Contact: Janet Sheriton, Tel 01962 846574, email [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report highlights and encourages the moves of schools, colleges and other education providers to pool autonomy and develop collaborative decision making, when appropriate, to meet the needs of local communities.

2 Recommendation

That the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) supports the development of increasingly collaborative decision making and governance arrangements in schools and colleges across Hampshire.

3 Background

3.1 Since the advent of Local Management of Schools in 1988 there has been a concentration of decision making powers and accountability at the level of individual schools and governing bodies. More recently there has been a growing emphasis on the needs of schools and other providers to work together to meet the needs of whole communities. The need for collaboration has been clearly evident in the developments of extended services, 14 -19 education, education inclusion partnerships and more recently the youth support strategy, but is not confined to these. It is part of a development that sees 21^st century schools, and other providers, looking beyond the children and young people on their own rolls, to ensuring the quality of education and well-being across the local area.

3.2 The report describes arrangements for schools and other education providers to work together more formally, through joint governance utilising collaboration regulations.

3.3 Some arrangements already exist but new models are developing to underpin wider collaborations. This is particularly so in the area of education improvement partnerships, 14-19 diploma delivery and extended service provision led or procured by schools.

3.4 For twenty years, since the advent of local management, schools have operated largely autonomously and often in competition with each other. Increasingly, there is recognition that emerging agendas which require collaboration call for schools to pool decision making on some matters which hitherto they have decided individually. The Collaboration Arrangements (Maintained Schools and Further Education Bodies) (England) Regulations 2007 offer a mechanism (the joint committee) for schools and FE providers to pool autonomy and decision making in selected areas of responsibility, in order to meet the needs of students within their geographical areas. These collaborative area boards are likely to be known by a variety of titles but, whatever they are called, they offer the opportunity for schools and other education providers to give life to key parts of the guiding visions and beliefs contained in the Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP), such as:

"Schools and colleges have an important role to play in ensuring the health, safety, achievement, participation in society and future economic well being of all children and young people in their care";

"Everyone providing services to children and young people must work together to maximise the use of the limited resources available. By working together we can achieve things that we cannot achieve alone".

3.5 The most fundamental of our beliefs is that:

"The interests of children and young people aged 0-19 and support to their families and carers must be at the centre of our work at all times."

3.6 If we are never to give up on a child, everyone needs to deliver for all children always, not some children sometimes. Providers of services in localities including schools need to steer, determine, influence, debate, agree, and decide to allocate resources to meet the needs of all children in their locality.

4 Current position on collaboration in Hampshire County Council

4.1 A number of groups of schools have already begun to use the Collaboration Regulations to meet their needs in particular areas. For example, schools on Hayling Island have established a joint committee to oversee the development of extended services and the local Children's Centre. Negotiations are beginning between schools, with a view to enabling area-wide joint decision making with Hayling Island and the Warblington Schools. Similarly, discussions are taking place with schools and, potentially, FE and other providers in the Fareham and Gosport, Leigh Park, East Hants and Basingstoke, and other areas, to develop models for common decision making.

5 Purpose of Collaborative Area Boards

5.1 To provide a means by which schools and other education providers can:

· contribute to the development, implementation and evaluation of the education strategies for their area with each other and the LA

· enable effective area wide collaborations which support the development of every child's potential

· enable system leadership and collaborative decision making within an area

· promote the integration of education provision across an area and throughout the age ranges to provide a coherent service for all users

· enable the District Local Children and Young People's Plan to be informed by the aspirations of the communities of Hampshire.

6 Outputs

6.1 Collaborative area boards could, working with the County Council, develop and implement area-wide strategy and joined-up decision making whenever necessary. As they mature they could act as the holder and spender of HCC devolved budgets via service level agreement and/or budgets pooled by individual schools and other organisations. Collaborations enable organisations to employ staff in common to co-ordinate, manage or deliver services across an area. This would have immediate benefits for current initiatives such as:

· 14-19 - e.g. the development of area-wide protocols for quality assurance, principles of behaviour and discipline and agreement on the application of sanctions

· Extended Services - e.g. the employment of area co-ordinators and agreement on how to deliver the range of services across the area

· Children's Centres - e.g. co-ordination of services across an area and effective use of partners

· Education Inclusion Partnerships - e.g. agreement of operational principles and commitment to joint resolution of problems

· Youth Support Strategy - e.g. agreeing operational principles for the deployment of services across and area.

