

● schools lead the system and focus onwhat works

● higher rates of improvement

● sharing provision of a broader curriculum

● motivating all school staff throughprofessional dialogue with partner schools

● sharing provision for disruptive andexcluded pupils

● trusted headteacher colleaguesunderstanding the context

● sharing resources

● wider range of out of school activities

The partnership dividend for localauthorities – better outcomes for pupils

● focus on strategic role

● champions of school standards

● capitalising on expertise in schools

● fewer delivery partners

● more funding at the front line

● holistic children’s services

● ownership by community

● adapted to local needs

children’s services are being encouraged tolook at the wider needs of the child and tocollaborate in providing multi-agency supportin order to deliver on the five Every ChildMatters outcomes – being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positivecontribution and achieving economic well-being in life.

Existing programmes such as Excellence inCities (EiC), the Leadership Incentive Grant(LIG), the Leading Edge PartnershipProgramme (LEPP), Network LearningCommunities, Federations and the SpecialistSchools Programme have established strongand effective partnerships. Rates ofimprovement in EiC schools, for example, aretwice the national average. It is clear thatimprovements have occurred both whereextra funding has been in place and where ithas not. The experience of many partnershipstells us that it is by establishing different, morecollaborative ways of working that real andsustainable improvement is achieved.

Education Improvement Partnerships are notintended to replace or marginalise existingpartnerships. Instead, they offer a way tostreamline, and build upon thesearrangements within the context of a NewRelationship with Schools. There will begreater freedom to fashion what works locallyrather than a requirement to collaborate on arange of separately defined models of nationalpartnership. Schools already experienced inworking together can further develop usingthe creation of an Education ImprovementPartnership to extend into new areas and toinvolve other partners such as colleges andwork-based training providers. Other groups ofschools seeking to work together for the firsttime will have a single model of good practiceto help them.

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Existing models of partnership working...

Learning Partnerships promote a culture ofprovider collaboration across sectors(schools, FE, work-based learning and adultand community learning) covering post-16learning. They are non-statutory, voluntarygroupings of local learning providers andothers such as local government,Connexions/Careers Service, trade unions,employers and faith groups. The core rolesfor Learning Partnerships are promotingprovider collaboration in support of lifelonglearning and maximising the contributionof learning to local regeneration.

Learning Partnerships are also involved infollow-up to Area Inspections, 14-19proposals and a range of initiatives aroundBasic Skills, workforce development, ICT andprogression into Higher Education.Learning Partnerships are administered andfunded through the LSC, and they arecontributing increasingly to local strategiesfor regeneration and many have becomethe ‘learning arm’ of the Local StrategicPartnerships.

We do not want partnerships to be caught upwith unnecessarily bureaucratic supportstructures – the benefits of partnership mightbe lost if too much resource is spent onfacilitation of the partnership. We want to work with colleagues in the field to developmodel SLAs which will ensure effectivedelivery of service without burdensomemonitoring regimes.

In due course, the School ImprovementPartner (SIP) – an integral part of the NewRelationship with Schools – will challengeeach school about the effectiveness of itswork. SIPs will consider the support a schooldraws from the partnerships of which it is amember, and what contribution the schoolmakes to the local learning community.

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Existing models of partnership working...

Federations are groups of schools thatcome together and set up joint governancearrangements, either through establishing ajoint governing body or an executivecommittee which could includeheadteachers, representatives of local FEcolleges, employers and service providers.Joint governance arrangements enablegroups of schools to work together moreeffectively, to take a coordinated andstrategic approach to raising standards ofteaching and learning across the federationand to develop strong mechanisms for jointaccountability. Federations will be wellplaced to develop into EducationImprovement Partnerships, and a number ofthem already have contracts with their localauthorities to deliver services.

Existing models of partnership working...

The Networked Learning Communities(NLC) programme, brings together groupsof schools, local authorities, HigherEducation Institutions and the widercommunity to enable them to workcollaboratively to raise standards andimprove opportunities for their pupils.Using ICT and other means, NLCs developaccess to leadership learning, informationand communication, and provide greateropportunities for school leaders toexchange good practice. One initiativedeveloped through NLCs is theCollaborative Leadership LearningProgramme designed for facilitatorheadteachers or local authority officersestablishing new ‘learning for leadership’groups or transforming existingheadteacher meetings into ‘learning forleadership’ groups. There are currently 109networks across the country, engaging withmore than 1,200 schools, 30,000 staff and555,000 pupils.

Partnership dividend

Practicalities

Membership of Education ImprovementPartnerships should be flexible to suit theneeds of the partner institutions and theirlearners. However, in order to meet a widerange of demands, especially those around 14-19 reforms, behaviour improvement, andprovision of extended services, partnershipswill need to include, for example, FE colleges,work-based training providers, early yearssettings, such as nursery schools or accreditedchildminder networks, and other private andvoluntary sector providers, business partnersand sports clubs as well as primary andsecondary schools, special schools, CityTechnology Colleges, academies, PRUs andindependent schools. Cross-phase modelswould be particularly advantageous, providingfor the community of pupils throughout theirschool lives, from 0 – 19.

