Improvement Spring 2013 by Nick Wright

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IMPROVEMENT ASPECT SPRING 2013

Choice and quality?

Elizabeth Truss wants high quality, good value childcare for children, parents and the taxpayer. Will her plans deliver?

NORTHERN IRELAND EDUCATION is in a state of transition, reports Nick Wright

TOIL AND TROUBLE

Roger Kline on the safeguarding controversy

WORKING TIME

PRIVATISATION AND AUSTERITY

threatens education, says Frances O’Grady

PERFORMANCE PAY FOR TEACHERS

is unlikely to result in much school improvement, argues Mike Hardacre

LISA NANDY INTERVIEWED A rising star in Labour’s team

THINK STRATEGICALLY, ACT LOCALLY Martin Baxter sets the Buckinghamshire Teaching School in a national context

More than half of education professionals work unpaid overtime

visit our website at www.aspect.org.uk

NEWS

Ofsted bids for improvement role Ofsted inspection framework Aspect Group action plan E Bacc U-turn Budget analysis Horsemeat scandal Aspect Group membership survey

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01226 383428 | aspect@prospect.org.uk | www.aspect.org.uk

CONTENTS

Regulars 04

LESLIE MANASSEH

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

NEWS Ofsted bids for improvement

REVIEWS AND BRIEFINGS

JOBS ROUND-UP

SNAKES AND LADDERS

LISA NANDY INTERVIEWED

CHOICE AND QUALITY? Elizabeth Truss wants high quality, good value childcare for children, parents and the taxpayer. Will her plans deliver?

THINK STRATEGICALLY, ACT LOCALLY Martin Baxter sets the

Features 10

CONFLICTED TRADITIONS UNITED IN SUCCESS Northern

Ireland education is in a state of transition, reports Nick Wright

WORK YOUR PROPER HOURS

More than half of education professionals work unpaid overtime SPEAK UP FOR EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS Privatisation

and continuing austerity threaten education, says Frances O’Grady

01 New Terrain – New Models of Education and Children’s Services Delivery

Improvement is the quarterly magazine from the Aspect Group of Prospect. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of the Aspect Group. The Aspect Group cannot accept any liability for any insert or classified advertisement included in this publication. While every reasonable care is taken to ensure that all advertisers are reliable and reputable, the Aspect Group can give no assurance that they will fulfil their obligation under all circumstances. The views expressed in Improvement are the contributors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Aspect Group policy. Official policy statements issued on behalf of the Group are indicated as such. All information correct at the time of going to press.

www.aspect.org.uk

SAFEGUARDING: TOIL AND TROUBLE Roger Kline thinks there

is enough turmoil in Michael Gove’s education brief without a similar uproar in his social care brief

ASPECT GROUP PUBLICATIONS

02 Improving Children’s Services: Lessons from European Social Pedagogy

03 Learning – The Key to Integrated Services

Improvement magazine is published by the Aspect Group of Prospect in partnership with Archant Dialogue Ltd

Performance pay for teachers is unlikely to result in much school improvement, argues Mike Hardacre A rising star in Labour’s team

Buckinghamshire Teaching School in a national context

04 National Standards for Educational Improvement Professionals

05 United Minds, United Purpose: A Charter for Modern Professionalism in Children’s Services

ASPECT GROUP OF PROSPECT

Woolley Hall, Woolley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 2JR Tel: 01226 383428 Fax: 01226 383427 email: aspect@prospect.org.uk website: www.aspect.org.uk

IMPROVEMENT EDITOR Nick Wright

Email: Nick.Wright@prospect.org.uk

ADVERTISING Lisa Parkinson

Archant Dialogue. Tel: 01603 772521 Email: lisa.parkinson@archantdialogue.co.uk

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LESLIE MANASSEH

Not singing from the same hymn sheet ONE CAN LEARN A LOT from studying the detail of

parliamentary exchanges. Consider the following extract from Hansard:

“We need careful, evidence-based policy making, not this type of reckless faith in a market model which is already showing signs of failure”

4 | Improvement | spring 2013

Sarah Teather MP: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many maintained primary schools in England, which have received a grading of inadequate in a section 5 Ofsted inspection since the introduction of the new inspection framework in September 2012, his Department has undertaken to find a preferred sponsor for academy conversion (a) at the request of the governing body and (b) at the suggestion of his Department; and if he will make a statement. David Laws MP: Ofsted judged 123 maintained primary schools to be inadequate between the introduction of the new framework in September 2012 and the end of January 2013. We believe that the best and most sustainable way for these schools to improve is for them to become academies, with a strong sponsor. In every case, ministers are responsible for identifying a preferred sponsor, taking into account a range of views, including those of the governing body. I have no doubt that DfE officials spent some considerable time crafting this response, but their efforts to be anodyne cannot disguise the behaviours at the heart of Michael Gove’s approach to schools. The simple fact of the matter is that schools and governors are under relentless pressure to create academies. It seems that dissent will not be brooked and detractors can expect to face a rough ride. There is an obvious place for reform of the school system to deliver the best education for our children, but there is no place for blind zealotry. The exchange also gives an alarming insight into the thinking on school improvement. Liberate

schools from the yoke of local authority oversight, impose a requirement on them to operate as a private company and suddenly they will emerge blinking in the light of revelation and never look back. We are to believe that failure will be stopped in its tracks and improvement will follow just as night follows day! We need careful, evidence-based policy making, not this type of reckless faith in a market model which is already showing signs of failure. As we reported in the last issue of Improvement, the recent report of the Academies Commission clearly demonstrated that, in and of themselves, academies are not the answer. A single policy tool based on a one-size-fits-all approach is bad enough but, unfortunately, there is more. Free schools run by heads with no educational experience, the wilful disregard of the value of teaching qualifications and the assumption that if you are a good scientist you will automatically be a good science teacher all speak of a willingness to gamble with the right of all children to a high-quality education. So how should unions in the education sector respond? We have three principal roles – to speak up for the ethics, values and standards of the profession, to participate in debates about public policy and to represent our members individually and collectively. On all these matters, the Aspect Group of Prospect is planning to raise our game. However, it is vital that members pay their part too. We need you to be our eyes, ears and advocates in the workplace. Elsewhere in this issue, we report on the recent survey of members which provides a valuable and authentic picture of developments around the country. It reveals the nature and extent of the challenges facing us. We need an active, engaged membership if we are to give ourselves the best chance of meeting them. Leslie Manasseh

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ROUND-UP SELECT COMMITTEE

Ofsted bids for improvement role Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has told the Commons Education Select Committee that he was “repositioning” his organisation. “We’re an inspections body, but we’re also going to try to help schools that are finding it difficult to improve,” he told the Committee. Responding to questions from MPs about Ofsted’s ability to remain impartial when it was re-inspecting schools which it had been working to improve, he said that he was confident that providing school improvement services would not conflict with Ofsted’s role as the independent regulator. Sir Michael said it had been “incredibly difficult” to obtain data from the DfE on the make-up of academy chains and agreed with Tory MP Graham Stuart – who chairs the Select Committee – that it was “shocking”. He said that Ofsted did not have powers to investigate academy chains but had hopes that it might. “A number of chains are doing outstandingly well but, looking at the raw data, some aren’t doing very well and we need to worry about those chains,” he said. He added: “…we need to think about how we are going to manage underperformance. Who is going to do it? Is it going to be the Secretary of State and his officials at the centre or is it going to be another form of intermediary organisation? It seems to me that, if we do not think about this one carefully, we could have a situation where Whitehall is controlling an increasing number of independent and autonomous schools – and finding it very difficult to do so.”

Warning local authorities with inadequately-maintained schools to make better use of their “wide range of powers” to intervene, he said: “We will take action against those authorities unless we see improvement.” Local authorities had, he said, in addition to monitoring maintained schools, an important role in monitoring academies and free schools. They should write to the school’s chair of governors or to the Department for Education. In a separate meeting of the Parliamentary Liaison Committee that deals with Select Committee business, Graham Stuart quizzed Prime Minister David Cameron about the academies policy and how failing academies were to be supported. The Prime Minister agreed that the local authorities role will be “quite changed” by the expansion of academies and said that the government had not yet decided how best to provide support for academies in trouble. He also said that he would investigate whether legislation would be required to authorise Ofsted to inspect academy chains. Following the meeting, Graham Stuart said: “As more and more schools become academies, it is essential that the government sorts out who is going to be responsible for monitoring them and making sure they get the support they need if performance drops. This issue is not one we can continue to avoid. We will soon have more than half of all secondary schools as academies and the Prime Minister wants thousands of primaries to follow. We can’t wait any longer for answers.”

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Ofsted: ‘Improvements in 2012 were due to inspection framework’ Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted Chief Inspector, has claimed that improved school effectiveness in the last quarter of 2012 was due to the new Ofsted inspection framework. Figures published by Ofsted show that nearly half the schools inspected saw improvements in their overall effectiveness – 977 schools, or 47 per cent, were judged as improved. The proportion of schools judged good or better at their latest inspection was 74 per cent at the end of December – an increase of four per cent over the previous year. Under the new Ofsted regime implemented since September 2012, a new category of ‘requires improvement’ has replaced the earlier ‘satisfactory’ grade and schools are notified of a prescribed time frame in which to improve. A more rigorous inspection regime extending up to four years entails inspection on a more intensive basis than previously.

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Sir Michael said: “I’m clear that scrapping the ‘satisfactory’ judgement and replacing it with ‘requires improvement’ is injecting a sense of urgency in both schools and local authorities. Heads and governing boards now have a much greater focus on tackling the central issues of school improvement.” www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/official-statisticsmaintained-school-inspections-and-outcomes Ofsted inspectors have reported that the forced academies programme has hindered school improvement. Commenting on cases in Preston and Birmingham, inspectors say primary heads and governors have been distracted with meetings with DfE ‘academy brokers’, staff and parents. Source: Guardian – March 25 2013.

Flashback Press Association www.guardian.co.uk Tuesday June 12, 2012

OFSTED FIGURES SHOW ALMOST HALF OF SCHOOLS NOT DOING WELL ENOUGH Regulator says three per cent rise in number of schools judged to be ‘inadequate’ is probably due to new inspection regime. Almost half of schools inspected in the first three months of this year were found to be not good enough, new figures show. Statistics published by Ofsted reveal that 34 per cent of the 1,964 schools visited by inspectors between January and March were only satisfactory. A further nine per cent were judged to be inadequate and either given a notice to improve or put in special measures. This is higher than the previous academic year, 2010/11, when six per cent were found to be inadequate. Ofsted said this is likely to be because, since January, schools have been inspected under a new regime.

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SCHOOL MEALS

SURVEY

Horse Extra work, less pay, meat worsened services scandal highlights specialist role Food Standards Agency staff have found horsemeat in school dinners. Equine DNA was found in cottage pies supplied to 47 schools in Lancashire. Catering firm Compass, which supplies many schools, found horsemeat in burgers in Northern Ireland. Prospect, which represents professionals in the FSA, said that the government must reconsider its approach to its specialist staff in the wake of the horsemeat crisis, learn to value their skills and ensure that civil service reform embeds them at the heart of the Whitehall policy-making process. The union says the Government’s rush to dismantle organisations as part of the muchvaunted ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’ has not produced the benefits intended. Prospect Deputy General Secretary Leslie Manasseh said: “How many MPs thought through the consequences when voting in favour of abolishing or reorganising public bodies? “Of all the thousands of words written about the UK food supply chain, insufficient attention has been paid to the need for good regulation, consistently applied. Complexity and fragmentation of arrangements for responsibilities across departments and the public sector have added to the chaos. “It is ironic that, after being vilified by some politicians and parts of the media, FSA staff now have an essential part to play in the resolution of the crisis. It is barely three months since we experienced the full force of the ash dieback outbreak, with government relying on similarly hard-pressed specialists to manage the consequences. “The crisis illustrates very well the crucial role specialists must play in government. Far from the caricature of time-serving bureaucrats, they are the go-to people when there is a crisis. Government must take them seriously.”

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Cuts in education and children’s services are making a big impact on the working lives of Aspect Group members. A survey carried out by the union shows that 85 per cent regularly work beyond their contractual hours. Nearly seven out of 10 have taken on additional responsibilities in the last two years, while more said that their workload has increased significantly as a result of job cuts. A shocking 13 per cent have suffered a pay cut following assimilation into a new grading structure. The crisis affects not only employed staff but also the self-employed. Of those working extra hours, 37.5 per cent of employees worked between six and 10 additional hours a week, one in five worked an extra 11 to 15 hours a week and 18 per cent worked more than 15 additional hours a week. Although selfemployed respondents were less likely to be directly affected by job cuts, 29 per cent reported that they regularly worked beyond their contractual hours. Aspect Group Secretary Leslie Manasseh said: “These survey results sound a warning to government and employers. People are the most valuable resource that education and children’s services have available. It is not possible for our services to endure year-on-year cuts in staffing levels and in training with worsening conditions and declining salary levels without critically weakening schools and damaging the prospects for the nation’s children.” Morale is badly affected, with three-quarters reporting that their workplace has become a worse place to work and more than seven out of 10 anticipating things will get worse in the coming year. More than six out of 10 employees said the quality of services they delivered was worse, with a full quarter saying it is much worse. More than 40 per cent of the self-employed thought the quality of services has worsened. More than six out of 10 employees experiencing changes to their working conditions felt they were not properly consulted before the changes were introduced. The cuts have bitten deep into staff training, with 75 per cent of respondents without access to training because the training budget has been cut. Meanwhile, 45 per cent report they are unable to take time off for training because of workload pressures and a further 30 per cent have no cover for their job role. Revealingly, more than three out of 10 have no access to work-related training. Escalating travel costs are a big problem, with 45 per cent of employees and 29 per cent of selfemployed reporting an average shortfall between mileage allowance and normal costs. More than one in five report unwelcome changes at work including paying for parking, less flexibility and

reduced office space. A third of employees have worsened redundancy arrangements, 29 per cent have had their essential car user status removed, 19 per cent have had a reduction in salary-related allowances and 13 per cent have new restrictions on the timing of holidays. The publication most read by Aspect Group members is the Times Education Supplement, which is regularly read by 76 per cent of respondents, followed by the Guardian Education supplement, which is read by 38 per cent. One in five of employees regularly reads Children and Young People Nowand 18 per cent readNursery World. Slightly more than half of respondents are satisfied with Improvement, with 10 per cent very satisfied. An undecided 39 per cent have no view either way and a mysterious six per cent say they have never read it...

