Agenda item

Please introduce yourself and outline the duties and responsibilities that your post involves.

I am the National Director of QiSS, based in the Faculty of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University.  QiSS is one of the National Study Support Partners and has a contract with the former DCSF, now DfE, to work with all Local Authorities across the UK to support the quality for Extended Services and Study Support provision. I am the Programme Director of the MA in Critical Friendship. QiSS academics are responsible for the PG Certificate in Critical Friendship which allows those who successfully complete the accreditation chair QiSS and QES recognition meetings. I am also the course director for The Certificate in Supporting Children and Young People, which can be taken at MA and undergraduate level.  I am part of the Knowledge Transfer Board at the University and I am currently part of the team supporting the evaluation for Kent Community Youth Pilot.  I wrote the original model for, and set up, the Kent HE Compact, which I am now researching as part of my PhD.  The aim of this is to widen participation and outcomes for Kent students whose aim to progress on to HE study

What is Quality in Study Support (QiSS), and what are Quality in Extended Services (QES) recognition schemes?  How are these schemes organised and run?

There are two recognition schemes – The Quality Development Framework (QDF) and the DfE Extended Learning Opportunities, which replaces the older Study Support Code of Practice. Both of these documents are used by KCC to ensure the quality of their provision across the county. .  The Frameworks and supporting information packs of materials and documents are sent to the schools who want to assure the quality of their Extended Services or/and Study Support provision. Schools and other organisations who successfully meet the recognition criteria are awarded the kite mark at one of three levels (emerged, established or advanced).  The applicant completes the pack and provides a folio of evidence, which is judged by a panel of peer scrutineers and a chair who is a National Critical Friend.

The QDF relates to the whole of a school’s Extended Services provision; the core offer, plus the value for money that they deliver, plus the partnership working, and the whole scope of activity is judged to help identify the quality of the service and provision.  QiSS provides training on how to use these framework documents so the very best of provision can be achieved.  QiSS supports and pulls all these threads together so that the services become embedded as part of a school or clusters culture.

The Select Committee has previously been told that the Dover Extended Services (DES) model had achieved accreditation.

Yes, Dover has achieved the advanced level accreditation, along with several other schools in Kent.  We keep a database which lists all schools who have achieved a quality mark, which we run as part of the contract with the DfE.

What are the main benefits of undertaking the Quality in Extended Services recognition schemes, for schools, partner organisations and for the local community?  Can these schemes promote the engagement of schools and other partner organisations in offering Extended Services, and can these schemes support schools and partner organisations when providing Extended Services? 

The main benefits are that these schemes provide a bench mark that has rigour and establishes a national standard; they enable schools and other services to work in partnership or link together; by having a quality assurance mark, they give confidence to customers; they enable schools and clusters to work together, to take a more strategic approach to Extended Services, which develops into a very cost-effective model for partnership working; and allow schools to record and share data on the raising attainment and achievement of students. It is known that for every 17 days of schooling that a child misses, they will score one grade lower at GCSE.  A national study by McBeath in 2002 has shown that children who are actively engaged in additional learning activities will score at least 3.5% higher grades.

Schools say they are delivering the core offer, but quality is not always good.  The accreditation schemes that we have heard about would give us confidence that good quality Extended Services was there.

‘ContinYou’, one of the National Partners, are responsible for the monitoring of the Extended Services core offer delivery.  It has become apparent that many schools were asked to assess their Extended Services provision.  This was a tick-box exercise to count the provision, but no measure of the quality of provision was attempted. The government has recorded that 98% of schools were delivering the core offer, so the initial roll out of Extended Services was thought to be complete. Therefore, the initial funding for the roll out of Extended Services was discontinued.

QiSS hosts the National database for all schools across the country, including Kent schools who have or are working towards the QiSS or QES Quality Mark  - eg 52 in Dover and Deal.  I can supply the Select Committee with data, listing schools individually or by cluster, if required.

