Contact: Lionel Paris, Head of Adult and Community Learning, telephone 01962 846848, e-mail: [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The report informs members about a Government initiative to promote extended schools, describes the support being offered to schools through a Standards Fund grant and puts forward a strategic framework for the development of extended schools in Hampshire.

1.2 The County Council's emerging strategy aims to support all interested schools in becoming extended schools over time and proposes the phased development of so-called `full service extended schools' based on clusters or groups of schools across the county.

1.3 The development of extended schools supports aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (Maximising life opportunities ) by focusing on school improvement, the better co-ordination and delivery of caring services for children and families and promoting schools as centres of learning for their whole communities. It also contributes towards aim 4 (Building strong and safe communities) by improving access to locally delivered health and social care services, and engaging communities and partner agencies in the planning of provision such as child care, adult learning and the community use of school facilities.

2 Background

2.1 Extended schools provide services and activities to pupils, their families and their local communities during the school day, before and after school hours, at weekends and during school holidays. These services might include any of the following:

· childcare

· health and social care

· adult learning

· family learning

· parenting support

· study support

· community use of school facilities

· ICT access and support for the community

Extended schools work in partnership with other agencies and service providers to help children, young people and adults achieve their potential; they are not expected to provide all these services directly. Important partners include Connexions, the Learning and Skills Council, Primary Care Trusts, the Police, district and borough councils, post-16 colleges, a wide range of voluntary agencies and local community interests, as well as the County Council's services.

2.2 Full service extended schools are required to offer a full range of the core extended services and also to develop multi-agency support for children and families. Giving access to such support on one site helps make the services more coherent and better facilitates `knowledge-sharing' between different children's professionals. After a range of pathfinder projects, a number of unitary authorities were invited to nominate a school to develop from 2004/2005 as a full service extended school, using funding provided by the DfES. There are now 114 such designated schools across the country, including one each in Portsmouth and Southampton.

2.3 Research and evaluation of the pathfinders suggest that extended schools can generate positive outcomes for pupils, their families and wider communities. For pupils, this can include improved attainment, attendance, attitude and behaviour. For families, activities can have a positive impact on parental involvement in their children's education which can further support improved attainment. Extended schools can also make a valuable contribution to neighbourhood renewal and community cohesion, by creating local centres of learning and a place where different sectors of the community can take part in activities.

2.4 Extended schools are about developing an approach rather than achieving a status. As such, schools do not need to apply for designation. Extended schools are as much about doing things differently as doing new things. Characteristics of the approach include a commitment to partnership working and full engagement with parents, as well as a willingness to seek out and respond to local expressions of community need.

2.5 Over time, the Government intends that all schools will offer some extended services. The `core offer' for primary schools will be study support, family learning and parenting support, and childcare. By 2008, the Government wants access to childcare for 5-11 year olds to be available from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm (including holidays) for at least half the parents with children at primary schools. By 2010, the target is to guarantee affordable childcare for every parent. The `core offer' for secondary schools will also include study support and family learning alongside greater community use of school facilities. By 2008, one third of secondary schools will be encouraged to provide a "full range of stimulating activities and things for children to do" from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, with all schools making this provision all year round from 2010.

3 Funding support

3.1 The Government has announced its intention to roll-out the extended school programme across all LEAs. The County Council has been allocated a Standards Fund grant of £1.3 million in 2005/06 to support Hampshire's schools in developing extended services and activities. The funding programme is expected to run for three years, although the level of grant will be confirmed at the start of each year. Most of the grant has to be spent at school level on building the capacity of schools to deliver services, to reduce barriers to learning, to develop partnerships with key agencies and to consult with the main stakeholders (children, parents, communities and agencies) about the services needed. The grant should not be spent on the delivery of the services, except possibly for some short-term support as `pump-priming'. LEAs and schools are expected to access funding streams already in place for specific service delivery. The funding is most likely to be used by schools to release staff time or engage new staff to undertake research, build partnerships, co-ordinate provision across schools, apply for external funding, and overcome any obstacles to development. It may also be spent on materials or equipment and the decoration or refurbishment of space to accommodate the extended activities.

3.2 In addition to providing support for all interested schools, the grant is intended to support the development of one "full service extended school model" in each LEA area. In the light of the experience of the pathfinder projects, such a model may now be based on a single school, a cluster of schools or across a close network of schools and other providers. Local circumstances will determine the most suitable model. It will need to be delivering all the core services by April 2006 and be able to demonstrate multi-agency working in support of children and families. Clearly, one school or even one group of schools could not in themselves deliver full services for the whole of an LEA's area especially in a county the size of Hampshire. The grant is intended to offer LEAs an opportunity to trial different models before adopting a more universal approach in the future. Having said that, it is open to individual LEAs to use the funding to support more than one school or group of schools if preferred.

3.3 Each LEA has been asked to nominate to the DfES by 31 March 2005 the school or schools which will be helped to establish themselves as full service extended school models during the three years of the initiative, starting on 1 April 2005. LEAs have also been asked to avoid time-consuming application procedures and pay particular regard to the capacity of the nominated schools to manage the development without a negative impact on school performance.