CHANGING WORLD The survey revealed the changing shape of the union, with three-quarters employed and a quarter self-employed. Nearly nine in 10 employees work for local authorities, five per cent work for a separate educational body delivering local authority services and 8.5 per cent are employed by ‘other’ types of organisations such as nurseries, the MOD and charity or voluntary sector organisations. Six out of 10 employed staff and 69 per cent of self-employed work in school improvement. Thirteen per cent of employees work in early years, while 22 per cent of employees and 29 per cent of self-employed are engaged in ‘other’ work such as SEN work, adult education or lifelong learning and a range of other job roles. Sixty two per cent of employed staff are paid on Soulbury scales. Of those not covered by Soulbury, 32 per cent have been assimilated into the Single Status structure, 46 per cent have not and 22 per cent were not sure. Of those assimilated into Single Status, 57 per cent said they have been properly evaluated via a job evaluation scheme versus 43 per cent who said they have not (five per cent of employees overall).

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ROUND-UP E BACC

ANDREW AITCHISON / TUC

Gove U-turn

Unions angry at pay cap Millions of families will face another year of severely squeezed incomes following the budget announcement that public service pay is to be capped for another year and incremental pay progression is set to be scrapped. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The Chancellor is either oblivious to the tough time that millions of public sector workers and their families are having or he is deliberately setting out to punish them.” Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy condemned the Chancellor’s public sector pay limit: “To rub salt in the wounds of skilled public sector

workers, today’s announcement will make them poorer through the government’s expressed desire to remove contractually agreed pay progression. They have already seen a rise in their pension contributions and, effectively, a pay cut with increases of under one per cent which will be the case until at least 2016. This is leading to a widening gap between themselves and similarly skilled workers in the private sector.” A FUTURE FOR FAMILIES

TUC pre-budget rally called for a budget that puts jobs, growth and families first

If progress in educating our children is to be continuous, changes need to be evidence-based and carried through with consent,” said education professionals leader Leslie Manasseh, commenting on Education Secretary Michael Gove’s U-turn over plans to replace GCSEs with a new English Baccalaureate. The Aspect Group secretary said: “Criticism of the policy from within the government coalition, from MPs across the entire spectrum of opinion and from industry and academia echoes the widespread opposition from teaching and school improvement professionals. “The cross-party Commons Education Committee said the government had ‘not proved its case’ that GCSEs should be abolished in key academic subjects. This should be a warning that, when profound changes are planned, they will be implemented most effectively when the intellectual and practical case for them is convincing. “Michael Gove is mistaken in thinking that opposition to these changes was that they are ‘one reform too far’. It is not only the nature of the changes but the method by which he tried to force them through that has forced this humiliating climbdown.” The Education Secretary had originally intended to replace GCSEs with a new English Baccalaureate certificate in the five core academic areas of English, maths, science, languages and humanities – history or geography. He told MPs that, instead of the new E Bacc, GCSEs will be reformed – with exams taken at the end of the course, rather than in modules, alongside extended questions and reduced internal assessment.

ASPECT GROUP

Action plan adopted to tackle issues The Aspect Group has adopted an action programme to meet the new challenges it faces. “We face an uncertain future shape of education and children’s services in England,” Aspect Group Secretary Leslie Manasseh told the Group Council meeting in Liverpool. “The Soulbury agreement, which has been the basis of most of our members’ terms and conditions and professional status, is under threat. Cuts in the number of school improvement professionals continue while the revolution within education and local government combined with the Coalition Government’s unwillingness to engage with trade unions and determination to undermine rights at work make for a very difficult environment.

www.aspect.org.uk

“The Local Government Association – representing the employers – has expressed clear preference to move towards single table bargaining and the Aspect Group needs to consider how best to preserve a voice for Soulbury grades,” he said. Proposing a strong lead from the Group Council on strengthening the union’s position in the ‘middle tier’, he said the historical base of the union provides its ‘unique selling point’ in going forward. The Group Council agreed an action plan that includes a recruitment programme aimed at the two thousand school improvement professionals still

outside of AAA membership and an extra focus on staff in London boroughs, Soulbury staff in the Ministry of Defence and youth service managers. Further exploratory work was agreed to identify the potential among the union’s existing base among early years professionals, education welfare and social work staff and youth and community service managers. Leslie Manasseh said the union needed to strengthen its offer to the growing selfemployed sector. Improving services, including the business register, and strengthening the group’s role in the field of accreditation and quality standards were priorities.

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ROUND-UP LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Education sector rallies to middle tier The Ofsted initiative to inspect school improvement services has sparked support for the role of local authorities. Starting this April, Ofsted has taken the power to inspect the school improvement functions of local authorities where it fears that “the statutory duty to improve school standards is not being met”. The unspoken inference is that underperformance and failings revealed in such inspections would lead to DfE pressure for schools to convert to academy status along the lines already experienced by individual schools which are judged to be under performing. Critics fear the end result would impoverish councils and weaken their ability to concentrate resources and undertake authority-wide initiatives. Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said: “In these focused and concentrated inspection programmes, we will be seeking to determine whether councils are really fulfilling their statutory duties to promote high standards and fair access to educational opportunity. Ofsted will inspect without fear or favour, and with no preconceived idea of what we will find. If we find that the local authority is proactive in addressing the key issues and standards are improving, that’s absolutely fine. But where we find evidence that the local authority is not demonstrating effective leadership, then we shall inspect it.” RED TAPE

“We agree with Ofsted’s call for more to be done but, rather than extra inspections of councils, we believe pupils would benefit far more from government untying the hands of local authorities so they can get on with quickly and decisively helping the worst performing schools without first having to negotiate swathes of red tape and bureaucracy,” said Local Government Association Children’s Board chair Cllr David Simmonds. “Local authorities want to be able to intervene more quickly in underperforming schools but we are prevented from doing so as a result of decades of reforms to give schools greater independence and reduce what was perceived as council interference,” he added. CENTRAL CONTROL

ATL leader Dr Mary Bousted said that Ofsted needs to realise that there is now a huge problem since academies and free schools report directly to the Department for Education and local authorities have little influence over them. In the Government’s new world of academies, it has failed to clarify the role of local authorities. “We know from the Academies Commission that many new academies are failing to support

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neighbouring schools despite being required to do so. “This looks like inspection is punishment rather than support to help schools improve. Instead, we need the accountability system to be reconfigured so that local authorities have real powers to run inspections and improvement in all schools in their area, while Ofsted’s reports on national trends and checks the quality of local authorities’ education services,” said Dr Bousted. COOPERATION

Aspect Group secretary Leslie Manasseh called for cooperation – not coercion. “Inspection is an essential component of any comprehensive system of school improvement, and is an invaluable aid to the deployment of local authority school improvement resources and to teachers, heads, governors and communities,” he said. “When divorced from being a cooperative and integrated approach, it risks being seen as merely intimidatory and coercive. “In redefining the role of national inspection and targeting selected local authorities, the Government, through Ofsted, is paying a perhaps unconscious tribute to the principle that local authorities themselves are the critical resource for the delivery of well-informed, speedily deployed and expert local school improvement services. “It is unfortunate, therefore, that the main current direction of government schools policy is to deny funding, disaggregate and disrupt local authority provision and thus diminish the role of the critical middle tier in school improvement.” CRUDE SPECTACLE

NAS UWT leader Chris Keates said: “These ‘dawn raid’ inspections have nothing to do with raising standards or tackling inequality. These are crude spectacles organised to create a climate of fear and panic. “As this announcement by HMCI comes only a short time after the Secretary of State declared war on local authorities resistant to his ideological reform of school structures, it would be understandable if the conclusion was drawn that Ofsted was being used by the Secretary of State to settle political scores against those who have had the temerity to challenge or criticise his policies. “Ofsted is no longer an independent body operating in the public interest. It is now merely the Secretary of State’s hit squad,” she said. “The idea that these inspections will reveal any robust data about the performance of local authorities by questioning headteachers about the support they receive is risible. “The punitive high-stakes inspection regime means that any school involved in these inspections will understandably seek to protect itself from criticism by deflecting blame onto its local authority.”

FUNDAMENTAL FLAW

The Government’s academies and free school programme means that local authorities no longer have the right to intervene in many schools, NUT leader Christine Blower said. “Academies and free schools have been specifically set up to be independent of the local authorities, so any legislation relating to their school improvement and intervention powers is not valid. Local authorities cannot issue them with a warning notice about performance standards, appoint to or replace the governing body or require the school to undertake any kind of improvement work. Instead, they are ultimately answerable to the Education Secretary. “This is a fundamental flaw in Michael Gove’s plans. It is quite inconceivable that he will be able to oversee all schools in England, let alone deal with issues that parents and pupils may raise with individual academy chains or free schools. “Sir Michael Wilshaw’s latest announcement seems to be yet another way of forcing schools out of the local authority family and into the hands of academy chains and the Education Secretary himself.”

INSPECTION FOCUS LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

www.local.gov.uk/children-andyoung-people

OFSTED STATISTICS

www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources /statistics

NFER SCHOOL INSPECTIONS INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE REVIEW

www.tinyurl.com/boqtzl6

In January, an Ofsted team examined schools and the school improvement service in Derby where the agency saw unacceptable variations in its performance compared to other local authorities with similar mixes of social and demographic factors. Ten schools, selected at random, were inspected including including a nursery school, five primaries, two junior schools, one secondary school and one special school.

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IN THIS ISSUE

More haste, less speed

n his anxiety to make an impression, Michael Gove has overreached himself. Criticism of his various schemes comes, not only from the usual suspects, but also from both the Commons Education Select Committee and Local Government Association Children’s Board. Not every excess of iconoclasm emanating from the DfE meets with approval and opposition to government plans finds more than one education minister under fire. The childcare plans of the Elizabeth Truss have been out to consultation. The union’s Early Childhood Education Group has responded by arguing that flexibility in the ratios of children to staff is a different issue to the kinds of qualifications staff should possess. In its response to the consultation, it makes some eminently sensible suggestions that would, if implemented, help embed a more highly qualified workforce in a childcare system that would be both better resourced and more comprehensive.

Over the water The saying in Ireland is that an expert is an Englishman 20 miles from home. Better, then, to ask questions than proffer solutions based on the vastly different experiences in Britain. Last year, according to the TIMSS and PIRLS results, primary school children in Northern Ireland were sixth in the world in numeracy and fifth in literacy. Stepping carefully, Nick Wright asks how the secondary school system over the water manages to transform these successful primary school children into markedly less successful secondary school students.

Better safe Our union weighed into the consultation on the revision to the draft guidance on safeguarding with evidence that strongly supports an unwaveringly rigorous approach. Roger Kline argues that relaxing these will not help while there are record numbers of referrals to social work services, record numbers of children subject to a child protection plan and record numbers of care applications.

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Against austerity Education International, the global body that groups trade unions in the education sector, met in London to discuss problems in the most highly developed OECD nations. Frances O’Grady – the newly elected General Secretary of the TUC – spoke out for education professionals.

Performance pay Mike Hardacre argues that the wide range of factors that influences educational attainment, the disparity in starting points for schools drawing on widely differing intakes and uncertainties about the objectivity of teacher performance assessment procedures make for a debate over Michael Gove’s latest wheeze – performance pay for teachers – clouded with doubt.

The alternative? Coalition government is producing some surprises, with a refreshing plurality of views emerging and some interesting contradictions between the parties, between ministers and backbenches and between a centralising government and local authority figures who value their autonomy. But debate among the Opposition is by no means stilled either. In this issue, Shadow Children’s Minister Lisa Nandy is given some tough questions to answer.

Self Reliant Martin Baxter draws on his direct experience and on the literature to demonstrate that, even when that vital middle tier of strong local authority support for school improvement is eroding, schools can draw on an enormous pool of creativity and experience to mobilise their resources and strengthen the delivery of education.

OUR NEW LOOK Improvement has improved, we hope. Our new style has been designed to reflect changes in the way material is presented to Aspect Group members and to the wider audience that is interested in our message. We are commissioning longer and more reflective feature articles, and strengthening our news coverage of both trade union matters and education and children's services. A news blog at www.aspect.org.uk will comment on events as they unfold. In addition to the print version that is sent to all Aspect Group members and subscribers, Improvementis now available as a downloadable PDF from www.aspect.org.uk and online, hosted at www.issuu.com/aspectgroup/ docs/improvement In this issue of the magazine, there is a pathway for education and children's services professionals to join our union. It would be a good idea for each Aspect Group member to send an email, containing either the PDF or the link, to their colleagues who may not be members of the union.

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Roger Kline thinks that there is enough turmoil in Michael Gove’s education brief without a similar uproar in his social care brief © PAUL BOX/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

PAUL BOX/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

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SAFEGUARDING

Toiland

trouble

hose whose role straddles the different sectors of children’s services will know there is considerable turbulence here also. Decisions on adoption policy and childcare staffing may have got the media headlines, but the policy that causes most trouble behind the scenes is the draft guidance on safeguarding to replace Working Together – or ‘Working Together Lite’, as it has been called. I spoke at a well-attended Westminster Forum of 200 safeguarding experts earlier this year. The House of Lords chairperson asked for an audience straw poll at the end with the question: “Who agrees that, in its current form, the draft Working Together document should not be published?”Almost everyone put up their hands. While many staff feel Working Together in its current form is unwieldy, its content has wide support. To understand why, a little history helps. Working Together was written in the wake of successive child death enquiries that – from Maria Colwell onwards – found particular fault in the system of inter-agency communication and a failure of procedures.