Diversity of membership within a partnershipwill be a powerful way of meeting the needsof all the children within it, unlockingresources and approaches. It will also be a wayof widening access to the specialist expertiseof, for example, schools in Leading Edgepartnerships and Specialist schools.

Most Education Improvement Partnerships willhave a geographical basis in order to deliverlocal benefits. They may of course extendacross local authority boundaries, and schoolsmay be members of more than one

partnership or network. None of thesearrangements however are designed topreclude schools from being members of other partnerships which are national orinternational.

Not all providers within one EducationImprovement Partnership will be affected bythe same issues at the same time. The bestresponse to local need might be for smallergroups of schools within one EducationImprovement Partnership to work together onissues which affect them more than their

neighbours at a particular time. Whilst allmembers of the partnership should work,ultimately, towards improvement across theboard, there is no obligation on all those in thepartnership to be working on exactly the sameareas all the time – local need should be theguide here.

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Existing models of partnership working...

Schools in Leading Edge Partnerships arealready working effectively in collaborationwith other schools. Over time, existingLeading Edge partnerships may evolve intoEducation Improvement Partnerships byadding in new, or extra partners, or bydeveloping the core focus of the LeadingEdge partnership. Leading Edgepartnership lead schools would be wellplaced to take a central role within anEducation Improvement Partnership, usingtheir expertise to work with other schools intheir locality to raise standards and to tackleschool, subject and pupilunderperformance. They might do thisthrough work with partners on a secondspecialism curriculum subject, by providingCPD and ITT for all member schools, or byworking with other schools in their family ofspecialists, together with an FE college orwork-based training provider, to take ondelivery of vocational qualifications.

PracticalitiesIt is important that Education ImprovementPartnerships are founded upon inclusiveprinciples: that is, that no schools are left outin a given locality. Size will depend on localfactors, context, and the functions which it isproposed should be collaboratively assumed.In LIG collaboratives and Excellence Clustersbetween 5 and 30 schools has been shown tobe a good workable size, and all specialistschools are used to working with 5 or morepartner schools. However, there is no rule onthis and the size of your EIP should be for localdecision. Local authorities will have a role toplay as brokers here. A diverse mix of schools,colleges, and other providers, in terms ofspecialism, resources and strengths is likely toprovide a strong basis for raising standardsacross the partnership as a whole.

Accountability Partnerships and local authorities will need toagree protocols or service level agreements tocover the ‘rules’ of Education ImprovementPartnerships that take on functions devolvedfrom the authority, and how groups of schoolsin that partnership will be collectivelyaccountable for delivering particular servicesand meeting defined targets.

These agreements should specify:

● Expected inputs, outcomes, monitoring andevaluation processes, as well as procedureswhich could be taken to rectify anyproblems;

● The resources available;

● Internal lines of accountability. Partnershipmembers will want clarity amongthemselves on leadership, management andgovernance;

● External lines of accountability – wheregroups of schools take on responsibility fordelivery of named functions from a localauthority, and how the delivery duties of

the Education Improvement Partnership fitwith the local authority’s wider Children’sand Young People’s Plan;

● What action will be taken if individualmembers fail to contribute as envisaged bythe Education Improvement Partnership;

● How performance will be managed. Eg

i. benchmarking against otherpartnerships through self-evaluation andpeer review – a development of themodel in EiC

ii. an inspection so that themes of commoninterest can be highlighted. This couldbe requested by the partnership orinitiated by OFSTED, and OFSTED hasagreed to this approach

iii. group performance measures perhaps toquantify overall improvement and thenarrowing of the attainment gapbetween high and low performingschools within the partnership. Thesewould usefully complement individualschool performance measures.

● How to minimise bureaucracy to ensurethat the benefits from working in this wayoutweigh the costs.

These arrangements do not detract from thecontinued responsibility of local authorities tosecure the quality of school education in theirareas. In particular, local authorities will stillhave a duty to support and challenge schoolscausing concern, and will retain their powersof intervention – for example, when a school isplaced in special measures – even where anEducation Improvement Partnership issupporting that school. However, ifarrangements are clearly expressed, there isscope for groups of schools to take onsignificantly enhanced roles and funding fromthe local authority.

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FundingThere are a number of possibilities for effectiveresourcing of Education ImprovementPartnerships which members will want toconsider:

● Where an Education ImprovementPartnership is commissioned to take onfunctions previously delivered by a localauthority, that local authority will devolveappropriate funding to partnerships, toenable them to deliver those functions.This, too, would be set out in the jointagreement.

● Schools already have significant controlover their budgets and can choose to pool acertain amount of funding for sharedfunctions. Collegiate partnerships in bothLondon and Birmingham are committing0.5% of each institution’s budget to adedicated partnership fund. Under the NewRelationship with Schools, there will begreater opportunity for schools to addresslocal priority challenges in this way.

● Education Improvement Partnerships coulddraw on coordinated use of specialistschools’ community funding – around£40,000 for a typical school of 1000 pupils.

● We will encourage and expect Leading orTraining schools to be members ofEducation Improvement Partnerships,working with partner schools to tackleunderperformance or using their secondspecialisms to drive improvement. Leadingschools receive up to £60,000 per year andTraining schools up to £55,000: this isfunding which Education ImprovementPartnerships could draw on to support their activities.