3.4 Alongside the Standards Fund initiative, the Hampshire Excellence Cluster is also expected to establish a full service extended school model. The Cluster includes schools in the Havant area together with Wildern School, and will receive additional funding through the DfES' Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP).

4 Hampshire's response

4.1 A cross-branch officers' steering group was formed during last summer, initially led by the ACEO (Lifelong Learning) but now by the ACEO (School and Community). After researching the outcomes of the various pilots and other available information, the group began to identify some key principles which should inform the County Council's response. A communication was sent at the end of June 2004 to all schools explaining the initiative and inviting "expressions of interest" from those wishing to be supported in developing as extended schools. There was a high response from all phases, including special schools. Consultation with headteacher representatives through the Standing Committees of the Lifelong Learning Branch and the Community Headteachers Group was undertaken.

4.2 Confirmation of the Standards Fund grant and the conditions attached to it were not received until the autumn term, but the need for someone to manage the initiative within the County Council was recognised early on. It was decided to create a new fixed-term post of Education Officer (Extended Schools) within the Education Department's Adult and Community Learning Unit. Furthermore, it was decided to fund the post from 1 January 2005 to 31 March 2005 from the existing `Community Use of Schools' budget, to give a lead-in before the Standards Fund grant became available. Following a national advertisement, an experienced community education manager from a Hampshire school was appointed - David Wright - who took up his post on 1 January.

4.3 The principles informing Hampshire's strategy include the following:

· the need to recognise the considerable experience of many schools in Hampshire with regard to managing services for the community and to build on this good practice

· an emphasis on sustainable development so that any new provision can continue beyond the initial three-year funding period

· multi-agency and partnership working will be at the heart of full service extended school development

· an emphasis on spreading support from the Standards Fund grant to as many interested schools as possible

· full service extended school models will be based on clusters or groups of schools, rather than individual schools.

4.4 The aim will be to work over time towards at least two full service school clusters or groups of schools in each district council area. Development will be phased so that the experience of earlier models can be applied. In the first year, most of the Standards Fund grant will be used to raise awareness and build capacity across all schools. One full service extended school model will be developed in the Hampshire Excellence Cluster in Havant using BIP funding, which will address the challenges of Hampshire's most deprived community. The Family and Schools Support Team (FASST) will be central to its operation. It is proposed to nominate two other clusters to the DfES as part of the national programme supported by the standards fund grant. These will be based on clusters of schools in the catchment areas of established community schools, including their partner special schools. One will be led by Brune Park Community College in Gosport and the other by Wyvern Technology College in Fair Oak. The Brune Park cluster serves a community characterised by relative disadvantage. The Wyvern cluster will provide opportunities to demonstrate the relevance of the full service approach in a mixed and arguably more typical Hampshire community, where the implications of `Every Child Matters' is as important but sometimes less obvious.

4.5 The nominated schools face some challenging targets and will have to get core services up and running very quickly. There will be opportunities to support more full service models across the county, which will be able to develop at their own pace, away from the focus of the national programme.

4.6 In the next few months, an audit of extended services and activities presently being delivered by schools is planned, which will inform the strategy and provide data for benchmarking progress. A number of awareness raising events about the extended schools approach is being planned for headteachers and governors, drawing on experience from outside the county. Schools will be consulted about a system for allocating the balance of the standards fund grant which is under development and which is likely to be outcome based. In other words, funding will be targeted with the intention of impacting on specific school performance targets rather than just supporting the expansion of extended services and activities. As already indicated, most funding will support proposals put forward by partnerships of schools or between schools and community groups or agencies, rather than individual schools seeking to work in isolation. The overall aim will be to build capacity and achieve sustainable development.

4.7 The extended school approach presents opportunities to make a fundamental difference to the relationships between schools and their pupils, families and the communities they serve. There is the potential for schools to work with Local Strategic Partnerships and to make real contributions to local development priorities. The approach will encourage more parents to get involved in their own learning and in the support of their children. Priority will be given to the support of vulnerable children and families. New ways of working between different agencies will improve access to support services.

5 Legal implications

5.1 The Education Act 2002 gave school governing bodies a community facilities power to provide services for children, their families and the communities served by the schools. The DfES is preparing further guidance for schools about the governance of extended school programmes.

6 Financial implications

6.1 The financial implications are included in the report.

7 Personnel implications

7.1 An additional post of Education Officer (Extended Schools) has been established on a fixed term appointment from 1 January 2005 to 31 March 2008. The first three months are being funded from existing resources within the Community Use of Schools budget and thereafter from the Standards Fund Grant.

8 Impact assessment

8.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified. A positive impact is expected.

9 Crime prevention issues

9.1 The extended schools approach encourages schools to work in partnership with agencies such as the police and youth offending teams. A positive impact is expected.

10 Views of the Local County Councillor

10.1 The strategy relates to county-wide development.

Recommendation

1 That Members note the emerging strategy for supporting the development of extended schools in Hampshire and how it relates to the wider implementation of the Children Act 2004.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None.