Basic standards Many experts fear a return to the disjointed services of the 1970s, which especially hampered organised abuse investigation.As the Every Child in Need Campaign 2012 cites, “basic minimum national standards and requirements are essential. A hands-off approach, allowing local authorities to do what they want, when they want, is dangerous. Even the Government’s own impact assessment recognises this – it accepts that “there is a risk of negative impact on children if central government is less prescriptive (DfE 20112b). That is not a risk we should be taking”. Why has Michael Gove ignored his own risk assessment?

www.aspect.org.uk

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services is particularly concerned“that the revised guidance presents a significant, and detrimental, shift in tone and focus away from whole system guidance and a narrative of safeguarding as everybody’s business to a focus on social workers and local authorities with support from other agencies.” Some responses to the consultation note the peculiar absence of any reference to the role of health visitors in children’s safeguarding guidance and cannot understand why the Department of Health is publishing its own guidance.

Deregulation Michael Gove sits centrally in the government school of deregulation.These values are deeply embedded in Working Together and do not make for easy reading. Some claim the current Working Together is a key cause of the disproportionate amount of time that safeguarding and children’s services staff spend in front of computers, but the provenance of that problem lies elsewhere. Though Eileen Munro, in her final review, makes reference to Professor Nigel Parton who, in an historical overview of child protection processes, cited the increased number of pages of Working Together, he did not argue for a reduction of the guidance but suggested instead a navigable web-based version and a short practitioner guide alongside distinguishing the statutory and non-statutory aspects of the guidance. He certainly did not recommend tampering with the statutory guidance.

child protection resources at a time when health, education, probation and police services are under immense funding pressures. These proposed changes come at a time when there is evidence of an unprecedented increase in serious crimes against children. Child abuse occurs within families and this context provided the focus of the Laming and Munro reviews. But there is also a vast international child abuse industry that exploits children and includes trafficking for commercial, domestic and sexual exploitation, online abuse, the illegal adoption trade, the illegal organ trade, forced marriage and the trade in abusive images. What does the draft have to say about this? Very little indeed. It may be that the recent high-profile child abuse cases have caused some pause for thought deep inside Whitehall.

“Many experts fear a return to the disjointed services of the 1970s, which especially hampered organised abuse investigation”

Undermined At the heart of Michael Gove’s determination to shorten the guidance lies a deep failure to understand that, with heavy workloads and rising need, the failure to be sufficiently prescriptive and mandate key measures inevitably undermines the ability of managers within each agency to prioritise and access

Those who support the changes claim the revised draft guidance will make it easier to develop professional confidence and capability and to exercise more judgment. Practitioners will be unclear how this will happen at a time of rising workloads, increasingly inappropriate skill mix and rising eligibility criteria.

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SAFEGUARDING

“At the heart of Michael Gove’s determination to shorten the guidance lies a deep failure to understand that, with heavy workloads and rising need, the failure to be sufficiently prescriptive and mandate key measures inevitably undermines the ability of managers within each agency to prioritise and access child protection resources at a time when health, education, probation and police services are under immense funding pressures”

insurmountable and this increases the risk of harm.” This hasn’t changed and it is hard to see how the draft guidance will help at a time of record numbers of referrals to social work services, record numbers of children subject to a child protection plan and record numbers of care applications.

Less prescriptive The Every Child in Need Campaign claims some local authorities – cash-strapped following swingeing cuts to their budgets – may see less prescriptive guidance as a means of reducing the pressure to act quickly when a child in need comes to their attention. Dr Liz Davies (a trenchant critic of the proposals and an authority on child protection) suggests that, if Michael Gove wants simple solutions, he could start by re-establishing the national child protection register that was abolished in 2008 without any basis in research findings. She points out that, while Working Together required that certain crucial aspects of the management of individual cases be undertaken only by more experienced and qualified social workers including the initial assessment (5.41), the strategy discussion (5.56), the core assessment (5.62), and joint interviews with children (5.68), those requirements have vanished.

All those in children’s services should pay close attention to the smoke signals that emerge from the DfE on children’s safeguarding.The Aspect Group’s own evidence asked that this revision be withdrawn so that a more considered, evidence-based discussion can take place about what changes might be needed to Working Together in order to support good practice by the national provision of proportionate and relevant statutory guidance that is fit for purpose. We await the outcome of the consultation with trepidation.

USEFUL LINKS WORKING TOGETHER

www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe /statutory/g00213160/workingtogether-to-safeguard-children

FRANCIS REPORT

www.midstaffspublicinquiry.com

EVERY CHILD IN NEED

www.everychildinneed.org.uk

Speak out There is a wider context to this discussion. The public inquiry by Robert Francis QC on the Mid Staffordshire Hospital scandal stressed the importance of NHS staff having the courage and confidence to speak out and raise concerns. As recent cases in social care have shown, similar problems exist there too.Yet critics point out that Michael Gove made no objection to the removal of the excellent requirements of the GSCC Code of Practice on raising concerns and being advocates for services users when it merged with the Health and Care Professions Council to save money.

Lord Laming, following the tragedy of Peter Connolly, reported that: “Frontline social workers and social work managers are under an immense amount of pressure. Low staff morale, poor supervision, high caseloads, under resourcing and inadequate training each contribute to high levels of stress and recruitment and retention difficulties. Many social workers feel the size of the task in protecting children and young people from harm is

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INSPECTION

Aspect responds to Ofsted plan

Key role for local authorities undermined spect has sounded the alarm over plans by Ofsted to introduce a new framework for the inspection of local authority school improvement services and has said that councils should continue to take a major school improvement role. Responding to the public consultation over the plans, the union said Ofsted should be wary of drawing any conclusions, about the local authority role in general or the school improvement function in particular, without taking into account spending cuts, the removal of national programmes with funding streams attached and a reduction in funding – as schools (especially secondaries) have become academies – and while there has been no reduction in local authorities’ statutory responsibilities. The union said that “unless the consultation takes proper account of the increasing diminution of local authorities in running local schools over the last two decades, it might draw incorrect conclusions about the influence that such functions should exercise within the current policy framework.” Aspect lined up with the Local Government Association’s children and young people board in arguing that “local authorities want to be able to intervene more quickly in underperforming schools, but we are prevented from doing so as a result of decades of reforms to give schools greater independence and reduce what was perceived as council interference.” The union highlighted the mismatch between continuing local authority functions and their diminishing resources and influence, arguing that a framework that does not “acknowledge these pressures might – at some future date – draw incorrect conclusions either about particular school improvement functions or the local authority role in general.” While a direct link remains between local authorities and maintained schools, the relationship with academies is “necessarily highly variable”. The inspection framework for local authority school inspections

www.aspect.org.uk

functions “must demonstrably take that into account,”the union argued. The union told Ofsted that it agrees with Andrew Webb,Vice President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, who said Ofsted’s plan to gather evidence from schools was an “inadequate way” to assess local authority provision and that “local authorities must be given the chance to offer their own input and evidence of the type of support they provide in order for Ofsted to be able to produce an accurate and robust report on which to base a judgment.” Commenting on the Ofsted proposals, Aspect Group Secretary Leslie Manasseh said: “We are concerned that change and innovation in school improvement should be evidence based. There is much speculation that new models of managing school improvement – some grounded in a more centralised function, others which place the emphasis on school-to-school support – can replace the vast reservoir of expertise and local knowledge that has been built up in local authorities and replace its strategic role. “We remain unconvinced.The uncertainty and imprecision that is inevitably arising from this toxic combination of funding cuts and fragmentation has a profoundly disorganising effect. It is clearly unrealistic to task local authorities with the responsibility for improving academies which are not meeting expectations. “The outcome of this consultation process must result in clarity of thought and action, not only in relation to the role of local authorities, but also the responsibilities of academies and chains of academies themselves. “We are clear that, in any conceivable circumstances, local authorities will continue to have a critical role in monitoring, brokering and commissioning school improvement services. They must also have the staffing and resources to meet these responsibilities.” OFSTED tinyurl.com/d5gvzlf ASPECT RESPONSE www.aspect.org.uk

OFSTED SAYS Ofsted says it intends to introduce “a sharply focused and bespoke inspection framework” where schools and other providers are not yet good or where they are not improving quickly enough. It will carry out individual inspections of the education and training function of local authorities where information about schools and other providers tells it that standards and effectiveness are either too variable or not yet good. INSPECTION CRITERIA

Ofsted proposes to use the indicators below to determine whether an inspection is required where one or more of the following apply: The proportion of children who attend a good or better maintained school, pupil referral unit and/or alternative provision is lower than that found nationally. There is a higher than average number of schools in an Ofsted category of concern and/or there are indicators that progress of such schools is not securing rapid enough improvement. There is a higher than average proportion of schools that have not been judged to be good by Ofsted. Attainment levels across the local authority are lower than those found nationally and/or the trend of improvement is weak. Rates of progress, relative to starting points, are lower those that found nationally and/or the trend of improvement is weak. The volume of qualifying complaints to Ofsted about schools in a local authority area is a matter of concern. The Secretary of State has concerns about the effectiveness of local authority school improvement functions.

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NORTHERN IRELAND

Conflicted traditions united in success Northern Ireland education is in a state of transition, reports Nick Wright

ere is a conundrum. Northern Ireland has one of the best performing primary education systems in the world. Last year, measured through the Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Northern Ireland came sixth in numeracy and fifth in literacy – beating even highly rated Finland. Six hundred thousand nine- and 10 year-olds from 50 countries were tested. Singapore scored better in numeracy and Hong Kong in literacy, but Northern Ireland was the highest-scoring English-speaking centre of excellence. Yet, in February, the Northern Ireland Audit Office reported that, although standards were slowly improving, 9,000 school students failed to achieve a minimum of five A*-C GCSEs in 2010-11. More than one in five fails to meet the required standard at Key Stage 3 – in Northern Ireland, this refers to years eight, nine and 10 or the first three years at secondary level. Predictably, poverty and deprivation were powerful factors: 31.7 per cent of pupils entitled to free school meals achieved the expected level at GCSE, compared to 65.1 per cent who were not entitled.

www.aspect.org.uk

Equally predictably, boys performed less well than girls throughout their schooling. Interestingly, poverty (or, more widely, social deprivation) has a bigger impact in state schools, which mainly cater for children from Protestant communities than in maintained, mostly Catholic, schools. The Aspect Group’s Sean Maguire – whose professional background is as a science advisor – says the primary results are a telling product of the revised primary curriculum in place since 2007. In place of the more traditional content-based approach, the revised curriculum centres on developing skills. When it was introduced, the then Education Minister Catherine Ruane said: “The important thing about the revised curriculum is the stronger emphasis on the fundamental skills – literacy, numeracy and ICT. These are the core to a sound education and to future prospects of the children. “In addition to these core elements, I believe we need to make education more attractive to our children by giving greater emphasis to the creative and expressive areas, like art and music, providing support that will enable schools to enhance provision in sport and language learning.” The current Minister of Education, John O’Dowd, reckons the primary successes are a product of the

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emphasis on creating independent learners. He points to initiatives such as Count, Read and Succeed and a greater teacher training emphasis on numeracy and literacy. There is also a big emphasis on self-evaluation and continuing professional development, extra pay for extra responsibilities, an impressive investment in ICT and over £470 million of infrastructure spending. The big question is how does the secondary school system in Northern Ireland manage to transform its successful primary school children into markedly less successful secondary school students? The answer may lie in the ways in which education in Northern Ireland is structured. The first point is that the effects of the 11 plus system have only recently begun to dissipate. Therefore, it seems probable that the notorious function of post-primary selection – to reflect, replicate and institutionalise class stratification – is operating to a greater or lesser extent. However, there is still considerable support for selection at 11 – some of it grounded in objections to the new system, which involves pupils taking separate tests for each school.

“How does the secondary school system in Northern Ireland manage to transform its successful primary school children into markedly less successful secondary school students?” But the distinctive feature of the Northern Ireland system is the extra factor of a more intensive division on the basis of family religious affiliation than is found elsewhere – a factor compounded by the remaining patterns of settlement and social organisation in which different communities live substantially separate lives. Paradoxically, the new transfer system at age 11 is having some effect in breaking down the sectarian features built into the system, with children sitting tests for entrance to both ‘controlled’ (i.e. Protestant) schools

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and to ‘maintained’ (i.e. Catholic) schools in a situation where schools are now competing for pupils. The role of the Protestant churches in managing schools, enshrined in their guaranteed places on governing bodies, is under threat from the Review of Public Administration as it is considered to breach the equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Fewer than one in 10 students attend integrated (i.e. non-sectarian) schools. There is a perception that working-class boys from inner-city Protestant communities do less well and some people attribute this to the heritage of more stable employment opportunities in Northern Ireland’s now much-reduced heavy industry with the assumption that such guaranteed work resulted in educational attainment having a lower status. There is a parallel perception in that community – owing to the discrimination against working-class Catholics – that there is an historically greater emphasis on obtaining a good education at secondary and higher levels. It has to be said that both perceptions are challenged and, in present, circumstances there is strong evidence that disadvantage is widely distributed across both Catholic and Protestant working-class communities.