● School Sports Partnerships receive up to£270,000 per partnership to develop sportsopportunities for children and youngpeople. This funding is used to providepartnership co-ordinators in the form of aPartnership Development Manager,secondary school sports co-ordinators andprimary link teachers. The time of these staffcould be used to facilitate collaborativeworking on sports across all schools in anEducation Improvement Partnership.

● Schools participating in Primary StrategyLearning Networks (PSLN) receive up to£19,000 to help them establish thesenetworks. These networks could underpinthe establishment of the EducationImprovement Partnership.

● Shared governance structures, such as thoseadopted by federations, can streamlinefinancial decision-making acrossinstitutions.

● Forming a federation or a joint schoolcompany would further enable schools topool funds.

However, although there will be no new moneyexplicitly earmarked for facilitating EducationImprovement Partnerships, in future schoolswill have a greater say over the allocation ofthe Single Standards Grant than over theexisting Standards Fund. A consultation on

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Purpose

Practicalitiesschool funding was launched on 17 February:this is available at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/. This document proposes thatschools could agree, through the SchoolsForum, to their local authorities increasing thelevel of holdback for partnership work by top-slicing a proportion of the new SingleStandards Grant. (See Chap. 5, para 162 of theconsultation document). This would ensurethat partnership co-ordination could besupported. It would then be up to theEducation Improvement Partnership to decidehow resources for partnership facilitation werebest employed.It is proposed that authoritieswith Excellence in Cities will be able to retainas much of the new grant as in previous years– so if they currently hold back a proportion ofthe grant for coordinating and facilitating a

partnership programme then they cancontinue to do so. However, they should workwith their schools to consider how this centralpot of funding can best support partnershipactivity which meets EIP characteristics andprinciples.

In terms of capital funding, groups of schoolscan already pool part or all of their devolvedformula capital for buildings or ICTinfrastructure. If the partnership wished todevelop new joint facilities, it could work withits local authority to inform the local assetmanagement plan. Depending on localpriorities, these developments could then beprioritised for investment from the authority’scapital resources or, in due course, from its localplans under Building Schools for the Future.

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Improving services and opportunities forlearners should be at the heart of everythingan Education Improvement Partnership does.Sustaining improvement depends on makingprogress across the board: raising attainment,improving standards of behaviour and levelsof attendance, and ensuring the safety andwell-being of children and young people bothin and out of school.

Partnerships will also set out from differentstarting points and with different capacity,depending on previous experience. They maystart by identifying a function on which theyhave already begun to work together, and

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Functionsonce the partnership has become moreestablished, it could then go on to take onother functions in order to improve provisionaround all the priority areas set out above.

The following section describes how workingin an Education Improvement Partnershipcould help schools meet priority demands andmake a fuller offer to learners and theirfamilies across the board. More examples, andspecific case studies, will be available on theEducation Improvement Partnerships website:this will be a living site, updated as we receivecase studies from you.

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EIP

FunctionsRaising attainment

Raising pupil attainment means improvingchildren’s life-chances by opening up newopportunities, emphasising the enjoyment and engagement of all pupils in the learningprocess, and personalising education to meetthe individual needs of all children and young people.

Promoting participation and engaginglearners between the ages of 14-19 demandsthat schools and other providers offer greater,more comprehensive and more genuinechoice of what, where and how to study. It isunlikely that any one institution alone will beable to provide the full range of opportunitiesthat the14-19 reforms require. So collaborationbetween schools, sixth form colleges, FEcolleges, Centres of Vocational Excellence,work-based training providers and employerswill be essential in creating coherent networksfor learning that enable genuine choice andflexibility, allow real intellectual stretch, andthat tailor provision to individual need. Theywill also help build clear progression routes foryoung people so that work-related learning atentry level leads right through to both theworkplace and to higher education.

Education Improvement Partnerships willbring together providers from across allsectors. We have already seen theachievements of 14-19 pathfinder partnershipswhich have delivered much greater curriculumchoice and flexibility. EIPs will build on thebest examples of these pathfinderpartnerships to offer, for example, a range ofwork-based learning opportunities integratedinto the curriculum, co-ordinated timetables toallow ease of movement for students across allpartner institutions, or common KS4prospectuses to show all the options availablein a local area.

Some partnerships are already working withlocal and national employers such as JohnLewis, Dixons, Boots and Tesco, to offerextended work placements which provideyoung people with retail sector skills,qualifications and experience. Otherpartnerships are sharing specialist staff andfacilities such as Centres of VocationalExcellence, and providing wider access touniversity ‘taster’ sessions in partnership withtheir local Higher Education Institution.

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Partnership working in Gateshead

The Central Gateshead 6th Form (cg6) is acollaborative venture between threeschools and Gateshead College. It providesa complete package for sixth formers in theCity. The outflow of young people from thecentral area at age 16 partly prompted thedevelopment of cg6. This outflowimpoverished the curriculum available tothose young people unable or unwilling totravel out of the area, thereby deterringsome from staying on in learning.