As we face the situation of the present Extended Services team being reduced, could CCCU help schools to carry on with work towards the Quality Mark, at a sufficient level, without the Extended Services team’s support?

If schools want a clear focus and are seeking good provision and value for money, the QDF document will help to guide and support them.  When schools start out towards accreditation, QiSS acts in a supportive role for the schools and can provide a national or local critical friends to support and broker the working partnership they need to ensure the quality of their provision.  In our Annual Programme of work for the DfE, QiSS set out what we aim to deliver each year, and this year our focus is on the quality of provision. We have developed workshops that we can offer to support staff, and also training for KCC staff to become Local or National Critical Friends.  These trained people can then go into schools and ask the difficult questions about the quality and focus of Extended Services and study support provision which need to be asked, and can build a supportive and challenging relationship to ensure the quality of provision is fit for purpose.  This work is currently undertaken through the county and it is different in each area, based on community need and provision. QiSS has Co-ordinators in every Government Office region who are there to support and offer challenge for the effective provision of Extended Services. At the moment, KCC has officers who directly support schools, and has developed established relationship to support the development of good practice that benefits Extended Services, school improvement students and the community.

Which types of consortia of ES providers are most successful?

There is a wide variety of Extended Services provision across the country and the differences across the UK are due to local priorities and needs of the local communities.  There are differing sorts of partnerships which have been established, according to need of the local community for the delivery of Extended Services. Kent is such a large county that it features examples of all sorts of local arrangements, dependent on the local community in which the clusters operate; e.g. a rural cluster will have a different set of priorities which will influence their operational model, and these priorities will differ from the priorities of a city cluster.

Can you give an example of a successful initiative in a rural area, and how this has overcome the challenge of rural transport?

Some isolated rural schools, which tend mostly to be primary schools, link to other schools in the nearest town or to other partnerships which are present in their community – e.g. the Police or Women’s Institute.  This sort of arrangement needs a little lateral thinking about who could be approached to engage in the delivery of Extended Services for the local community.

What makes the difference between the success and failure of these partnerships?

Leadership vision, and a willingness to take risks and make the initial approach to potential partners.

How can schools promote this?

They can share examples of their good practice and the model they have developed successfully elsewhere, (for which QiSS collates the data for the  DfE), and emphasise that Extended Services delivered in this way feeds into three Ofsted criteria:- community cohesion, spiritual and moral guidance/education/progression, and, most importantly, achievement and attainment.

Are there Extended Services good practice examples in other local authorities in the country, from which Kent can learn?

Kent is at the cutting edge with its Extended Services provision, and is one of five outstanding authorities in the UK. This is due to the vision of its officers.  Other local authorities in this category are Sandwell, Durham and Lincoln.  I can give you some examples of good practice elsewhere in the country:-

• in Sandwell (a Metropolitan Authority in the West Midlands), the Community Police have had an extensive role and much engagement. Extended Services co-ordinators have helped to support the families of primary school children by addressing housing and learning issues. In one example, a mother’s learning needs have been addressed, allowing her to enrol successfully at FE college, and as her confidence has grown, so has that of her children, which has had a major impact on their attainment at school;
• in Bermondsey, the whole ethos of a school had been changed by linking up with CAMHS and the Healthy Schools initiative, and channelling available funds to gain optimum benefit from them. For instance, four children from very deprived homes have taken part in a tall ships race to increase their confidence and attainment at school, this is one example of a very successful outcome for their students, who would never otherwise have had such an opportunity.

In your view, what are the main challenges – if any - when providing Extended Services, and how can these challenges be resolved?

I would say that the two main challenges for providers are funding and vision, and unless a Head Teacher is fully committed to it, it will not go ahead. Schools need to be able to see the impact of what Extended Services can bring, and see that it is worthwhile.  As part of our contract with the DfE, we are working with Ofsted, SSAT, NCSL and HEFCE, etc, to promote the value of Extended Services and study support.  QiSS has a role to play in advising schools, via the QES and ELO Quality Frameworks, on how to access resources and support the setting up of good Extended Services provision.