Flawed funding An independent panel has reported that the funding system for Northern Ireland’s schools is fundamentally flawed. In a damning criticism, the report concludes that the current model for funding schools does not maximise opportunity for all pupils, nor does it sufficiently target educational under-achievement or children with additional educational needs. In two key areas, it runs counter to the wider Department for Education objectives. Small schools get “significant additional support” irrespective of circumstances, while there is a low level of additional funding for pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds or with additional educational needs. There are criticisms of a lack of transparency, which “facilitates perceptions of bias”, while it is often difficult to understand why a school receives the funding it does. In Northern Ireland, voluntary grammar and grant-maintained integrated schools are funded through Department for Education grants. Other schools’ budgets – and their accounting systems – are delegated but largely maintained by the five Education and Library Boards. Decoded for an audience innocent of the often unspoken contours of Northern Ireland’s complex of religious distinctions,

PRIMARY SUCCESS In reading, NI pupils were ranked fifth out of the 45 participating countries. Pupils in NI significantly outperformed pupils in 36 of the countries that participated in PIRLS 2011. NI was the highest-ranking Englishspeaking country. NI pupils were ranked sixth out of the 50 countries that participated in TIMSS 2011 mathematics. NI pupils significantly outperformed pupils in 44 other countries. NI was the highest-performing English speaking country in mathematics. The average score for NI pupils in science was lower than for reading and mathematics, although still significantly above the TIMSS science international average. NI pupils outperformed pupils in 23 other countries and were outperformed by pupils in 17 countries in science. Pupils in NI who were categorised as liking, ‘motivated’ or ‘confident in’ reading, learning mathematics or learning science were more likely to have higher average achievement scores. Pupils in NI were more likely (84 per cent) to be taught by teachers who rated their working conditions relatively highly compared to the international average (73 per cent). NI had one of the highest levels of computer provision among all participating countries, with over three-quarters of pupils taught in schools where a computer was available for every one to two pupils. NI had the highest proportion of schools that were categorised as safe and orderly and one of the highest levels for discipline and safety. A higher proportion of children (30 per cent) in NI reported having many resources for learning at home compared with the average internationally (17 per cent). Pupils with access to more home resources for learning had higher average achievement in reading, mathematics and science. The proportion of pupils whose teachers reported lack of sleep as a limiting factor was greater in NI than the international average in all three subjects. Pupils in NI whose teachers reported that pupils’ lack of basic nutrition and lack of sufficient sleep limited teaching had lower average achievement than those pupils whose teachers reported not having these limitations.

www.aspect.org.uk

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NORTHERN IRELAND

“The funding system for Northern Ireland’s schools is fundamentally flawed” this means state schools predominately attended by children from Protestant communities get one kind of funding and church schools attended by children from Catholic communities another. The principal feature of the current funding formula is a bias towards funding institutions rather than one that, as the report argues, would place “individual pupils and their varying levels of educational and pastoral need at the heart of funding allocations”. The report’s recommendations are uncompromisingly bold. It proposes reducing additional funding for small schools, removing it completely at post-primary level and funding the remaining designated ‘small schools’ from outside the Common Funding Formula. A new, simplified and transparent formula would be principally based around basic per pupil funding, weighted to reflect the phase of education and with a weighted pupil premium for social deprivation. Other subsidiary elements would designate fixed, lump-sum costs for primary schools and measures for newcomer children, Traveller, Roma and looked-after children, service personnel children and a notional SEN budget drawing on deprivation indicators.

INTERGRATED SCHOOLING Northern Ireland has 62 integrated schools, with 21 second level colleges and 41 primaries. Another 19 nursery schools are mostly linked to primaries. A lack of places means up to 700 applicants are turned away every year. An Omnibus Survey by Millward Brown Ulster showed that 81 per cent of people in Northern Ireland believed that integrated education is important to the peace and reconciliation process. The admissions criteria for integrated schools in Northern Ireland are not secular but rather

aim to achieve a balanced intake, including children from diverse religious backgrounds – principally Catholic and Protestant – or from other cultural traditions. Children from Catholic families can take Sacramental preparation at P4 and P7. Children from Protestant families have access to a Delving Deeper programme. With several decades of experience of working in a deeply conflicted society, Northern Ireland’s integrated schools provide an alternative to a largely segregated educational system.

Northern Ireland Revised Primary Curriculum tinyurl.com/c6r3hyl

USEFUL LINKS PRILS AND TIMSS GLOBAL

Count, Read, Succeed tinyurl.com/bow3b5y

timss.bc.edu/index.html

PIRLS AND TIMSS NORTHERN IRELAND

tinyurl.com/beekofp

COMMON FUNDING SCHEME

tinyurl.com/ahjaadc

www.aspect.org.uk

NICIE: NORTHERN IRELAND COUNCIL FOR INTEGRATED EDUCATION www.nicie.org

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EXPLOITATION

Work Your Proper

Hours

n analysis published by the Trades Union Congress to mark the ninth annual Work Your Proper Hours Day showed that 52.4 per cent or 712,322 teaching and

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More than half of education professionals work unpaid overtime education professionals worked an average of 11.1 hours without pay each week. The study of official figures shows that one in five workers across Britain regularly work seven hours a week more than their contracted hours without getting paid for it.

Unpaid overtime is a regular feature for staff in some professions, with half of all financial managers, research and development managers, teachers, health and social services managers, lawyers and media professionals often putting in extra hours for free.

www.aspect.org.uk

Have you or one of your family been injured in the last 3 years? The Aspect Personal Injury Line, run on our behalf by Slater & Gordon lawyers (formerly RJW), could help you. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Aspect Personal Injury Line offers: Help for injuries at work, on the road or at home Specialist legal advice on personal injury matters No win, no fee Help on any claim, large or small.

Slater & Gordon Lawyers have been representing Unions and their members for over 85 years. Slater & Gordon (UK) LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

To speak to an expert personal injury lawyer call free on:

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EXPLOITATION Back in 2005, the TUC launched Work Your Proper Hours Day – the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime would start to get paid if they did all their unpaid hours at the start of the year – to mark, in a light-hearted way, the extent of unpaid overtime across the UK. Last year, five million workers in Britain regularly put in extra hours for free – worth over £5,600 a year per person to their employer. The 1.8bn hours of unpaid overtime worked across Britain in 2012 added £28.3bn to the economy. In 2012, the number of people working unpaid overtime fell by 200,000 on the previous year, though the average amount of extra time worked increased by six minutes to seven hours and 18 minutes. Londoners are the most likely to do unpaid overtime, with over one in four (26.1 per cent) workers in the capital regularly putting in extra unpaid shifts compared to a national average of 20.2 per cent. Londoners also do more unpaid hours than anyone else – around eight and a half hours a week – which is worth £9,000 per person per year to their employers. The TUC analysis also shows a sharp rise in unpaid overtime among public sector employees, who are more likely than private sector staff to do extra hours for free. While the number of public servants fell by around 100,000 last year, the amount of unpaid overtime worked in the public sector increased by nearly three per cent to around 620 million hours. Public sector job losses

SURVEY WORKING HOURS SHOCK A survey carried out by the union shows that 85 per cent of Aspect members regularly work beyond their contractual hours; nearly seven out of ten have taken on additional responsibilities in the last two years while more said that their workload has increased significantly as a result of job cuts. Of those working extra hours,37.5 per cent of employees worked between six and ten additional hours a week, one in five worked an extra 11 to 15 hours a week and 18 per cent more than 15 hours a week. Although self employed members were less likely to be directly affected by job cuts 29 per cent reported that they regularly worked beyond their contractual hours.

are putting an extra strain on the workloads of those still in work, says the TUC, which is likely to lead to more stress and anxiety. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Millions of UK workers go above and beyond the call of duty each year to ensure their businesses and organisations stay afloat. “This has especially been the case in the public sector where, in the face of large-scale job cuts, those staff remaining have had to put in even more unpaid overtime. “While most staff don’t mind doing a few extra hours, working time needs to be properly managed or excessive hours can become a drag on the business.

“The 1.8bn hours of unpaid overtime worked across the Britain in 2012 added £28.3bn to the economy”

WORK YOUR PROPER HOURS DAY

Work Your Proper Hours Day – February 24, 2013 – was when the average person who does unpaid overtime finishes the unpaid days they do every year and starts earning for themselves. More than five million people at work in Britain regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £29.2 billion of free work last year alone. The TUC said workers and their managers should take a proper lunch break, knock off on time and that, while a lot of unpaid overtime is down to heavy workloads which employers need to manage better, much of it is also down to pointless presenteeism – with staff judged by the hours spent at their desk rather than the work they do. This workplace culture, as well as heightened fears about job security, often means that staff feel unable to leave on time, even if their work is complete, which leaves them with less time to spend with friends and family, said the TUC. Tools at tinyurl.com/bdxmkkh include:

Employers shouldn’t be pressurising their staff into doing more for less. “A significant part of the nearly two billion hours of unpaid overtime worked every year could be wiped out by smarter management practices, such as focusing on the work staff actually do rather than the time spent at their desks. “Where employees regularly have excessive workloads, businesses should be considering whether a few more members of staff might help make everyone less stressed and more productive. “A long-hours culture is bad for workers’ health and their family life – whether the hours are paid or not.”

Long Hours Clinic: Advice from Professor Cary Cooper Unpaid overtime calculator Check your balance: Find out your office working style The Work/Life Map: see how the UK works The Breaktime game: can you work your hours?

Taking stock of your working time Go to our union’s useful worktime/your time resource – including a helpful spreadsheet – to track your hours. www.prospect.org.uk/campaigns_and_events/ national_campaigns/worktimeyourtime/calculator

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Speak up for education Privatisation and continuing austerity threaten education, says Frances Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Grady

A â&#x20AC;&#x153;

t a time when education is increasingly being privatised and subjected to the profit motive, we must speak up for high-quality, publicly funded and publicly accountable education that is accessible to all. With the forces of global economic competition and the interests of multinational corporations increasingly shaping the education our young people receive, we must also resist the creeping commercialisation of what is being taught in our schools, colleges and universities. Education is not just about economic competitiveness, important though that is. Most fundamentally, it is about human enrichment, about the power of knowledge to transform lives and about the beauty of learning itself, so that every child, young person and adult has the chance to fulfil their true potential in life. But education is under real pressure. Spiralling inequality, the economic crisis and savage spending cuts are all taking their toll. In the UK, austerity and creeping privatisation are undermining the educational opportunities available to children, young people and adult learners alike. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also seeing the massive expansion of so-called free schools and academies, many run by business, many run for profit and many devoid of any form of local accountability.

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EDUCATION

professionals “The trade union movement must continue to speak up for the dedicated professionals who make education the unique force for change that it is” We’re seeing the rapid marketisation of higher education, with top-up fees pricing many students from low and middle-income backgrounds off university campuses, and we’re seeing all aspects of education policy – from early years provision right through to university funding – driven not by the needs of young people, but by right-wing ideology. For example, UK banks are being invited into schools to provide financial education to children – though presumably not the same banks who crashed the British economy and left taxpayers with a £70 billion bailout bill? Whether it’s here in Britain or elsewhere in the world, we must speak up for education as a public good. It is quite simply the driving force behind all human progress. Without teachers, tutors and academics alongside the support staff who help them, education would be nothing. Without educators, there can be no education. Polls consistently show that teachers, along with doctors and nurses, are the most trusted

www.aspect.org.uk

of our professionals, while it comes as no surprise that politicians and bankers rank among the least trusted. The trade union movement must continue to speak up for the dedicated professionals who make education the unique force for change that it is. I urge parents, and in fact anyone who cares about children and their futures, to support the campaign being co-ordinated by our education unions for a top-class, not-for-profit education system in the UK. Classrooms should be a place for learning, not a source of shareholder profit, and we must resist government attempts to usher in a whole new era of schools run by firms simply wanting to make a quick buck for their shareholders. Of course we want well-funded schools, colleges and universities and good education accessible to all regardless of background, status or wealth. But we also want our educators to be well treated, fairly rewarded and respected for the work they do.” Frances O’Grady is the first woman to be elected to head the TUC.This is an edited version of her speech at a two-day conference for education unions in OECD countries held at Congress House by Educational International, which represents teachers and those working in education around the globe.

EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL www.ei-ie.org

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CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Thinking of going independent? The union has provided high-quality support and training for more than 1,000 members in the last year through its highly regarded course for members – thinking of becoming an independent consultant?

f you are thinking of this in the current economic climate, you need to consider:

The professional context for independent consultancy Credibility from new skills and approaches to effective consultancy Marketing your unique contribution The practicalities of setting up a new business e.g. record keeping and financing an office Quality assurance, accounts, tax, insurance, professional indemnity, contracting and invoicing

SUPPORT IS OFFERED IN THREE WAYS

1. The very popular national course – covering the topics above (and more) THIS TAKES PLACE ON:

May 17, 2013 Birmingham September 20, 2013 London £245+VAT for Aspect Group members £295+VAT for non-Aspect Group members 2. A bespoke in-house course for groups of colleagues in a local authority or coming to the end of limited contracts – costs negotiated. 3. Career review and development for individuals wishing for a personally tailored programme, together with careers counselling and/or skills analysis – in association with xué.

The Thinking of Going Independent programmes are overseen by John Pearce, one of the union’s longestserving and most successful independent associates. Typical comments from participants on recent courses include: “The day really provided what I was hoping for!” “A very useful and productive day with excellent facilitation.” “Useful content with clear ideas for follow-up work I need to do.” “Challenging scenarios.” “John answered questions I didn’t know I needed to ask!” “I appreciated the coverage of really practical issues and now have the bones of a business plan!” “Excellent day. Inspiring, practical and entertaining, made me think”. For further details of the courses, options and costs, please contact: Cheryl Crossley of Aspect Group of Prospect at cheryl.crossley@prospect.org.uk Tel: 01226 383428

24 | Improvement | spring 2013

www.aspect.org.uk

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CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

xué coach and mentor development programme A National Qualification in Coaching and Mentoring at Level 5 or Level 7

ollowing on from the previous successful programmes we are offering two further opportunities for members to enrol on the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) accredited Coaching and Mentoring Development Programmes run in collaboration with xué. Both Programmes are appropriate for those who wish to use coaching or mentoring in the workplace or who want to establish a coaching practice. THE NEXT TWO PROGRAMMES ARE:

ILM Level 7 (postgraduate level) Certificate in Executive Coaching and Mentoring (15 credits) which can be extended to the Diploma (40 Credits) Start date July 2013 ILM Level 5 (degree level) Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring (13 Credits), which can be extended to the Diploma (37 Credits) Start date April 2013

www.aspect.org.uk

PROGRAMMES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS:

Element 1 – Programme Introduction and pre-programme preparation Element 2 – completion of and feedback on a diagnostic/assessment tool chosen to support each participant to gain personal insights and growth Element 3 – face to face full day modules supporting skill development and practice spread across the Programme

LEVEL 5 PROGRAMME – FIVE DAYS (Spread over

nine months)

LEVEL 7 PROGRAMME – SIX DAYS (Spread over 12 months)

Element 4 – live coaching and/or mentoring practice supported by a coaching diary Element 5 – coaching/mentoring supervision by a trained supervisor Element 6 – personalised learning supported through access to online materials Element 7 - completion of a Personal Learning Log Element 8 – completion of three written assignments. This element is supported by tutorials Element 9 – Personal Interest Study – for the those taking the Level 7 Programme

ILM LEVEL 7 (MASTERS LEVEL) CERTIFICATE OR DIPLOMA PROGRAMME DATES

Summer Module 1 Summer Module 2 Summer Module 3 Venue:

July 11/12 2013 Sept 26/27 2013 June 5/6 2014 Derbyshire

Further information from cheryl.crossley@prospect.org.uk

ILM LEVEL 5 (DEGREE LEVEL) CERTIFICATE OR DIPLOMA PROGRAMME DATES

Summer Module 1 Summer Module 2 Summer Module 3 Venue:

April 25/26 2013 June 27/28 2013 November 14 2013 Derbyshire

Autumn Module 1 Autumn Module 2 Autumn Module 3 Venue:

Oct 24/252013 Jan 9/10 2014 May 22 2014 Derbyshire

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CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Aspect’s BTEC Qualifications

hisAspect Group of Prospect’s BTEC Professional Advanced awards and certificates have won great credibility accross the range of childrens services. At the core of the professional development programme is the union’s highly esteemed BTEC programme of advanced service training and professional career development for children’s services. The study programme provides an opportunity for reflection, review and assessment of your professional role. The portfolio is a great opportunity to focus on your achievements in your job, asking others for informal and formal feedback, and gathering the evidence to show that your professional contribution makes a difference. Creating a persuasive and well-evidenced portfolio that demonstrates your effectiveness and impact is of great use during performance management reviews, SPA 3 assessment, job reviews, recruitment interviews and re-organisations.