By building on the strengths of eachpartner, cg6 has offered students a broaderrange of subjects, including twenty new ASand A level courses, and a greater variety ofopportunities for work-related learning. Bysharing staff and resources, the consortiumhas also provided opportunities for post-16learning in a wider range of locations,including some at the two 11-16 schoolswhich has encouraged reluctant students tostay on at 16 by making available a base ina familiar environment. It has also providedKey Stage 4 students at the schools withpost-16 role models to raise aspirations andincrease confidence. In 2003/04, 23 cg6students accessed post-16 provision atThomas Hepburn (11-16) School, a specialistscience school, and about half of theseyoung people indicated that without suchlocal provision they may not havecontinued in education.

Working in this way has enabled thesepartnerships to engage learners and fostertheir aspirations by offering opportunitieswide and rich enough to meet the individualneeds, interests and aptitudes of each young person.

The National Strategies support schools inraising attainment of pupils at ages 7, 11, 14and 16; and support local authorities in raisingstandards across the Foundation Stage.Schools in Education ImprovementPartnerships could work together supportedby National Strategies consultants or otherspecialist staff, for example, to set up inter-school classroom observation and follow-upsupport to improve classroom practice. Localauthorities and partnerships could also shapethe way in which consultants and othersupport are used in order to target localpriorities. A consultant could be allocated to apartnership which would then negotiate thebest use of their time and skills.

Increased provision of study support activitiesas part of extended schools services will makean important contribution to raisingattainment. A more strategic approach tostudy support and extended learning canmake better use of available resources. Severalschools have collaborated in applications foradditional funding for specific projects andhave drawn up joint development plans.Working together has enabled these schoolsto extend the pool of expertise available tothem for study support sessions and gaineasier access to different learningenvironments.

Education Improvement Partnerships wouldhelp to promote inclusion and raiseattainment amongst children and youngpeople with Special Educational Needs –whether they are in special or mainstreamschools – and improve access to learning fordisabled pupils. Local authorities coulddelegate provision (but not responsibility) for

delivery of SEN advice and support services,and other provision such as family liaison andwelfare officers to groups of schools. Forexample, in Coventry, they have devolved allautism support services to one special schoolwhich has particular expertise in that area.Partnerships also offer an opportunity forschools to pool their expertise in teaching SENpupils across special and mainstream schools,and to jointly commission training andspecialist SEN support services.

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Partnership working in Sheffield

Learning for Life, in its first year, has been adramatic success. Schools, the SheffieldCollege and other providers have workedclosely with the LfL team to create aprogramme which will allow 14 year oldsacross the city a choice of eight appliedGCSEs and 16 additional qualificationswidely respected by employers anduniversities including GNVQs, BTECs andNVQs. The range of courses is extensive,stretching from vendor qualificationsrequired for careers as software and networkengineers through to NVQs in construction,retail, care and business languages.

In the new academic year there will bealmost 4,000 enrolments to the newlearning pathways by 14 year olds fromevery Sheffield school with many youngpeople mixing study in the classroom withexperience in the workplace and training atcollege or with another provider. The newprovision is shaped jointly by teachers andby employers, who have taken part in aseries of high profile business breakfasts toshow their endorsement of the programme.In addition, teachers with particularspecialisms and interests have been broughttogether with lecturers and employers’organisations in curriculum networks wherethe practical implications of introducing anew course can be worked through andwhere best practice can be shared.

Functions

Education Improvement Partnerships withstrong collaborative links with universities andcolleges could pool their Aimhigher funding towiden participation in further and highereducation, as well as to improve gifted andtalented education for students aged 14-19.This would offer more frequent contactbetween secondary pupils and universities, forexample through more regular university‘taster’ sessions. Teaching staff from HigherEducation Institutions could also be involvedin teaching specialist A Level courses, andpupils from schools and FE colleges could

access specialist resources, such as sciencelaboratories, only available at universities.DfES will shortly be producing guidance for allHEIs which will help to streamline therelationship they have with schools and whichwill actively encourage them to engage evenfurther in working directly with schools.

Education Improvement Partnerships wouldallow schools to improve throughcollaboration the quality of their teaching andsupport for gifted and talented pupils. As wellas working together to meet the new qualitystandards now under development, they couldshare co-ordinators, pool the expertise of theirteaching staff or create more sustainableteaching groups by drawing together pupilsfrom several schools. Those partnerships thatinclude independent schools, further or highereducation institutions could take advantage oftheir specialist facilities and teaching.Partnerships will also be able to supporttransfer between sectors, particularly whereprimary-age pupils are already working atsecondary level, for example by allowing themaccess to secondary teachers or classes.Partnership-wide professional developmentmight also be undertaken, or groups ofteachers and their support staff could worktogether to design and evaluate innovativeteaching practices.

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Existing models of partnership working ...

Excellence and Enjoyment: A strategy forprimary schools places a strong emphasison the importance of networking andcollaboration in raising standards in primaryschools. Primary Strategy LearningNetworks (PSLNs) are being developed,through which schools can support eachother to focus on a particular area oflearning with the aim of raising standards inliteracy and maths, increasing schools’capacity to deliver a broad, rich curriculumand improving performance. Some PSLNscould, in time, develop into EducationImprovement Partnerships.

