National Standards
The DfES "welcomes Aspect's efforts…to take due account of such significant developments as the emergence of the Every Child Matters agenda."
Peter Lauener, director of the DfES' Local Transformation Group
The National Standards for educational improvement professionals have been designed to help professionals working in the field to improve their professional practice and effectiveness in a changing educational context.
The Standards can be used as the basis for individual and/or team review to identify professional development priorities, or for accreditation.
The Standards take particular account of the Every Child Matters agenda and its impact on the roles and skills of professionals working in educational improvement and children’s services.
Aims
The Standards aim to:
- further improve the quality of work undertaken by individual educational improvement professionals in their key roles of professional leadership, ensuring accountability, advancing effective learning and promoting effective partnership working
- support the development of skills needed to operate effectively in newly-defined working environments and serve as a basis for cross-service working
- complement existing frameworks of competencies and accountabilities, and make them applicable to both the private and public sector
- provide a clear framework for performance management to enhance the professional competency and confidence of professionals working in educational improvement and children's services
- support the development of a framework for continuing professional developement for serving educational improvement professionals and those aspiring to become educational improvement professionals.
The Association played a leading role in the launch of the first-ever national standards for school improvement professionals, which were published by the DfES, in June 2003.