26 | Improvement | spring 2013

The programme provides a chance for teams to work together on what matters most to them, and confirm the impact they are having. Local authority children’s services teams have found that building portfolios together enables them to create a persuasive and comprehensive account of their work, their skills and the impact of their interventions. For some, this can also mean that a whole team portfolio is produced that is useful during reviews, audits and inspections. Employers, partners and client organisations are coming to realise the potential of the BTEC accreditation process as a useful quality assurance mechanism that enables individuals, teams and organisations to demostrate the range and level of their professional skills, to identify and work with other professionals with similar profiles and qualifications. The BTEC programme now offers progression pathways from Level 3 to Level 6 in Governor Services and from Level 6 to Level 7 in the Children’s Service Development (relevant to working at Masters Degree level). The first group of candidates for the new Advanced Professional Certificate in Improvement in

Children’s Services, which is particularly designed for those who work in the multi-agency context, started last May, and attracted interest from team leaders and other senior local authority professionals. The Aspect Group of Prospect’s BTEC programme provides a powerful process that can make a significant contribution to demonstrating your competence, effectiveness, achievements and impact. More than one hundred candidates have successfully completed one of the four courses available.

Please contact the Aspect Group of Prospect for details of workshops. Discounts are also available for groups and for upgrading onto higher levels. We have introductory workshops running throughout the year for those interested in undertaking any of the above courses. For further details, application forms, or if you are interested in forming a local authority group to undertake any of the above BTEC programmes, please contact Cheryl Crossley, cheryl.crossley@prospect.org.uk 01226 383428

THE FOUR BTEC QUALIFICATIONS AVAILABLE ARE:

BTEC Professional Award and Certificate in Education and Children’s Service Development – Level 6 BTEC Advanced Professional Award and Certificate in Improvement in Education and Children’s Service Development – Level 7 BTEC Advanced Award in Governor Services in Education and Children’s Service Development – Level 3 BTEC Professional Certificate in Co-ordinating Governor Services in Education and Children’s Service Development – Level 6

www.aspect.org.uk

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DEVELOPING AND SHARING EXPERTISE IN ASSESSMENT

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Snakes and

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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

ladders Performance pay for teachers is unlikely to result in much school improvement, argues Mike Hardacre

ichael Gove has found a friend. Responding to the beleaguered Secretary of State’s acceptance of proposals by the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) – the Quango that advises the ministers on teachers’ pay – the National Association of Head Teachers said the move away from awarding pay progression based on longevity to a system linking pay to performance will ultimately raise teaching quality and reward good and excellent teachers. Teachers’ organisations are, predictably, opposed. For the NUT, Christine Blower said: “Performance-related pay is fundamentally inappropriate for teaching, where educational outcomes are based on teamwork and the cumulative contribution of a number of teachers. The national pay structure provides a coherent framework for career progression and is essential to attract graduates into the profession. To get rid of it will certainly have an impact on recruitment and retention.” ATL leader Mary Bousted said: “It has nothing to do with improving education

www.aspect.org.uk

standards, but everything to do with saving money at the expense of children,” while NASUWT leader Chris Keates said: “A highly skilled and committed profession necessary to maintain and enhance the highest standards of education cannot be built on a foundation of temporary allowances, extensive discretionary payments and awards which bear little or no relationship to the breadth or weight of responsibilities teachers undertake.” Teacher performance pay is not a new idea, but evidence of its effectiveness in motivating teachers and school improvement is, in the English-speaking educational world, rather sketchy. Just as Britain’s Labour government floated it a decade or so ago, the newly elected Labor administration in the Australian state of Victoria abandoned it. Predictably, in the USA, it has its enthusiastic advocates and, since the fifties, a host of state-based schemes have come and gone. By the seventies, the number of school districts operating such schemes had dropped to one in 20. In 1978, the Education Research Service recorded that they had been abandoned “for a wide range of technical, organisational and financial reasons: difficulties in evaluating personnel, failure to apply criteria fairly, teacher and union opposition, poor morale, staff dissention and jealousy, failure of the plans to meet their objectives, changes in the school systems’ leadership and philosophy, collective bargaining, funding shortages, overall expense of the programmes and recognition that the merit pay bonuses did not provide sufficient incentives to teachers.” There has been a certain revival of the idea in neo-conservative circles and in the poorer states of the US South, but the notion that performance can be simplistically linked to

pay continues to exercise an attraction to a wide range of people grappling with problems of management. So, even though the NAHT’s endorsement is hedged about with caveats and qualifications, it will be welcomed by the minister whose recent train of setbacks has slowed down his deeply aspirational efforts to find favour with the people who will choose the next Tory leader. The NAHT linked their qualified endorsement to relief that regional pay appears abandoned, the hope that funding would be adequate and the hope that the scheme would be innocent of “crude targets”, while the Association of School and College Leaders thinks it will be difficult to make performance pay work in a “climate of budget constraint”. Although Gove is determined to push performance pay through, even he thinks it is a difficult project. “I am clear that these changes will give schools greater freedom to develop pay policies that are tailored to their school’s needs and circumstances and to reward their teachers in line with their performance,” he said. Here he reveals a glimmer of understanding that this process is complex and depends on

“The national pay structure provides a coherent framework for career progression outcomes”

spring 2013 | Improvement | 29

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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

WHAT DOES THE GOVERNMENT PROPOSE? In January, the DfE said that schools will get 'more freedom' over how they pay teachers from September 2013. The Government argues – from an unchallenged assertion – that improving the quality of teaching is essential to driving up standards in schools and that pupils taught by good teachers score nearly half a GCSE point more per subject than pupils taught by poor teachers. Michael Gove made great play of the Sutton Trust report, which showed that the impact of good teaching is more significant for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. The new system will end pay increases based on length of service – at present, most fulltime classroom teachers on the main pay scale progress to the next pay point. The Government wants to replicate the system currently used for heads and some other senior staff and link all teachers’ pay progression to performance, based on annual appraisals. It would abolish mandatory pay points within the pay scales for classroom teachers, supposedly 'to give schools greater freedom' on how much teachers are paid and retain the higher pay bands for London and fringe areas. “These recommendations will make teaching a more attractive career and a more rewarding job. They will give schools greater flexibility to respond to specific conditions and reward their best teachers. It is vital that teachers can be paid more without having to leave the classroom. This will be particularly important to schools in the most disadvantaged areas as it will empower them to attract and recruit the best teachers.” Michael Gove,Secretary of State for Education “We believe our recommendations will help schools to recruit, retain and reward the best teachers. It will give heads freedom to manage teachers’ pay according to pupil needs and local circumstances, within a fair national framework.” Dame Patricia Hodgson, Chair of the School Teachers Pay Review Body

30 | Improvement | spring 2013

consent.There is “further work to be done” needed in devising a scheme. The performance management framework for teachers(integrally bound up with the role of the head)entails an objective-setting process, classroom observation and the assembly of evidence, agreement on performance criteria and timescales and continuing professional development and support. The nature of the monitoring and review process is critical in establishing confidence in the system, the integrity of the evidence, the assessment of the teacher’s progress against the performance criteria and the decision on pay progression. Many Aspect Group members – advisors and inspectors, especially SIPs and experienced education professionals of all kinds – will be familiar with these processes. Much of the guidance to schools, heads and governing bodies emphasises the social, corporate, collective and cooperative nature of schooling and this goes to the heart of much teacher uncertainty about the effectiveness of individualised performance measurement as a school improvement mechanism.There are real worries that abandoning the existing pay progression framework and instituting individual school-based assessment will place additional administrative burdens on tens of thousands of schools.The overall climate of public sector cuts and Treasurydriven austerity gives rise to the fear that the award of pay increases will lack fairness. These are powerful factors for caution, but school improvement professionals must soberly examine the case for linking reward to performance if there is evidence that it will improve the quality of the educational experience. The first question must be to what extent teacher performance is a key driver of school improvement. It seems axiomatic. Education professionals have a high regard for the professional nature of their disciplines, but the wide range of other factors that influence attainment, the disparity in starting points for schools drawing on widely differing intakes and uncertainties about the objectivity of assessment procedures make for a debate clouded with doubt. Research into performance pay in the public sector for the Office of Manpower Economics in 2007 – the conclusions of which it is careful to specify do not reflect government views – is hedged around with qualification but suggests there are some beneficial effects.“There is strong evidence that teachers do respond to financial incentives. Several studies suggest that this response does not universally affect all students: most of the improvement appears to come from previously weak students performing better under such schemes,” it says. The Education Endowment Foundation, which draws on DfE funding for some of its research, is focused on breaking the link

between family income and educational achievement. It argues that:“As the evaluations of a number of merit pay schemes in the USA have been unable to find a clear link with student learning outcomes, investing in performance pay would not appear to be a good investment without further study. There are a number of examples of unintended consequences of performance pay, from the USA and elsewhere, which suggests that designing effective performance pay schemes is difficult.” It does not dismiss the idea, arguing that: “Evaluations of the English threshold assessment offer a cautious endorsement of approaches which seek to reward teachers in order to benefit disadvantaged students by recognising teachers’ professional skills and expertise. However, approaches which simply assume that incentives will make teachers work harder do not appear to be well supported.” It is concerned that performance pay may lead to a narrow focus on test performance and suggest that spending on professional development linked to evaluation of better learning by pupils may also offer an alternative to performance pay. The Aspect Group is not primarily concerned with the rights and wrongs of performance pay for teachers although, as all of us with backgrounds in schools know, money is not the main motivation for most and morale is all important in fostering a culture of attainment. However, our professional focus is on school improvement and, on the available evidence, performance pay cannot be seen as the factor most likely to make a decisive change in the education of our children. Our experience is that adequate funding, readily available expert professional support and advice and access to continuing professional development are more reliable guarantors of school improvement. Dr Hardacre is a former Aspect president and represents the group on Prospect’s National Executive.

EEF: TEACHERS www.educationendowmentfoun dation.org.uk/toolkit/approaches/ performance-pay PERFORMANCE PAY FOR REACHERS: THE EXPERIENCES OF HEADS AND TEACHERS Wragg, Haynes, Wragg and Chamberlain Routledge Farmer – 2004 ISBN 0-203-35795 OME: PUBLIC SECTOR tinyurl.com/cmb34jx

www.aspect.org.uk

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Lisa Nandy celebrates World Milk Day with schoolchildren

Lisa Nandy interviewed 32 | Improvement | spring 2013

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isa Nandy is Shadow Children’s Minister and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Corporate Responsibility. Previously, she sat on the Commons Education Select Committee. Before becoming MP for Wigan, she worked for the Children’s Society and has acted as an adviser to the Children’s Commissioner for England and to the Independent Asylum Commission. She was a keynote speaker at the Aspect Group’s annual conference last November. She is interviewed here exclusively for Improvement.

You seem to have the government on the back foot over free schools. what is the government trying to do with this policy? The Government said it was trying to raise standards by allowing schools to compete for students, but we’re already seeing some children left out by admissions codes and catchment areas that allow less advantaged children to be excluded. We were also told that free schools and academies were about allowing local communities more say, and then had the bizarre spectacle of Gove fighting parents and communities to force schools to become academies against their wishes. We know the policy has been very expensive at a time when education funding is at its lowest level for decades, and that the first free schools were mainly secondary when we had a desperate shortage of primary places. This is a government with the wrong priorities and a complete inability to manage the school system competently.

You are on record as wanting free schools brought back within the local authority family. what is labour’s policy on strengthening the local authority role in education and the middletier?

A rising star in Labour’s team, Lisa Nandy has challenged ministers and, on occasion, her own party’s bigwigs

www.aspect.org.uk

We want schools to collaborate with one another to help drive up standards, through the expansion of previous Labour initiatives like The Greater Manchester Challenge (which covered my constituency). During the Challenge, teachers from across Manchester came together and said “a failing school is our collective responsibility because these are our kids, they’re Manchester’s kids”. They lent one another staff and expertise – and it worked. It was innovation within a state framework – not despite the state framework, but because of it. It’s essential for parents that there is local accountability and we’re looking at where that best lies at the moment. Regardless of this, the local authority should also be part of a strategy to improve children’s lives

INTERVIEW

outside the classroom. Gove focuses too much on improving educational attainment by changing what is taught in the classroom, but the fact is children can’t learn if they are living in poverty and haven’t had breakfast or a hot meal in days. The local authority is crucial from that perspective.

Sure Start is one of Labour’s most important achievements in office. Can it survive? Yes, I hope so. But the funding threat to Sure Start centres is severe. There are 401 fewer Sure Start centres since this Coalition Government came into power and the grant for this upcoming financial year for Sure Start and other early intervention programmes has been cut by 40 per cent since 2010/11. What Labour is trying to do, through initiatives like Sharon Hodgson’s Labour Friends of Sure Start, is to ensure that parents who value Sure Start speak up and show how Labour councils are working to prioritise early years work in the face of drastic budget cuts. We are making the argument that the Government needs to invest in early intervention programmes like Sure Start both because it is the right thing to do and because it makes economic sense by saving money in the long term.