Education Improvement Partnerships couldcollaborate on minority ethnic issues and onraising awareness of racial and religiousharassment. Joint inset sessions on diversitycould be provided by the partnership forteachers from all schools; teachers and theirsupport staff with expertise in EAL or dealingwith newly arrived pupils could work acrossthe group; and expertise in collecting andanalysing data on attainment amongstminority ethnic pupils could be spread toimprove pupil tracking of those pupils acrossall schools. Education ImprovementPartnerships would also offer ways to betterengage parents of minority ethnic pupils:partnerships could include SupplementarySchools and provision on family literacyprogrammes could be shared across the group.

Education Improvement Partnerships will offerthe opportunity for all partners to share ICTresources, for example innovative CityLearning Centre facilities and teacher expertisein order to transform teaching and learningacross the partnership. Schools could also

share ICT support services, materials andguidance, and have specialist ICT teachers orHLTAs working across the partnership toensure other staff can make effective use ofICT in their subject teaching

Learning mentors work with teaching andpastoral staff to identify, assess and work withpupils who need help to overcome barriers tolearning. The evaluation of Excellence in Citiesshows that Learning Mentors are widelywelcomed in schools and staff reportedimprovements in pupils’ self esteem, behaviourand motivation as well as their relationshipswith teachers and peers. Learning mentorscould work across schools within a group,sharing expertise and increasing the reach oftheir services to benefit pupils in all theEducation Improvement Partnership schools.

Collaborative and cross-phase workingbetween schools helps prepare pupils fortransition between early years settings andprimary, primary to secondary, and secondaryto tertiary stages. Some existing partnershipsmake joint curriculum provision across KS2 toKS3, and KS4 to post-16, allow information tobe shared between schools more easily,provide ‘taster’ days for primary pupilsentering secondary schools and greateropportunities for primary staff to shadow theirsecondary counterparts and vice versa.

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Purpose

Partnership working in Leeds

The Temple Newsam/Halton Family ofSchools successfully bid for NewOpportunities Fund funding and developeda regular programme of after school activityin partnership with the local YMCA.A carousel of after school activities wasdeveloped ranging from gymnastics andsport to pottery and steel pan bands.Although NOF funding came to an end in2003 the family has worked in partnershipwith Education Leeds to extend anddevelop study support and secure fundingfor additional work. The family is committedto collaborative working and grants fromthe local Community Involvement Team and SRB5 supported an inter-school sportsfestival in the 2004 summer term. The familyis seeking further funding to supportcollaborative, creative and performing arts projects.

FunctionsImproving behaviourand attendance

Sharing good practice on encouraging better attendance, early intervention withpupil behaviour to prevent exclusions,enabling schools to manage excluded pupilsoutside the classroom, and ensuring thatexcluded pupils get a full time education are key elements in the Behaviour andAttendance Strategy.

In practice, this means effective support forteachers in the classroom, quality on-siteprovision in Learning Support Units, schoolsable to exclude where they need to, qualityoff-site alternative provision and soundarrangements to get excluded pupils back inclass when it is appropriate for them to return.A collaborative approach where schools worktogether, supported by local authorities, tomanage challenging pupils and to takeresponsibility for provision and funding, will bethe best way to ensure a range of support forschools, and of provision for learners.

Education Improvement Partnerships providean opportunity for schools to develop a multi-agency approach, involving schools, localauthorities, Educational Welfare Services, andsocial services. Wider children’s servicesworking in partnership with schools will allowearly intervention to identify and help thosewhose behaviour is a sign of more complexneeds and problems, and to provide a range ofsupport to children in order to foster the goodbehaviour that is essential to learning andgood citizenship.

Working together, schools in EIPs will be ableto share expertise and facilities such asLearning Support Units and be more closelyinvolved in managing Pupil Referral Units.With funding for behaviour support andalternative provision for pupils in mainstream

schools increasingly devolved to – andcontrolled by – Education ImprovementPartnerships rather than by local authorities,EIPs will be able to act as commissioners forpreventative alternative provision. Poolingresources, a partnership will be able to buy inprovision from local authorities or from thevoluntary sector, and to pay for extra supporttailored specifically to their needs in order

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Partnership working in Manchester

Behaviour & Education Support Teams(BESTs) are multi-agency teams bringingtogether a complementary mix ofprofessionals from the fields of health, socialcare and education. The aim of a BEST is topromote emotional well-being, positivebehaviour and school attendance, byidentifying and supporting those with, or atrisk of developing, emotional andbehavioural problems.

Each BEST works across a cluster of schoolsconsisting of a target secondary school andits main associated primaries, and in thecommunity, alongside a range of othersupport structures and services. They workwith children aged 5-18, their families andschools to intervene early and preventproblems developing further. TheManchester BESTs’ workload consists ofreferrals of individual pupils and theirfamilies, issue-led group work, supportingschools in carrying out behaviour audits,holding surgeries for school staff andworking with the Adult Education Serviceon parenting support.

The Manchester BESTs bring together theskills, perspectives and experience of arange of practitioners forming an effectivemulti-disciplinary team. These offer earlierand more individualised support to childrenand their families, as well as support toschools to bring about systemic change inthe way those emotional and behaviouralissues are addressed.

both to get the support they need, and tomake a wider range of quality provisionavailable to pupils.