What are the risks and how do these weigh against the benefits?

There is a risk where the school does not know the external providers, and they would need to build up that trust at the start of provision.  For instance, part of the QES process identifies, in the themes for good practice, guidance on observing and monitoring a provider to ensure that what they are delivering is useful and worthwhile. One provider used Tai Chi teaching to reduce challenging behaviour, and monitored the difference that this strategy made to the children’s academic achievement.  It is important that a research evaluator supports schools in the recording of impact data which can be used to demonstrate the impact and effects of the Extended Services provision they are delivering.  I can supply the Select Committee with data to show the effectiveness of the MIDES model being used in the Dover region.

Could the MIDES model be replicated elsewhere in Kent?

Yes, it could be very successfully, as clusters with a more diverse mixture of schools can contribute a variety of different provision, and each of the threads will contribute to the whole impact of Extended Services for those children in that community.

In which ways, if any, might the reduction of Government funding for Extended Services in future years, and the possible shrinking of the Extended Services Team, affect the provision of Extended Services?  It takes money and time to establish sustainable services. How long could Extended Services be sustained?

I don’t think it will collapse. The funding which is being withdrawn by the Government was only meant to be set-up money, so Extended Services should be sustainable in the local communities beyond the initial set-up phase.  There is still some funding for Extended Services, if Head Teachers can see the value in claiming it.

Which Extended Services activities have the greatest impact and benefit for the community, and which programmes are most likely to be sustainable in the future?  How can the County Council, together with schools and other providers of Extended Services, ensure the sustainability of Extended Services into the future?

A model which has been used very successfully by the Canterbury High School and by Swan Valley is to provide all services on one site. However, we know that one model does not suit all, as each area has a unique set of criteria. Schools have a challenge; they need to look at the data available from other successful models and identify the best model for them and their community, and QiSS can help them with this.

We train critical friends to ask challenging questions of schools in their local clusters, and they can chair the recognition meetings. Two people in Kent have been trained in this way. This process raises attainment and achievement, and is linked to school improvement, and some schools are using this model as part of their professional development programme.

There are two levels of assessment – the recognition scheme, which is a full process, and a simpler ‘health check’.  Using this simpler tool, could teachers at one school assess the performance of a neighbouring school?  Would this help with sharing and spreading best practice, and could this be done free of charge?

The first stage is free but the recognition stage has some cost.  In Norfolk and Suffolk, critical friends look to support other colleagues and schools, they swap provision and chair each other’s recognition meetings, which reduces the costs involved in the assessment process and allows best practice to be shared.

Can you suggest any innovative and creative ways in which KCC could promote and deliver Extended Services in the County? I am concerned that you say that government funding was withdrawn as they believed 98% of schools to have completed the initial set-up of the core offer.  They must have used some very bad data! What submission did Kent make to show what level of set-up it had achieved, and did we/could we have influenced the government’s decision?

My remit does not include measurement of the core offer, but you could ask ‘ContinYou’ what data they found, as they collated the data which was used. QiSS has always questioned the quality of set-up, and what questions were asked when data was being gathered.  It seems that there is a big gap between what schools say they have achieved and the quality of service they are actually able to offer.  Schools need to be creative and cost effective. Many good models have been put in place on a shoestring budget.  QiSS has always monitored the quality of provision against the QES framework.

Should available resources be concentrated on areas of multiple deprivation?

The impact of Extended Services can certainly be greatest in these areas, and it is important to get people to see the value of setting up Extended Services in these areas.  For instance, in a pilot project, I worked with family learning in Medway.  They were working with some very tough schools where parents did not value learning as they had not had very good experiences of their own schooling, and these negative experiences had impacted on their children

To measure the impact of Extended Services, you would need to be able to evidence how it benefits children’s behaviour and attainment, and benefits the community’s access to services.