Liz Truss has suggested liberalising childcare. what should a labour government do to improve early years provision and help working women? We need to consider the whole package the Government is giving families. Promising £750 million of childcare in 2015 is not going to deal with urgent childcare needs now, nor is it going to compensate for the fact that this Government will have made £15 billion worth of cuts to family and childcare support by 2015. Labour is still developing our childcare offer for the next election through the Childcare Commission but we know that, if we were in government at the moment, we would be providing immediate help to families: firstly, by reversing the cuts to child care tax credit

“The local authority should also be part of a strategy to improve children’s lives outside the classroom”

spring 2013 | Improvement | 33

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INTERVIEW

which has seen some families losing up to £1,560 a year in financial support; and secondly, extending free nursery hours. Parents are struggling to make ends meet now and they need help urgently, not in two years’ time.

One of labour’s priorities was the integration of education and children’s services. would a labour government return to this agenda? One of the great success stories of the last Labour Government was the legacy for children and young people. The creation of one Department for Children, Schools and Families helped to drive change through government and it pushed children’s issues up the political agenda. There was a clear focus on outcomes for children through the Every Child Matters framework. Taken together, these actions brought about dramatic improvements for many of the most

disadvantaged children while ensuring wider benefits for children in general. I still believe that this holistic approach is the correct one for Labour to take. There are former ministers like Tim Loughton saying they thought the children’s agenda had been sidelined in the Department for Education because of the focus on free schools and academies. That certainly wouldn’t have been the case under DCSF.

You have made ‘looked after children’ an area of concern. what can be done to improve their life chances? When you ask children what’s most important to them, they say family. For most children, the adults they trust are parents or grandparents but, for children in care, it may be their foster carer or social worker. We need to make sure that every child has someone they trust, who is committed to working with them long term to support them. There’s a national shortage of foster carers and adopters, which is a huge problem. We also need to make sure that support continues for as long as children need it and doesn’t just stop at an arbitrary cut-off point.

Michael Gove makes great play of Labour’s role in establishing academies. How would you distinguish his policies from Labour’s? When Labour introduced academies, they were designed to improve struggling schools – primarily in deprived areas. This has obviously been radically changed and accelerated by the Coalition Government, focusing attention on more affluent areas. The stated aim of the Government’s policies on free schools and academies is to devolve power, but in practice people can see that it actually centralises power in the hands of the Education Secretary and not local communities. The priority is about taking schools out of local authority control as quickly as possible, and in some cases forcibly, with very little commitment to improving state education. Their policies divert resources away from the state sector and, in many cases, increase social segregation.

34 | Improvement | spring 2013

“When you ask children what’s most important to them, they say family. For most children, the adults they trust are parents or grandparents but, for children in care, it may be their foster carer or social worker. We need to make sure that every child has someone they trust, who is committed to working with them long-term to support them. There’s a national shortage of foster carers and adopters, which is a huge problem”

www.aspect.org.uk

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Choice and

quality? Elizabeth Truss wants high quality, good value childcare for children, parents and the taxpayer. Will her plans deliver?

he Government’s proposals on early education and childcare – More great childcare: Raising quality and giving parents more choice – are controversial.The union’s Early Childhood Education Group is the forum where an unrivalled body of knowledge and experience is assembled. Summarised here is its response to the consultation exercise that Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss launched. The Government plans to introduce two new categories of early years specialists: Early Years Educators, who will often act as assistants, and Early Years Teachers, who will be graduates specialising in early childhood development (who will have met the same entry requirements and passed the same skills tests as trainee schoolteachers). We welcome the development of further Early Years Educator qualifications to increase the depth and rigour of Level 3 training. An indepth understanding and knowledge of how young children learn and develop is crucial for the Early Years workforce in raising the quality of provision and practice. However, clear pathways for Early Years Professionals (EYP) to gain accredited and specialist graduate status (QTS) need to be established.

“Quality falls as ratios rise”

36 | Improvement | spring 2013

We agree with higher qualifications and specialist Early Years Teachers, providing they have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in line with their colleagues in primary and secondary schools. Just stating that the new EYT will be seen as equivalent to QTS is not sufficient. What is essential is a QTS route that integrates the EYP programme in working with children and families from birth and includes assessed teaching practice as with other teachers. Specifically, we would support training that incorporates a multidisciplinary Early Childhood Studies degree covering birth to seven. The Government makes a comparison with other European countries to argue that a more highly qualified early childhood workforce would allow a loosening of the ratio of staff to children. Government proposals are to increase the number of children that ‘suitably qualified staff ’ can look after to four children aged under two to each adult and to six twoyear-old children to each adult. We think that the flexibility in ratios is a different issue to the qualifications of staff. The impact of higher qualifications enhances the quality of learning opportunities, but does not impact on safeguarding, health and safety requirements and children’s need for physical and emotional support.Young children still need that level of adult support in the early years, for their wellbeing (safety) as well as their learning in terms of personal, social and emotional development and their communicative abilities. We would strongly

argue that children still need the same levels of adult to child ratios as outlined in the current framework to effectively support their learning and development. In the early years, practitioners do not just work with children in their care but also with their families and this needs to be taken into account when considering ratios. We are concerned that changing ratios will impact on those children with additional needs, who require greater and sometimes individual support. We recommend a minimum of one graduate who is a specialist Early Years Teacher with QTS status and Level 3 qualifications with English and Mathematics Grade C qualifications per setting as a minimum for other staff. We strongly oppose any increases in ratios for babies and toddlers to adults, irrespective of the staff qualifications – quality falls as ratios rise.Years of research and experience indicate that babies and toddlers’ development is most effectively fostered and nurtured by close, responsive relationships in war, consistent relationships with familiar adults. This is especially important in the first year of life. If staff are expected to be responsible for more children, this will inevitably adversely impact on the quality of children’s development. The Government argues that a limited choice of good childcare provision, the poor standards of many nurseries and childminders and the shortage of teacher-led nursery classes are factors that support its proposals to make it easier for new providers to enter the market and for existing providers to expand. The Government says its reforms seek to benefit both society and the economy by delivering high quality education in the early years at the same time as helping parents back to work. It says this will complement its wider commitments: reforming education, so that we produce bright graduates and skilled school leavers; and reforming welfare, so that it always pays to work. The Government proposes the creation of childminder agencies “to relieve childminders of some of the burdens of setting up their

EYPS: EQUAL NOT SUBORDINATE EYPs want genuine parity between Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), with professional pay for professional curriculum leadership in a clearly defined national pay framework. They argue that EYPs already possess graduate status and specialist training plans to introduce a further qualification are unnecessary and costly.

www.aspect.org.uk

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EARLY CHILDHOOD

EARLY YEARS EYPS DEMAND TRUSS MEETING Early years professionals in Prospect union called for a meeting with Elizabeth Truss, Minister for Education and Childcare, in the wake of warnings by Professor Cathy Nutbrown over plans to increase child-adult ratios in early years settings. Professor Nutbrown says the Government has rejected most of the recommendations in her government-commissioned review of early years education. Prospect Deputy General Secretary Leslie Manasseh said: “Our members in early years settings agree with Nutbrown's warning that the youngest, most vulnerable children will suffer if there are too few adults for too many children, no matter how well qualified the adults happen to be. “This raises questions not only around the wasted cost of this consultation, but also why the Government has chosen to ignore the findings of the expert they appointed. “Our message to Elizabeth Truss is that the Government must listen to the professional experts on the ground, and think again about its plans to increase staff-child ratios – from 1:3 to 1:4 for one-year-olds and under in nurseries; 1:4 to 1:6 for two- to three-year-olds in nurseries; and from 1:8 to 1:13 for the three-plus age group in nurseries – by September this year. “The government claims it will consult, and that means listening to the professionals expected to deliver, who are our members. Instead, it is once more trying to do things on the cheap, putting professionals in an impossible position and children at risk.”

Madonna and child with two angels by Sandro Botticelli c. 1468-1469

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own business, provide training and match childminders with parents”. It wants schools to take younger children by removing the requirement on schools to register separately with Ofsted if they wish to provide for children under three, to reform the statutory processes required of schools if they want to take children lower down the age range and to allow graduates to lead nursery classes of 13 children per adult. Specifically, it proposes that, while not exceeding more than six children in total, childminders should have more flexibility to care for up to four children under the age of five, including no more than two children under 12 months.

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EARLY CHILDHOOD The ECEG argues that there is a potential danger in the new proposals of creating a twotier system, with agency-based childminding just providing ‘childcare’ while individual childminders provide both childcare and education. Access to the full EYFS curriculum will be in jeopardy (e.g. with its requirements for outdoor play) with the prospect of increased ratios. Parents choose childminders because they want the family context (where children are nurtured within the family) for their children rather than a formalised ‘education’ context. Parents are concerned about any threat to the quality and safety of provision by any increase in ratios. We are concerned about how the quality of the proposed new Childminder Agencies will be validated, how they will maintain standards and quality across their networks and about the plan not to inspect all childminders if they are part of an agency.

advisory services that provide training and mentoring support. A policy that treats two-year-olds like three- and four-year-olds risks leading to inappropriate pedagogy that fails to meet the needs of two-year-olds. Changes in funding worry us. Changes to ratios will not support ‘narrowing the gap’ policies, especially now that the Early Intervention Grant criteria have changed. Local Authorities have to publish their strategy and policy regarding the distribution of funds to support funded three- to fouryear-old places, from various grants (e.g. DSG, Under 5s Block grant). Transparency is required. The assertion that £160 million funding is not distributed to provision is inaccurate. JOIN ASPECT'S EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION GROUP

Name

We note that there are no qualifications listed as requirements for childminders to be able to work with larger numbers of children – this would appear to be an inconsistency within the proposals. More schools teaching younger children is of particular concern. Primary teachers must be required to undergo Early Years Teacher training, including early years pedagogy and child development, before they are permitted to teach children under compulsory school age. The plan to establish Ofsted as the ‘sole arbiter of quality’ is a significant issue, as this will lead to greater centralisation and the loss of knowledge of local context and support based on local issues. Ofsted only makes recommendations for improvement based on snap shot inspections, whereas local advisory staff provide ongoing support and ensure that recommendations are carried out. It is local

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Title of your current post Local authority (where applicable) Workplace address

Postcode Tel Fax Email Home address

Postcode Tel Fax Email Date of application Main areas of responsibility, enthusiasm and interest

The Early Childhood Education Group comprises senior local authority early years advisers and independent early childhood consultants, working across the breadth and length of England. Its work involves supporting, advising, mentoring and training for all early years managers, headteachers and practitioners, including Professional Status (EYPs) Practitioners and Early Years Teachers across the whole Early Years sector – maintained, private, independent and voluntary providers. A number of the group also work as Ofsted inspectors. Within the union, the Group forms the strategic lead for early years pedagogy and practice. The Group is committed to continuous quality improvement and welcomes government initiatives that are designed to raise the quality of the qualifications of the early years workforce as it knows that this will impact on the quality of provision for young children. It believes that quality practice and provision have a significant impact on children’s life chances and success in later education, as demonstrated in The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project and the current Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 16+) research. The Group is committed to improving ratios and is strongly opposed to any increase in ratios of children to adults, as it knows the importance of the adult’s role in the early years in providing emotional support as well as good communication models for young children. Research around Attachment Theory highlights the importance of adults in children’s lives, and anything that threatens the quality of relationships between adults and the children and their families is strongly opposed.

When completed, please return to the Aspect Group membership department, Woolley Hall, Woolley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 2JR. For more information, please go to www.aspect.org/uk

✁

“A policy that treats two-year-olds like three- and four-yearolds risks leading to inappropriate pedagogy that fails to meet the needs of two-year-olds”

ABOUT THE ECEG

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BRIEFINGS

VIRTUALLY ANOREXIC – WHERE’S THE HARM? A RESEARCH STUDY ON THE RISKS OF PRO-ANOREXIA WEBSITES

This research investigated the risks from the increasing number of proanorexia (or ‘pro-ana’) websites , many of them set up and maintained by young people who themselves have an eating disorder. The study examined 126 pro-eating disorder (or ‘pro-ED’) websites and online communities and found that the sites promote a disordered view of perfection in relation to body image which normalises an ultrathin/emaciated body. There is often extreme or dangerous dieting advice, which can promote harmful behaviours. The sites studied reinforce an ED selfidentity and bullying is frequent. There is an increasing availability of pro-ED forums and blogs, but the nature of the sites varies according to the type of online space. The risks vary according to the type of content and the frequency of visits; young people who have low levels of self-esteem or who are lacking in self-confidence are especially vulnerable. For people with an eating disorder, there is a problematic relationship between feeling isolated from family and friends and finding support in online environments, which can make treatment and recovery complex. This study does not focus only on risks to adolescents, however. According to Mind (the leading mental health charity for England and Wales), one in 100 women aged between 15 and 30 in the UK suffers from anorexia and other reports show some girls as young as five have weight concerns and think about going on a diet. However, anorexia nervosa is most likely to strike during the mid-teenage years, and affects approximately one in 150 15-year-old females and one in 1,000 15-year-old males. Overall, this study provides a detailed account of online pro-ana environments which are openly accessible through a common search engine such as Google. The data obtained details the content of websites and online forums, and includes both quantitative and

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qualitative verbatim data and associated documents such as photographs, images and video which were systematically analysed into categories: Perfection, Performance, Protection and Paradoxes. These categories are discussed in order to present the range of identified risks in relation to the relevant sites and online forums. The findings are considered in relation to the existing literature on eating disordered people and online environments. The recommendations, with which the report ends, are grouped into Education and awareness raising; Understanding risk and harm in relation to young people; Media responsibility; Developing a culture of respect; Warnings; and Fostering critical debate. The conclusion from the study is that health professionals, educators and parents need to be aware of proana sites and the risks they may pose. However, it is important not to advertise their existence unnecessarily to children and young people. Educational strategies aimed at children and young people should emphasise the importance of critical thinking around all visual images in relation to the wider context of harmful content online. COMMENT

This report provides a snapshot into the world of pro-ana and pro-ED sites and online environments which, coupled with a review of other research in this area, provides a timely and useful tool for policy makers, health professionals and educators. It is crucial to educate and empower health professionals to recognise and respond to online risks and behaviours, particularly as a significant number of sites are developed by under-18s with ED and the popularity of usergenerated images may have a long-term health impact on those who upload such content. According to the EU ‘Kids Online’ project, 10 per cent of 11-16s had been exposed to pro-eating disorder content, which reinforces the need to develop online resilience in all young people while fostering a critical approach to all visual images.

