School Improvement Service

Brokering School-based support

Directory of School-based support for 2008-09

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Statutory Duties
The local authority has a statutory duty to work in partnership with its schools to raise standards for all children and young people. This responsibility is discharged in part through the deployment of School Improvement Partners (SIPs) to monitor standards and progress and to challenge schools to improve provision and expectations. A part of the SIP role is to help the school map out its future priorities and to broker further support from the LA.

The aim of the service is to work in partnership with schools and settings, enabling all Camden’s children and young people to enjoy school and achieve the very best they can, providing them with a broad and appropriate range of opportunities to achieve economic well-being. The support of the service is designed to help schools to develop their own capacity for sustainable improvement.

The School Improvement Service consists of teams of School Improvement Partners, School Improvement Advisers, Strategy Managers, the Music Service, the Education Business Partnership Governors’ Support Services consultants and advisory teachers who deliver support for national strategies, citizenship and other curriculum subjects and aspects. SIPs may be external to the LA (usually serving headteachers or former headteachers) or employed directly by the LA. SIPs employed directly by the LA are highly experienced school improvement professionals who can offer additional support for leadership and management as School Improvement Advisers.

This booklet is designed to provide further detail on what a school might expect from in-school support ant to clarify the distinction between work which is core and work provided under the Service Level Agreement.

Core Support
Core SIP work
Each school is allocated a School Improvement Partner who will on average devote five days per year to each school (usually three days in school and two days preparation and report writing). The core functions which must be undertaken in every school include target setting, support and challenge on school self-evaluation and advice to the school’s governing body on the performance management of the headteacher and the school’s performance management arrangements. Full details of the role of the School Improvement Partner are detailed in the DCSF Guidance ‘A New Relationship with Schools – the School Improvement Partner’s Brief).

Additional core sessions may be allocated by the Head of School Improvement where the school is in challenging circumstances or in an LA category of concern (category 4) or where the school is categorised as satisfactory (category 3) but deemed to require support to sustain ongoing improvement. The number of support sessions allocated will be determined according to need and agreed and monitored by the Head of School Improvement or through a Project Group chaired by the Head of School Improvement or the Assistant Director, Learning and School Effectiveness.

A limited amount of training for curriculum development through the Primary and Secondary National Strategies is funded through centrally retained Standard Funds budgets and is provided as core support and not part of the SLA. This is clearly marked in the training directories and includes some core national strategy training, network meetings for core subjects and preparation for statutory assessment.

Support from EMA consultants is provided as core. A proportion of the EMAG funding is retained centrally to fund this.

School Improvement Support
Service Level Agreement (SLA) 
The income from the SLA is essential to maintain the provision of the School Improvement Service.

The majority of primary, some special and some secondary schools pay a lump sum to secure additional school improvement support through SLA. The support will be brokered through the SIP or the appropriate Strategy Manager. In order to ensure that support has an impact on school improvement, support packages will include the time for joint evaluation. The costs of preparation time for the LA officers involved and the production of materials are also included.