A partnership could buy in additional supportin the form of, for example, Learning Mentors,family liaison workers, counsellors, behaviourteacher hours, the time of police and socialworkers or of professionals who could providespecialist advice on dealing with childrenwhose challenging behaviour is linked tospecial educational needs. Once they had

‘purchased’ this time, it would then be up tothe partnership to decide how best to utilise it in order to meet the needs of all themember schools.

Alternative provision could be provided in aPupil Referral Unit where headteachers fromacross the group of schools are members ofthe management board. Equally, alternativeprovision programmes could be offered byschools in partnership with a range of private,

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Purpose

Existing models of partnership working ...

Excellence in Cities (EiC) is a targetedprogramme to raise standards in schools indeprived areas. The programme is deliveredlocally by schools working in partnershipwith their local authorities. It both increasesdiversity of provision for pupils andencourages schools to work together toraise standards, improve behaviour andreduce exclusions by workingcollaboratively. Originally aimed atsecondary schools, the programme nowincludes primary schools.

EiC secondary schools, and other schoolsfacing challenging circumstances now alsoreceive Leadership Incentive Grant (LIG), toensure that their leadership teams are ableto transform the delivery of education. LIGfocuses on collaboration between schoolsin order to significantly strengthenleadership, enhance learning and teaching,accelerate improvement in standards andestablish a culture of high expectations. Inmany areas, wider, collaborative approacheshave developed from LIG work, and havenow become established in their own right.In EiC areas, LIG work is delivered under theoverall management of the EiC partnership,along with Behaviour Improvement Plans(BIPs) which are delivered through smallgroups of schools – primary and secondary– within EiC partnerships.

Existing models of partnership working ...

The Specialist Schools Programme helpsschools, in partnership with private sectorsponsors, to establish distinctive identitiesthrough their chosen specialisms, and toraise standards. Specialist schools work with a minimum of 5 partner schools, ofwhich at least one must be a secondaryschool, as well as with local businesses andvoluntary groups. Education ImprovementPartnerships could build on thesepartnerships to enhance learningopportunities, and offer a wider range ofservices to parents and the community.

Functionsvoluntary and community sector organisationssuch as FE colleges, the Prince’s Trust and SkillForce. Schools could also agree to move pupilswith lower level behaviour difficulties betweenschools within the partnership, when this isappropriate, through supported managedmoves. Education Improvement Partnershipswill also support the development of localprotocols around re-integrating excludedpupils into schools on an equitable basis.All secondary schools should have a protocolfor admitting most “hard to place” pupils bySeptember 2005 and these should beextended where necessary to includepreviously excluded pupils, for whomreintegration to school is appropriate, bySeptember 2007.

Over 50 local authorities are alreadycommitted to working in partnership onbehaviour and attendance, and everysecondary school should be part of apartnership working together to managebehaviour provision by September 2007.

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Partnership working in Derbyshire

Peak 11 is a federation of 11 secondaryschools (including 2 Roman Catholicschools and one foundation school) in therural west of Derbyshire with a scatteredpupil population. It has developed from ageneral meeting of head teachers into aformal federation with a wide remit,including re-engaging disaffected pupils.A panel made up of head teachers and LEArepresentatives identifies disaffected pupilsand recommends preventative work whilstproblems are at an early stage. The LEA hasdelegated funding for provision of servicesfor hard to place pupils to the individualschools within the Peak 11, and last year theschools decided to pool some resourceswhich gave them greater flexibility andenabled the panel to seek more imaginativeapproaches to address pupils’ needs.

Collaboration through the federation hasenabled schools to make better provisionfor more pupils. For example, each school inthe group has purchased five one day aweek places at a local college for pupilshaving difficulties at school, to do a pre-NVQ course. The project began with one FEprovider but now schools have branchedout and are using other providers, includingwork-based training providers andpackages of work placement with FE and/ortraining. The LEA is also setting up a KS4PRU with a single point of referral via thehead teacher panel.

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Partnership working in Nottingham

The transition programme in the Nottingham Keys To Success EiC Action Zone provides a forumfor staff and pupils from all the schools, including primary schools, to work together on acurriculum which will raise pupils’ basic and key skills, whilst building trust and developingconfidence and self-esteem amongst pupils, to ensure they can continue to learn effectivelythroughout their transition from primary to secondary school.

The work is supported by a team of Transition Learning Mentors who work with pupils and theirteachers from early in year 6 through to year 7, ensuring a seamless transition in terms ofindividual pupil’s personal and social needs.

By creating opportunities to work and meet together to share pedagogical practices for learningand teaching, there is now a greater understanding amongst primary and secondary teachers ofthe benefits of a cross-phase curriculum. Pupils now settle into the secondary school environmentmore easily and are able to focus on their learning more confidently – significant success inpupils’ attendance and behaviour has been recorded as a result.

FunctionsChildcare andextended services

Many existing partnerships are now workingto provide a much more comprehensiveservice to children, young people and parents.An integrated approach to children’s servicesmeans that social care, education andchildcare services must be brought together ina seamless way to ensure children’s safety andwell-being. And by drawing together a diverserange of providers – some from the private,voluntary or community sector, as well aspublic health and social care agencies –partnerships can also offer greater choice andflexibility of services around childcare andsupport for parents, as well as wideropportunities for outside school activities,advice and guidance for young people.