FRAMEWORK FOR INSPECTING EDUCATION IN NON-ASSOCIATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS EVALUATION/ SCHEDULE FOR INSPECTING NON-ASSOCIATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

The Framework provides the statutory basis for inspection, summarising the main features of inspections in non-association independent schools along with the general principles and processes to be applied. The Evaluation Schedule gives further guidance and grade descriptors for inspecting and making judgements about nonassociation independent schools in England. Both documents should be read alongside each other. The Framework and Evaluation Schedule came into force on February 4, 2013. CONTENT

The introduction to the Framework outlines the purpose of inspection of independent schools, showing how the aim is to improve outcomes and focusing on the needs of pupils and their parents and carers. It also details the principles underpinning school inspection, plus the key features of the framework and the revised inspection arrangements. The Framework is then set out in three parts:

01 Emma Bond – University Campus Suffolk November 2012 www.ucs.ac.uk/ virtuallyanorexic

02 January 2013 32pp Ofsted Reference Numbers: 090036/090049

Part A – Inspection policy and principles starts with the legal requirements for the inspection of independent schools and the schools to which the framework is applicable as well as explaining which other inspectorates operating in the independent sector. It then covers a wide range of detailed operational matters. Part B – The focus of school inspections gives a broad indication of how key judgements will be made during school inspections . Part C – The process of inspection goes into fine detail about what happens before, during and after an inspection.

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BRIEFINGS The Evaluation Schedule indicates the main types of evidence to be collected and analysed in order for inspectors to reach their judgements. It sets out the detailed criteria and grade descriptors to be used for each of the aspects of provision inspected. A small level of particular extra detail is also set out for the evaluation of the quality of boarding and residential provision and the quality of early years childcare provision. ISSUES

It is suggested that this framework and schedule should be read alongside a number of other Ofsted documents: The framework for inspecting boarding and residential provision in schools; Conducting inspections of boarding and residential provision in schools, and; The evaluation schedule for inspecting boarding and residential provision in schools

DFE AND NATIONAL STATISTICS

The document reports decreases in two key measures of absence: the percentage of pupils who are persistent absentees (those who have missed around 15 per cent or more of possible sessions) and the overall absence rate. Absence levels are substantially higher for pupils with special educational needs compared to those with no special educational needs and the gap has changed little over recent years. Similarly, absence levels are substantially higher for those known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals and the gap has changed little. The fall in absence levels between 2010/11 and 2011/12 was larger than the fall in previous years and this was primarily due to the absence level in autumn term 2011 being substantially lower than in previous autumn terms. The percentage of pupil enrolments classed as persistent absentees decreased from 6.1 per cent in 2010/11 to 5.2 per cent in 2011/12 – continuing the downward trend. The rate of overall absence for persistent absentees was 24.7 per cent, more than four times the rate for all pupils.

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Across state-funded primary, secondary and special schools, persistent absentees accounted for 25.1 per cent of overall absence, 19.5 per cent of authorised absence and 48.9 per cent of unauthorised absence. The percentage of the school population who were persistent absentees was nine per cent or lower in 97 per cent of statefunded primary schools and 72 per cent of state-funded secondary schools. The document includes detailed charts showing the percentage of pupil enrolments who are persistent absentees, overall absence rates, the percentage of possible sessions missed and distribution of enrolments by length of overall absence. A particularly useful feature is the links to additional data on local authority, regional and other more detailed statistics including term breakdowns.

MASTERING SOCIAL WORK VALUES AND ETHICS

Social work practice presents dilemmas to the professionals working in the field. The seeming contradictions that routine work with the vulnerable throws up frequently present practitioners with a clash between personal values and the imperatives of professional practice, institutional order and state diktat. Whistleblowing conflicts, frequently referenced in the pages of Improvement, are a contemporary manifestation of this process at work, but the ethical framework in which social work practitioners negotiate the relationship between service users and their institutions is a daily task. This book, part of the Mastering Social Work Skills series, is directly concerned with the everyday key skills needed. Its strength is the practical focus, clear pedagogic style and practical examples based on real-life situations that are recognisable to anyone working with children or vulnerable adults. Mastering Social Work, Values and Ethics is extensively referenced. It deals with the complex interplay between the imperatives of the state and institutional system in which they work and the values that social workers necessarily deploy. It includes a useful survey of the professional framework, underpinned by law and regulation, within which social workers operate and locates these within a values matrix of law, policy

and codes of practice. Through a series of case studies, it introduces the reader to a range of problems arising from the balancing of the ‘rhetoric behind the act or policy versus the reality of implementing it’. A valuable focus is on the personalisation of social care – the ‘selfdirected support’ that is supposed to direct service users in the direction of flexibility, autonomy and freedom. There is a useful survey of ethical theory, of value to more than social work practitioners, which covers ethical approaches (both contemporary and ancient) and includes a rather relevant discussion of the utilitarian roots of the social work focus on outcomes. A chapter on Changing Values in Professional Life deals with the professional and ethical problems that arise from what is posited as a predictable erosion of the links between personal values and practice. A very useful exercise – again of value to other professions – asks the reader to catalogue and question the reasons to become and remain a social worker. A revealing section delineates the different stages of professional development and identifies the factors that can avoid ‘burn out’. The section on Ethical Issues in Direct Work is necessarily practical in dealing with the realities of both personal power and institutional power and the problems that arise in negotiating boundaries between practitioner, service user and management. There is a frank discussion of the issues raised by the trend towards managerialism in shaping decision-making. The chapter Tools to Develop Self Awareness focuses on the necessity for a self-reflective practice in shaping positive relations between social workers and service users and leads on to a discussion about the ethical (and ideological) foundations of practice that is non-discriminatory. Finally, Ethical Issues in the Workplace deals with the ethical issues that arise between managers, colleagues and the social work organisational framework of local authority or voluntary body. It usefully details criteria for the creation of an informed workplace culture that accommodates a critical reporting culture, grounded in justice, flexibility and a learning environment, and deals with the ethical issues that arise in team management and supervision.

03 DfE: Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2011/12

04 Farrukh Akhtar ISBN 978 1 84905 274 0 eISBN 978 0 85700 594 6 2013 – 168pp Jessica Kingsley

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REVIEW

Autism and Understanding

Autism and Understanding represents an unusual collaboration between the parent of an autistic boy, a doctor qualified in medicine, child and family psychiatry and psychoanalysis and a physiotherapist and special needs teacher. All are totally committed to the Waldon approach, promoting its value and using it in practice. The book details the approach to dealing with autism developed by Dr Geoffrey Waldon based on his philosophy of the development of understanding and focusing on helping children learn how to learn. Included is a highly inspirational, detailed description of Walter Solomon’s son, who was diagnosed with autism when two years old and labelled as ‘basically sub-normal’. He has now made a success of his life, both in personal and professional terms. It also covers an introduction to Waldon’s theory and working methods, and testimony provided by parents and teachers who have encountered autism and a range of learning difficulties. The authors’ fundamental purpose is to provide a critique of the Waldon Approach and its effectiveness in helping children to develop their understanding and their ability to do so. This, from practitioners’ viewpoints, is valuable and provides added stimulation. Autism and Understanding involves a three-part approach. The first four chapters describe the actual case of Walter Solomon’s son Robert and his development from what was viewed by some as a seemingly hopeless case of autism and his transformation into a positive, constructive and

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contributing adult. The aim of these chapters is to demonstrate that it was the early application of the Waldon Approach, based on the particular analysis of child development, which was the essential ingredient in the success story. These chapters move chronologically through Robert’s life, describing his: First four years: 1968-1972 School years: 1972-1987 – nursery school through to high school graduation College years: 1987-1998 – in UK and Israel Work and marriage: 1998-2011 The second part of the book focuses on the detail of the Waldon Theory of Child Development. It starts with a distillation of Waldon’s articles and papers and continues with a series of interviews used to illustrate and elucidate the theory. The interviews are primarily with teachers who have integrated the Waldon Approach into their everyday work. From these interviews, it is clear how adapting their methods of teaching special needs children and adults has delivered significant and substantial benefits to the learners. Moving into the third part of the book, the next two chapters contain a series of case studies of students on the autistic spectrum and then studies of students with a variety of other physical and mental conditions. The second of these chapters demonstrates that the Waldon Approach is applicable to children with a wide range of learning and developmental delays.

These case studies are based on interviews with students, special needs teachers and class teachers, parents with success stories and parents where success has been limited – sometimes severely so. This gives a well-rounded picture of theory transforming into practice. The final chapter concentrates on the theory and practice of a specialised orientation of the Waldon Approach, called Functional Reading. The LearningHow-to-Learn tools described earlier in the book are critical to the deployment of the Functional Reading methodology. The author is not claiming that there is a ‘miracle cure’ for autism, but certainly counteracts any view that autism is a lifetime condition. Basically, it is shown that appropriate intervention can assist children with autism and other special learning needs to gain greater understanding of the world and learn how to take a constructive and contributing place in it. The Waldon Approach itself was developed in the 1970s, but appears to have been attributed with greater validation and appreciation in more recent research. When Waldon died, a book drawing together his articles and papers was in preparation but was never completed. Walter Solomon regards his attempt here to be a simplified form of the theory which still remains true to the original. It is meant to be, and succeeds in being, accessible to parents and teachers. Apart from this recent publication, short clips of old videos of Geoffrey Waldon illustrating the different learning-how-to-learn-tools and other of his techniques are available. Chapters five and six of Autism and Understanding are valuable in bringing out in depth and more clearly what the clips display. Also available are longer films of Waldon working in a school in Oxfordshire and these are very useful for parents and teachers aiming to use the Waldon Approach. The website (www.autismand understanding.com/index.html) helps direct those interested to what is accessible online, along with the teaching aids used in the films (which can be obtained from the online shop). It is apparent that the understanding of autism and how to treat it has developed considerably since Robert was diagnosed. Even so, this book amply exhibits that the Waldon Approach merits further investigation and application. It is a fascinating and highly readable publication.

Autism and Understanding Walter Solomon with Chris Holland and Mary Jo Middleton Sage Publications 2012 – 220pp £23.99 Walter Solomon on the book: www.youtube.com/watch?v =Dz1KP0XDKJs www.sageconnection.word press.com/2012/07/23/autism -author-spends-four-weeksas-classroom-assistant/ Walter Solomon spent four weeks as a volunteer classroom assistant in four different schools within the Autism Resource Base of the Oxfordshire Education Authority. Undertaking one-to-one sessions using the Waldon Approach, Walter found the time to be an invaluable learning experience.

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SCHOOLS

Think strategically,

act locally Martin Baxter sets the Buckinghamshire Teaching School in a national context The main thrust of UK government policy over some 10 years has been for schools to take a stronger lead in shaping their own destiny. The National Strategies were a response to concerns that too many teachers did not have sufficient knowledge and understanding about issues such as the teaching of reading or how children learn. They were an attempt to allow every teacher to catch up with the best teachers. However, by 2010, the programme had run its course and something different was required which was described in the Government White Paper The Importance of Teaching. It emphasised that the improvement of schools in future would rest primarily with schools themselves – not with government, local or central: “The aim should be to create a selfimproving system, built on the premise that teachers learn best from one another and should be more in control of their professional and institutional development than they have been in recent years. To this end, a self-improving system is to be led by newly designated teaching schools and the strategic alliances they establish with partners.” The Buckinghamshire Teaching School Partnership wants to create this ‘self-improving system’ locally so the Aylesbury schools can be at the forefront of national thinking. As the roles of the Teaching Agency and the National College diminish, local schools need to be in a position, with other partners such as TVSP, other teaching schools and the local authority, to shape their own future. It is worthwhile to say that we may have to achieve more against a diminished budget and we can only do this through economies of scale. So what sits behind the Teaching School initiative?

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This is described in Oceans of Innovation (Barber, M. et al), from which much of what follows is extracted. Barber describes how there is growing knowledge from international benchmarking of how to reform education systems. This knowledge about reforming whole systems (as opposed to introducing superficially attractive ‘initiatives’) has huge potential. Systems in Pacific region countries as varied as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Chile are actively applying this knowledge and making progress as a result. At the school level, this is set out in three major reports* and can be summarised as: Set high standards; Monitor whether they are being achieved; Provide excellent teachers who improve their teaching throughout their careers; Ensure well-trained, well-selected headteachers; and, Reorganise the system’s structure so that it becomes a dynamic driver of change rather than a static bureaucracy – a driver of quality rather than an enforcer of compliance The Teaching School is engaged in initial teacher training and School Direct places the responsibility for recruiting trainees and training them with local schools. However, it is not just about their initial training – we need all involved in teaching (this, therefore, includes TAs) to experience a continuous programme of professional development (CPD) which is matched to their needs. We could provide a series of courses, but we know that the implementation of traditional CPD is generally not cost effective. In ITT, we are exploring how to ‘wrap the training round the needs of each trainee’, which is different from what has happened in the past and

presents a challenge for school mentors. Performance management of staff linked to personalised CPD is developing in some schools and the new modular school leadership curriculum exemplifies how trainees and their mentors need to explore learning which relates directly to their needs and the needs of the school. The leadership curriculum is at Masters degree level, is organised through the Thames Valley School Partnership and provides teachers with incremental steps through high quality materials to develop themselves and improve their schools.

