Session Information
05 SES 01 A, School-Based Collaborative Approaches to Overcoming Disadvantage and Inequality in England, Scotland and Wales
Symposium
Contribution
This paper focuses on a new form of intermediary organisation being developed in Wales, regional consortia, as part of national policy on tackling educational inequality. The consortia arose from a strategic vision for the Welsh education system (Welsh Government, 2014) based on establishing collaborative working and more coordinated improvement efforts at all levels. The consortia are on part of ongoing changes to the role of local government in the education system in Wales, which since 1996 has comprised 22 unitary local authorities, a large number for a country with a population of only 4 million. This has led to concerns over the ability of some of the smaller authorities to support schools adequately or tackle systemic issues at a local level. In response to these concerns, a recent report on public service governance (Williams, 2014) recommended reducing the number of authorities by half. Anticipating this move, in 2011 the existing authorities were placed into four regional education consortia. This paper focuses upon the development and work of one of these consortia that supports schools serving some of the most deprived communities in Wales. This consortia has brought together over 300 schools in 30 school improvement groups or SIGs, each of which has a convenor who coordinates a shared improvement plan for their network of schools. It is also developing a number of ‘hub schools’ to form a network of specialist centres for key aspects of teaching and learning. The paper is based on interviews with consortium leaders and case studies of the work of four SIGs. It focuses on the leadership challenges involved in developing collaborative and coordinated responses at different levels of the consortia, from those who have overall responsibility for its strategic direction to convenors attempting to mobilize their SIG members to engage in collaborative professional learning activities.
References
Welsh Government (2014) Qualified for Life. An education plan for 3 to 19-year-olds in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Government. Williams P. (2014) Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery. Cardiff: Welsh Government.
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