Education Improvement Partnerships willprovide a way to bring together localproviders from all sectors around a definedcommunity of children and young people,joining up services in a way which moreeffectively addresses the specific needs ofeach individual and their family.

Working together in Education ImprovementPartnerships, schools and colleges will build onthe services and activities already offered bysome extended schools. They mightcollaborate with local partners from healthand social care services in setting up ‘one-stopshops’ offering advisory and support services.Some partnerships are already working on thisand have set up teenage information andadvice centres (TICTACS) on school sites,where a range of professionals includingteachers, counsellors and health professionals,offer guidance and support on issues rangingfrom sexual health and relationships to financeand careers. EIPs could also co-ordinateprovision of after school sport, music or artactivities with local community organisations,

or join up with local branches of organisationssuch as Community Service Volunteers to offercommunity volunteering opportunities.

EIPs will act as a local hub for family learningand community partnership activities, and forsocial and healthcare services. They will also bevital in ensuring comprehensive provision ofextended services. Not all schools will be ableto take on the full extended services modelstraight away, and where this is the case, an EIPwill mean that services provided by one or twoschools could be shared across all thoseparticipating in the partnership. And wherethere are a number of full extended schoolswithin the partnership they could worktogether to offer pupils, families andcommunities access to an even wider range ofmore flexible provision across several sites.

By 2010 every parent with children aged 5-11will be offered the guarantee of affordable andflexible childcare from 8am to 6pm all yearround. Collaborative working through an EIP

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will mean that this childcare offer could bebased in one or two schools in the partnership– and these needn’t necessarily be primaryschools. Secondary schools could be used asthe central point for childcare provision if thiswas the best way to meet parents’ needs.Education Improvement Partnerships willprovide networks to deliver a wider choice ofactivities and locations for after-school clubs,with the best facilities and the time of staffbeing used more efficiently as pupils fromacross groups of schools are brought together.Some schools are already working with privateand voluntary providers to offer holiday clubsand childcare/childminding services.

By 2010, all children aged 11-16 will be able toengage in a full range of study supportactivities, from 8am and 6pm all year round.Education Improvement Partnerships willbring groups of secondary schools togetherwith providers from the private and voluntarysector to offer a wider range of attractiveopportunities for young people. Some schoolsare already working with local volunteerbureaux, Millennium Volunteers and thePrince’s Trust, to bring volunteers from theseorganisations into schools, and to offervolunteering opportunities to their pupils asan option for after-school activities.

EIPs will also take a lead role in helping todeliver children and young people’s services,with local authorities working together withproviders of children’s services, andcommissioning services from partnerships.Schools working together, as well as withhealth professionals and social workers, willmean more effective identification, assessmentand provision for vulnerable children, forexample through joint assessments orcoordinated action for children identified asbeing at risk. Sharing information acrossschools in a partnership will also be importantin helping identify and support vulnerablechildren as they move from one phase to the next.

Partnerships will also be well placed tocontribute to the children’s trust arrangementsthe local authority and other key partnersdevelop to drive forward improvements inoutcomes for children and young peopleacross the piece. Partnership representativeswould have an important part to play – asmembers of the children’s trust board, forinstance, or on operational groups reporting toit – in helping to shape and inform the trust’splanning and commissioning strategies, and indeveloping arrangements for involvingchildren, young people and parents.

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Purpose

Partnership working in Stoke on Trent

MAC’s Place at Mitchell High School, Stokeon Trent, opened to pupils in November2002 from existing accommodation withinthe school grounds. MAC’s Place is a multi-agency centre where pupils are able to getinformation, advice and support, make anappointment to have a private consultationwith a member of staff, take part inactivities and events and pick up leafletsand brochures. It is open at lunchtimesthroughout the school term. Since itopened, over 500 young people have visitedMAC’s Place during their lunchtime toaccess services like the School Nurse DropIn, Clinic in a Box, and the Connexions DropIn. A range of specialist services have alsobeen provided, from support for youngpeople who have caring responsibilities (inassociation with Young Carers) toprogrammes to assist young people to stop smoking.

As well as providing services for pupils, anumber of organisations provide servicesfor the wider communities from MAC’s Placeat Mitchell High School. The Citizens AdviceBureau, Work Start and GroundWork, usethe centre at regular times throughout the week.

FunctionsLocal authorities might commission an EIP topropose a solution on how a specific numberof childcare places could be delivered acrossthe partnership, or to form a multi-disciplinaryworking group around a specific local problem- for instance drug use – involving GPs,teachers, social workers, school nurses, andfamily liaison officers.

Education Improvement Partnerships could also work as a delivery agent forcommunity regeneration activity fundedthrough Neighbourhood Renewal Fund andEuropean Funds.

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Partnership working in Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington secondary school isworking to develop extended serviceswithin The Learning Trust cluster of schoolswhich also includes 5 nearby primaryschools. An extended schools cluster co-ordinator, based at the school, has beenemployed to work across all the schools inthe cluster to support them in developingextended services. Other non-teaching staffare also employed across the cluster such ascounsellors who provide support andadvice around emotional and behaviouralissues. Links are also being made with thePrimary care Trust to provide preventivehealth programmes.