7 Behaviours

7.1 The success or failure of partnership working and collaborations rests not on the mechanisms of organising boards and committees and their operating principles but on the expectations and behaviours of those who take part. Building trust takes optimism, time, work and resilience. Some of the behaviours required of those who enter into area wide collaborative community leadership are:

· put children and the five outcomes first

· mutual respect

· trust

· honesty

· rational thought

· openness

· genuine dialogue

· listening and hearing.

8 Operating Framework

8.1 Membership and Size. The Collaboration Regulations require each school or college participating to agree the terms of reference of the joint committee. They do not require every participating institution to be represented in membership. As well as schools and FE providers associate members would need to be drawn from Partnership Boards at Children's Centres, Management Committees of PRUs and other providers and partners as appropriate. Decisions about size would need to be made on a case by case basis. However experience suggests that groups that exceed about 20 find it difficult to get meaningful dialogue and effective decision making.

8.2 Officer Engagement. Each Collaborative Area Board as it matured would need to be advised by the Area Directors or District Managers (E&I) and (C&F). Other officers might attend for particular items, as necessary, requested through the District Manager. The county council will consider supporting administrative arrangements where necessary.

8.3 Administration. It would be for the school and college governor members to determine the clerking arrangements for the joint committee. Minutes would be public documents, subject to the normal rules of confidentiality.

8.4 Frequency of Meetings. One per term.

8.5 Terms of Reference. It is for the collaborating governing bodies to determine and agree the terms of reference. Sample Terms of Reference have been developed to aid this.

9 The fit with wider children's services

9.1 These arrangements for collaborative working are for schools and other providers of education and are concerned with mechanisms by which they take decisions that affect more than one institution. They do not interfere with county, district or sub-district arrangements through which wider children's services conduct their work, but should be designed to relate to and complement those other partnerships.

9.2 In the future, effective collaborative governance arrangements for schools and other providers will improve joint working between them and wider services. The current arrangements mean that wider children's services usually have to engage with each school separately because one cannot represent another. Working with a collaboration will be more efficient.

10 Corporate priorities

10.1 The action being taken by schools and other providers is expected to make a major contribution in support of the County Council's corporate priorities, particularly maximising well-being.

10.2 It also supports all outcomes of the Children Act 2004 and is entirely consistent with the Hampshire County Council policy `Maximising well-being through Education.'

11 Consultation

11.1 Prior to the presentation of this report to the Executive Lead Member, there has been consultation with CYPPMB, Children's services officers, legal services, CSDMT and schools wishing to explore collaborative working.

12 Legal implications

12.1 None.

13

14 Financial implications

13.1 Collaborative decision making amongst schools offers the potential for decisions that are more joined up and integrated, and offer greater value for money and less duplication of services. The regulations enable the joint committee to act as the holder and spender of HCC devolved budgets, and budgets pooled by individual schools and other organisations, in a transparent, open and accountable way.

15 Personnel implications

15.1 Collaborative area boards for education providers offer the potential to shift the demand for officers support for collaborative decision making onto a more sustainable basis. They offer collaborating schools and colleges the framework to employ staff in common to co-ordinate, manage or deliver services across an area. Such posts already exist and are growing in number. Personnel service support has been provided currently on a case by case basis to advise on contractual matters. The need for future discussion with professional associations as collaborative working increases is anticipated.

16 Impact assessment

16.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified. Successful collaborative working involving all education providers in a local community offers the prospect of an agreed and integrated approach to meeting the needs of all children including those from minority ethnic groups, those with disabilities and those from vulnerable groups.

17 Crime prevention issues

17.1 Schools and other providers working together, particularly in inclusion partnerships, may well be able to make better provision for young people likely to be excluded from school. There is some correlation between these and those eventually known to the Youth Offending Team and better collaboration between institutions has the potential positively to impact on crime prevention.

18 Views of the Local County Councillor

17.1 They were not sought.

18 Conclusion

18.1 The Children's Plan (2007) sets out a vision for the `21^st century school'. It sees all schools as being interested in more than the children and young people on their school roll. It sees them as actively working to ensure that education and well-being in the local area are as good as they can be. Collaboration between institutions is the way forward and mechanisms that allow those collaborations to work in the area of governance and decision making are key.

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