ASPECT calls for more powers for children’s trusts
22 June 2008
Aspect has welcomed key features of the government’s policy on education improvement. Meeting at the weekend the Aspect council identified seven “positive features’ and committed itself to “assisting this new DCFS initiative in practical ways, and also to helping to communicate its significance and nature to the wider arena of educational improvement and children’s services professionals.
The union called for new legislation to strengthen the specific powers of local Children’s Trusts. Aspect general secretary John Chowcat said: “New powers for local Children’s Trusts continues the logic of government policy and will give extra impetus to the organisational and cultural changes required in each locality to advance the integrated and improved children’s services agenda.”
Note to editors
Aspect is the only professional association and trade union exclusively representing professionals working in educational improvement and children’s services and is the biggest union represented in the Soulbury negotiating framework. These professionals play a vital role in shaping and influencing the lives of millions of children and young people. Aspect members include advisory headteachers, directors and managers of children’s services, school improvement and early years advisers, education welfare officers, 14-19 coordinators, heads of Sure Start, Ofsted inspectors, parent partnership staff and self-employed consultants. Over the past five years membership has doubled and Aspect now represents over 4,000 professionals working in the field.
ASPECT RESPONSE TO DCSF’S ‘PROMOTING EXCELLENCE FOR ALL: SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY’ AND ‘NATIONAL CHALLENGE’
Aspect recognises the renewed focus on the key issue of educational improvement embodied in the DCSF documents ‘Promoting Excellence for All – School Improvement Strategy: Raising Standards, Supporting Schools’ and ‘National Challenge: A Toolkit for Schools and Local Authorities’, published on 10 June 2008, within the important wider context of the government’s 2007 Children’s Plan and the ongoing Every Child Matters agenda. Our Association particularly welcomes the following seven positive features of this significant government policy initiative: m/f
- National Challenge represents a major strategic intervention by DCSF, primarily based on enhanced practical support for those local schools and colleges currently below the government’s specified floor target. Secondary school performance data, and other relevant information pertaining to children’s development, are available in various forms to assist the broader diagnosis of problems and identification of the specialist support required locally.
Sizeable additional resources have been allocated to this initiative, including £200 million of new central government funding, as announced in Budget 2008, to supplement existing resources. The concrete experience of the ‘London Challenge’ project indicates that such additional investment does help local schools to achieve higher standards. The overall capacity of local authority support services and related resources will need to be sufficient to carry this initiative forward effectively in relation to each of the 630 schools involved.
The clear leadership role given to local authorities, in implementing this specific school improvement strategy via revised action plans for individual schools and enhanced local investment to provide effective support for secondary schools underlines the strategic importance of local councils and the ‘middle tier’ in driving educational progress in England across all phases.
The requirements for the new National Challenge Advisers (NCAs) to provide 20 days of support for relevant schools, to be experienced and trained to improve low attaining schools, and to understand the full range of school improvement support available from various sources, constitute a helpful recognition of the distinct and highly professional nature of such a role in a modern educational sector.
The significance and definition of the NCA role within this new strategy, and the specific leadership obligations placed on schools and on local authorities under National Challenge, usefully highlight the need for the provision of high-quality specialist coaching and training for key postholders involved in this school improvement drive.
There is an important emphasis on enhanced support for secondary modern schools, in those areas where academic selection remains a feature of local educational provision, which acknowledges that the prior attainment of their pupils represents an identifiable challenge to be addressed and overcome.
Teachers in those schools presently falling below the specified floor target are to be prioritised for access to the new masters degree in teaching and learning highlighting the key issue of improving teachers’ professional development in order to help secure sustainable school improvement in England.
The prior attainment of all pupils, genuine local community involvement and the development of pupil wellbeing indicators are among the relevant factors which will assist the implementation of this strategy, together with the evolution of extended school services and other key features of the wider Every Child Matters project. Aspect therefore commits itself to assisting this new DCFS initiative in practical ways, and also to helping to communicate its significance and nature to the wider arena of educational improvement and children’s services professionals. In addition, we intend to play a full part in the important ongoing debate on the ‘place’ of educational advance within the broader context of the ‘Children’s Plan’, which this new government initiative will help to stimulate.
Finally, Aspect calls for new legislation to be brought forward to strengthen the specific powers of local Children’s Trusts in order to assist the organisational and cultural changes required in each locality to advance the integrated and improved children’s services agenda.
21 June 2008
Association of Professionals in Education and Children’s Trusts
Woolley Hall, Woolley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF4 2JR
info@aspect.org.uk
www.aspect.org.uk
Nick Wright Aspect Communications mobile 07976943514 office 01226 383428 e mail wright.nick@btinternet.com skype nickbwright