Workforce reform and professionaldevelopment

Education Improvement Partnerships wouldfacilitate workforce reform, giving teachersmore time through more effective working.Specialist staff, teaching resources and goodpractice can be shared amongst schools andother providers, providing greateropportunities for professional and leadershipdevelopment, and increasing job satisfaction.

We know from the work of LeadershipIncentive grant collaboratives thatpartnerships provide opportunities forheadteachers and other leaders to developtheir leadership skills. Joint heads ofdepartments can be appointed across thegroup; experienced headteachers can workwith new or developing heads; and subjectspecialist staff can be shared. In an existingpartnership in North East Manchester forexample, an assistant headteacher wasappointed to work with heads of departmentsacross all schools on leadership andprofessional development.

Schools in Education ImprovementPartnerships, including Training Schools andHEI/Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers,could work together to build capacity todeliver high quality ITT and training for thewhole school workforce within the partnershipand beyond. Such partnerships enable schoolsto develop and deliver CPD, with thepossibility of becoming accredited providers in their own right.

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Purpose

Partnership working in Devon

The HOSTA primary consortium is aDevon/Plymouth based partnership ofthree schools led by Oreston Primaryschool. The consortium is working with 15 schools across two local authorities –Devon and Plymouth – to deliver CPD.It has developed a research based learningapproach, engaging every teacher inresearch as part of their performancemanagement process. Marjon College, theirlocal teacher training institution, hasworked with the consortium to develop a 3 year BEd course which they will deliveracross the partnership.

The consortium has also developed its owntraining models for Teaching Assistants andfor Mentors where Mentors take increasedresponsibility for initial teacher training interms of both trainee supervision andcourse delivery, always involving a crosssection of staff from across the 3 schools.HOSTA also runs a research project inassociation with the Teacher TrainingCollege and Plymouth LEA, and hasdeveloped a new Newly Qualified Teacherquality kite mark.

FunctionsWe already have groups of specialist schoolsworking together to deliver co-ordinatedsubject specialist advice, guidance and CPD –at primary and/or secondary level, includingcross-cutting aspects such as use of ICT orassessment for learning models. This expertisecan be shared more widely through EducationImprovement Partnerships, for examplethrough inset sessions led by subject specialistteachers for fellow subject teachers.

Some existing partnerships of schools, such asthe Chesil Partnership in Dorset shareAdvanced Skilled Teachers across all schools.This allows both the subject expertise of ASTsand their leadership in relation to overallimprovement and innovation in teaching to be available to all schools in the group.In Hammersmith and Fulham for example,the City Learning Centre coordinates thedeployment of ASTs and ensures that they aretargeted where they can have greatest impacton raising standards. Education ImprovementPartnerships would also allow ASTs and otherspecialist teachers to have greater contactwith colleagues in Further and HigherEducation Institutions in the partnership, andto take advantage of specialist facilities tocarry out research in their subject area.

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We expect Education ImprovementPartnerships to evolve: some well-establishedpartnerships can become them very quickly.There is no application process – it is forgroups of schools and their local authorities tomake this happen in a manner that suits localcircumstances.

However, we have been struck by thewidespread enthusiasm and support amongschools keen to work together on a broaderrange of issues and among local authorities as they re-shape their role. We want EducationImprovement Partnerships to get underwayquickly and to hear from you about wherethey can best be utilised in your area. We will include case studies and modelprotocols/service level agreements as we hearabout them on our website. We will gathertogether those people who are setting thepace on this agenda later this year andregularly update the website with material asyou send it to us.

In the meantime, we would particularly like tohear about:

● Where you are going to start your work informing Education ImprovementPartnerships?

● Whether there are core or minimumfunctions that a Education ImprovementPartnership should provide?

● What further guidance or support is neededto enable schools to work together todeliver the functions described?

● Whether there are other functions orresponsibilities that you would like to seeEducation Improvement Partnerships take on?

We hope you will be motivated to act on thebasis of this prospectus. Please let us knowhow you get on – where the opportunities aregreatest as well as anything that is getting inthe way by the end of May 2005.

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What next?

To find out more, or to send us models of partnership working that you have developed, you canemail us at:

educationimprovement.partnerships@dfes.gsi.gov.uk

This prospectus is also on-line at:

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/sie/si/educationimprovementpartnerships

The on-line prospectus contains links to further information on each of the functions and existingmodels of partnership working listed here.

You can download this publication or order copies online atwww.teachernet.gov.uk/publications

Search using ref: 1462-2005DOC-EN

Copies of this publication can also be obtained from:

DfES Publications, PO Box 5050,

Sherwood Park,Annesley,

Nottingham NG15 0DJ

Tel: 0845 60 222 60 Fax: 0845 60 333 60

Textphone: 0845 60 555 60

email: dfes@prolog.uk.com

Please quote ref. no. 1462-2005DOC-EN

This prospectus is also available on-line at:www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/sie/si/educationimprovementpartnerships

ISBN: 1-84478-454-1PPCHER/D33/0305/14

©Crown copyright 2005Produced by the Department for Education and SkillsExtracts from this document may be reproduced for non-commercial educationor training purposes on the condition that the source is acknowledged.