Visible Learning for Teachers John Hattie Routledge, 2011 Paperback ISBN 0415690153i

“Bringing change across a large system requires consistent and courageous leadership” However, individuals still need support and we have appointed nine Specialist Leaders in Education (and have bid for six more) who have received training to provide personalised support for middle leaders within their schools. Together with Local Leaders in Education (LLEs), they are seen as the front line of future school-to-school support. We are supporting several schools and are learning that support is not about parachuting experts with all the answers into schools (because we know this is rarely sustainable), it is about building school capacity for self-improvement. This sits behind the Teaching School programme and John Hattie has probably done more than anyone else to summarise and make the evidence practical**. He and others argue that, if all teachers matched the best teachers or even approached their level, pupil performance would rise dramatically. Though this knowledge is now well established, most systems have still not applied it – partly because bringing change across a large system requires consistent and courageous leadership and partly because implementation is all-too-often not taken seriously enough. The driver for the Teaching School, however, is to engage every local school in a serious debate about how to be courageous and bring about

Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems Edited by Marc S. Tucker, Foreword by Linda DarlingHammond 288 Pages ISBN-13: 978-1-61250-103-1  Cloth, 288 Pages ISBN-13: 978-1-61250-104-8

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change to improve teaching quality, which leads to improved achievement for every child. Yes, Every Child Matters is still important. There is a final strand to the Teaching School which we must not leave out. Barber suggests that: Education systems of the future have to structurally foster islands of innovation and scale them up – in other words, whole system reform will not be enough We need to find ways of promoting a systemic capacity to innovate We need to find ways to create structures and relationships within systems where information and ideas flow in all directions and leaders at all levels rise above the increasingly sterile debates of recent years

partnership working and pupil achievement. What we are seeking in future is for local schools to think of themselves like ‘lean startup’ businesses that innovate to find and share the learning needs of children. Charles Leadbeater has usefully described four segments of potential innovation and, as the technology develops, systems need to foster innovation in each of the segments: Improve schools through better facilities, teachers and leadership Supplement schools by working with families and communities Reinvent schools to create an education better fit for the times Transform learning by making it available in radical new ways

“Innovation through local action research is at the heart of whole system reform”

The Teaching School is not a private club, but its core membership must have the capacity to self-improve and secure credibility by providing high quality learning. We welcome associate partners who meet these requirements and who can add to the overall capacity. The Teaching School is outward looking and has a moral purpose, described in the mission statement ‘Inspiring innovation and excellence in learning’, to support the improvement

Innovation through local action research is at the heart of whole system reform. We already have a programme to explore how to help teachers and parents to develop early writing in very young children, local SENCOs have been invited to take part in an action research project and we have tendered to work with the Milton Keynes Teaching School to promote succession planning and talent management which will be led by SLEs. ASP provides the necessary capacity for participating schools to get involved in action research to improve individual teachers,

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of all local schools, constantly testing new ideas to continuously invent best practices. The Teaching School is in a position to establish the basis of a forum for sharing and scaling these best practices. In summary, Barber says: “To be successful in the 21st century, systems need not only to drive forward wholesystem reform based on the evidence; they also need the capacity to innovate, to learn from that innovation and continuously improve the system.” The Buckinghamshire Teaching School Partnership and the Aylesbury Standards Project are in a strong position to impact of the quality of learning and create a local self-improving system in which teachers learn from each other. We are certainly more likely to achieve this if we work together. Martin Baxter is a member of the Aspect Group National Council and partnership manager – the Buckinghamshire Teaching School * McKinsey’s 2007 How the world’s best performing school systems come out on top, McKinsey’s 2010 How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better and Marc Tucker’s 2011 book Surpassing Shanghai, An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems. ** In his most recent book (Visible Learning for Teachers), Hattie argues that expert or ‘high-value’ teachers are significantly different from their more ordinary peers.

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UNION MEMBERSHIP

Win a case of wine!

Sign up a new member to the Aspect Group of Prospect and you are entered into a draw for a case of wine. Your new recruit gets a case of wine too!

Professionals working in education and children’s services are facing unprecedented problems – shrinking budgets, vanishing jobs, burgeoning workloads, unseasonable Arctic conditions and a pay freeze to match. We need the strength of our union more than ever. Professionals working in our sector need individual advice and support. They need individual protection and the collective protection that only a trade union can provide. The union protects the interests of thousands of professionals who are playing vital roles in shaping and influencing the lives of millions of children and young people in unprecedentedly difficult circumstances. The Aspect Group’s range of members is constantly growing and now includes directors and managers

of children’s services, school improvement and early years advisers, education welfare officers, youth service managers, early years professionals, 14-19 coordinators, social workers in education, heads of Sure Start, social care professionals, Ofsted inspectors, specialist foster careers, parent partnership staff and selfemployed consultants. You will know many of these people through your work and professional life. Ask them if they are a member of the Aspect Group of Prospect. If they are not, sign them up! You are an ambassador for the union in the work environment and individual members are often the most effective recruiters of their peers and colleagues. For those who do not immediately see the value of membership, you can let them know that the union’s expert negotiators across the country are

2013 ASPECT GROUP PRIZE DRAW Name of new member Address Name of recruiter Address

expert support and representation on salaries, contracts, conditions of service, workloads, pensions and other work-related issues access to the Group's free 24hour legal helpline discounted rates on a wide range of Aspect Group training courses specialist career support services a no-strings attached tax health check Informative publications, including a quarterly magazine and regular digest of key educational and children's services reports highly competitive professional indemnity, public liability and employer's liability insurance cover independent financial advice excellent package of financial services from Unity Trust Bank reductions on gas and electricity and hotel accommodation a tax refund service on hand to represent them. They will be joining a union with an unrivalled pool of knowledge and experience with a pioneering track record on policy, contacts unrivalled in our sector – in government, children’s services and education – and links though Prospect with professionals working across the public and private sectors. The Aspect Group’s programme of continuing professional development and its highly competitive professional indemnity cover are there to lend a real sense of security. WHAT TO DO!

Post code Phone Email

✁ 44 | Improvement | spring 2013

REASONS TO JOIN THE ASPECT GROUP OF PROSPECT

Recruit a member. Join Aspect Group forms are downloadable at www.aspect.org.uk. Alternatively, contact 01226 383428 or email aspect@prospect.org.uk for a recruitment pack. Attach this to the completed application form.

www.aspect.org.uk

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UNION RESOURCES

Specialist help and advice Aspect Group regional and specialist officers GLENN JOHNSON

CLAIRE DENT

NICK WRIGHT

London/Southern England and East Midlands Glenn.Johnson@prospect.org.uk

London and Southern England Claire.Dent@prospect.org.uk

Communications/Improvement Nick.Wright@prospect.org.uk

DON MARTIN

JIM CROWLEY

DAVID SANDERS

Wales Don.Martin@prospect.org.uk

South West and West Midlands Jim.Crowley@prospect.org.uk

Head of Professional Learning David.Sanders@prospect.org.uk

BOB PEMBERTON

DAVEY HALL

ROGER KLINE

North of England Bob.Pemberton@prospect.org.uk

NE England, Scotland, Northern Ireland Davey.Hall@prospect.org.uk

Social Care Roger.Kline@prospect.org.uk

Aspect Group National Council – Regional and Sector Representatives MIKE WOOLER

PETER MCALISTER

Region 1 North East michael.wooler@rocketmail.com

Region 11 Northern Ireland ppmcalister@yahoo.com

MIKE JONES

PAUL WATSON

Region 2 Yorkshire and the Humber mike.jones@hullcc.gov.uk

Region 12 Scotland paul.watson@moray.gov.uk

TERESA JOHNSON

CLARE GILLIES

Region 3 East Midlands Teresa.Johnston@northlincs.gov.uk

Self-employed Educational Consultant Sector cggillies.biz

REGION 4 MID SOUTH ENGLAND

IAN CLELAND

vacancy

SUSIE HALL

Region 5 East of England susie-hall@sky.peterborough.gov.uk NIGEL HOLMES

Region 6 South East nigel.holmes@kent.gov.uk REGION 7 SOUTH WEST

vacancy

VINOD HALLAN

Region 8 West Midlands vinodhallanis@hotmail.com

REGION 9 WALES vacancy

FRAN STODDART

Region 10 North West fran.stoddart@sefton.gov.uk

www.aspect.org.uk

Private Education Company Sector I.cleland@academytransformation.co.uk LEN HAMPSON

Voluntary and Voluntary-aided Sector len.hampson@lancasterdiocese.org.uk KATE HALL

NAYCEO k.a.hall@dorsetcc.gov.uk

INFORMATION FOR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES AND ACTIVISTS

The first issue of the new look Report is now out. It is available to download from: http//library.prospect .org.uk /id/2013/00399 Contents include: Message from Mike Clancy; reps make the difference; Growing the union youth; news; Prospect news; NEC report; 2013 subscription rates; health and safety; international news; women in STEM; mental health; work, pay and pensions; legal update; recent pay settlements; and confessions of a green rep. PROFILE MAGAZINE FOR ALL PROSPECT MEMBERS

February 2013 Contents include: Political fund – why I’m voting yes; Technological change – are you ready for it?; Nothing but our best – new General Secretary’s message to members; Private finance initiative – bad for our health; Can your employer change your contract? Plus news from around our industries: science, Wales, Scotland, telecoms, defence, civil service, energy.

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School improvement: job round up CHIEF/PRINCIPAL Jan 11 2013 – Blackburn and Darwen Head of Service – Quality and Effectiveness £57,453-£61,698 Jan 11 2013 – Milton Keynes Head of Delivery – Setting and School Effectiveness £64,407 Feb 22 2013 – Diocesan of Southwark Director of Education £70,000-£80,000 Feb 22 2013 – Kent Catholic Schools Partners Chief Executive £150,000 Feb 22 2013 – Kent Catholic Schools Partners School Improvement Director £100,000 Mar 8 2013 – CFBT (Lincolnshire) Director of Education Services Mar 8 2013 – Pembrokeshire Head of Education £92,950 Mar 8 2013 – Pembrokeshire Head of Performance and Community £79,300 Mar 8 2013 – Pembrokeshire Head of Inclusion £79,300

Mar 8 2013 – CFBT (Reading) UK Director SENIOR Jan 18 2013 – Dorset SEN Manager £41,616-£46,461 Jan 18 2013 – Wokingham Service Manager – Special Educational Needs £53,554-£56,738 Feb 1 2013 – Suffolk Adviser 11-19 £55,287-£64,399 Feb 15 2013 – Guernsey Education Development Officer: Primary and Early Y £46,960-£57,934 Mar 1 2013 – Cambridgeshire Area Adviser £52,000-£60,710 Mar 8 2013 – Diocese of St Albans Deputy Director of Education £42,244-£44,586 Mar 8 2013 – Norfolk Adviser Inspection/Accountability £50,739-£53,554

ADVISOR/INSPECTOR Jan 18 2013 – Southwark Discesan Board of Ed Secondary Adviser £60,000 Feb 1 2013 – Newham Learning Adviser (Early Years) 15-19 £51,406-£55,872 Feb 8 2013 – Newham SEN Assessment and Commissioning Lead 10-13 £42,649-£46,152 Feb 8 2013 – North Lincolnshire School Improvement Officer Narrowing the Gap 9-12 £41,491-£44,899 Feb 15 2013 – Blackburn Diocesan Board Quality and Effectiveness Advisers (x2) £40,000 Feb 15 2013 – Kingston and Chelsea Principal Lead Advisers for School Standards (x2) £54,300-£73,500 Mar 1 – 2013 Blackburn Diocesan Board Quality and Effectiveness Advisers (x2) £40,000 Mar 8 – 2013 Reading School Partnership Advisor 24-27 £57,705-£60,781

Mar 15 – 2013 Hertfordshire Teaching and Learning Adviser – Primary 19-22 £49,620 Mar 15 – 2013 Hertfordshire District School Effectiveness Adviser – Primary 19-22 £58,741 Mar 15 – 2013 Nottinghamshire 2 x Temporary Education Improvement Advisers 17-20 £53,554 Mar 15 – 2013 Redbridge School Improvement Adviser – Primary 25-28 £58,741-£61,827 OTHER Jan 1 2013 – Affinity Teaching School Allia Business Development Manager 11-14 £43,792-£47,269 Jan 11 2013 – Blackburn & Darwen Music Service Manager 10-13 £42,649-£46,152 Jan 11 2013 – Merton Casework and Assessment Manager £46,908-£47,850

Jan 11 2013 – Merton Team Leader – SEN Transitions £38,070-£40,716 Jan 11 2013 – Merton Team Leader – Social Work Team £40,716-£43,368 Jan 11 2013 – Merton Team Leader – SEN Team £38,070-£40,716 Jan 11 2013 – Milton Keynes Improvement Partner – Early Years 20-23 £53,554-£56,738 Jan 11 2013 – Milton Keynes Improvement Partner – School Effectiveness 20-23 £53,554-£56,738 Jan 18 2013 – Affinity Teaching School Allia Business Development Manager 11-14 £43,792-£47,269 Jan 18 2013 – Wiltshire Specialist Advisory Teacher £21,588-£36,756 Jan 18 2013 – Wiltshire Lead Professional for Cognitive and Learning 15-18 £44,899-£48,503

Feb 22 2013 – Aberdeen City Service Manager – Additional Needs/Inclusion £57,528 Feb 22 2013 – Barnet SEN Inclusion Manager £43,368-£46,050 Feb 22 2013 – Hampshire Childcare Inclusion Manager £43,035-£48,438 Feb 22 2013 – Kent Catholic Schools Partners Business and Finance Director £80,000 Feb 22 2013 – Redbridge Team Leader, Early Years and Childcare Imp Team £38,961-£41,610 Mar 1 2013 – Stevenage Educational Trust Development Officer £58,000-£64,000 Mar 8 2013 – Cheshire West and Chester SEN Manager £42,014-£48,200 Mar 15 2013 – Education Achievement Service Systems Leaders 17-23 £50,739-£56,738 Mar 15 2013 – Oasis Community Learning Regional Academy Director 0

Need expert legal advice? Call the Aspect Group’s 24-hour legal helpline on 0161 830 4511 Please have your membership number to hand, as you will need it for identification purposes Russell, Jones & Walker, part of Slater & Gordon Lawyers

46 | Improvement | spring 2013

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