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GOVERNORS' NEWS
NASG members receive the in-house journal, "Governors' News", five times a year. As well as the latest news and reviews on the latest developments across the profession, every issue contains special features designed to help support you in your professional capacity

GOVERNORS' NEWS - June 2004

CONTENTS PAGE

A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR

ALL CHANGE PLEASE!

There are no surprises for anyone in my saying that we are in a time of great change in education - nothing new there! It's already a cliché that, these days, change is the only constant - and we have become used to accommodating a myriad of imposed changes by embracing them, ignoring them or, most likely, something between the two. Most often, we heave a weary sigh and try to make some sort of silk purse out of the sow's ear we've been given. It's a tribute to those of us working at school level that we manage to make so many ill-thought-out initiatives work. Sometimes this is accomplished by little short of magic! So what's different about upcoming changes? There are two inter-linked changes in the pipeline which will each involve a substantial cultural shift - and that will make them supremely difficult to implement successfully.

This is a crying shame, because these two initiatives could enhance the life chances of our most vulnerable children - and in consequence be of benefit to us all. The integration of services at both local authority and school level, as embodied in the Children Bill and the Extended Schools Initiative, will place emphasis precisely where it should be - with the individual child. I wonder why it has taken us so long to arrive at the blindingly obvious? If we put the child at the centre and build appropriate services around that child and his/her family, if we ensure that we place those services in close proximity to that family and, crucially, if we ensure effective communication between those services, the probability of success is substantially enhanced. It sounds simple but, because it involves the marriage of different professional cultures, it will be extraordinarily difficult to achieve.

One outcome of The Children Act will be to bring education and social services under the same directorate and to enhance communication with other services, e.g. health and voluntary services, at Local Authority level. One outcome of the extended schools initiative will be that in many schools, education and social services, plus health and voluntary services, will be housed under the one roof, and this will lead to enhanced communication between all services at school level. At both these levels, but particularly in our schools, governors can be integral to successful implementation. We can do this because we carry no particular cultural baggage - our background does not reside totally within any one of the services to be integrated. But in order to aid implementation we need to have an understanding of the rationale behind all successful change.

From my day job I know all the jargon about 'change management' - but some of it rings true. All intentional (i.e. not accidental) changes, from the smallest personal change to the huge change programmes in big business, follow a process whose vital constituents are precisely the same.

The process goes like this:
Dissatisfaction with the present state leads to thinking and planning which in turn lead to change. Successful change is a chain reaction. All the components must be present; just one missing link will cause the chain to fall apart.

The vital links:
Dissatisfaction + Vision/direction + Plan for Improvement + First Steps = Successful Change

Dissatisfaction means that you are unhappy about the current state of affairs and want to make changes. Vision/direction shows you how things can improve - what the possible outcomes are, what you can gain. This is important because all change involves some pain (or at least, discomfort). A Plan for Improvement does not have to be a detailed step by step guide but it does have to include understanding of what to do next in order to move in the right direction. And First Steps means actually doing something.

In a nutshell, change is like a journey.
To get from A to B:
1. We want to go there.
2. We look at a map to find out where B is.
3. We plan the route and the means of travel.
4. We start out.

If we miss out one of these steps, B will be yet another place that we've never managed to visit. So, if just one element is missing, we are very unlikely to get what we want. If we leave out two steps - no chance!

And talking of steps - lasting change comes in very small steps. In between these small steps are pauses for breath in order for that change to bed down. Anyone who has successfully painted a room knows that you have to wait for paint to dry. All successful change efforts follow this same principle - and even though we all know what people say about watching paint dry, it is a necessary part of the process.

So, as governors, can we lead these two initiatives to successful implementation in our schools and Local Authorities? I do hope so - because if we can, we will all be the beneficiaries

Jane Phillips, NAGM Chair.

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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
IN SCHOOLS

By Pat Collarbone and Neil Townsend

It is when the system is far from equilibrium, that creative individuals are likely to have the greatest impact. Change brings about resistance in all of us, but if that change can overcome initial resistance, it is likely to develop exponentially. The system adapts to the change as it permeates the whole organisation. Dramatic organisational change can occur within a system powered by the synergising passion and commitment of a few individuals. This process is a key characteristic of a dynamic learning community. (Collarbone, 1999)

Financial management in schools has become an area of some concern following a crisis with some school budgets in some LEAs in 2003/04. Despite increasing funds, in real terms, being delegated to schools a number of issues made it difficult for many schools to balance their budgets. For the first time since the introduction of Local Management of Schools (LMS) in 1990, schools in certain LEAs will be supported in setting licensed deficit budgets as long as they put in place recovery plans that allow a return to setting balanced budgets by the financial year 2005/06. Licensed deficit budgets are not new, and for a number of years now LEA financial officers have supported schools in drawing up recovery plans to ensure they returned to a balanced budget scenario in a measured and carefully planned way. The main aim of the current support structures being put in place is to ensure the education of the pupils is not disrupted adversely while enabling schools most affected to return to a stable financial position. This requires learning to use the resources they have available in the most effective and efficient way possible. An overriding concern in ensuring confidence in public sector education in the first part of the 21st century is the requirement to seek value for money, particularly as education's share of the GDP continues to rise.

Until the Education Reform Act in 1988 headteachers and governors were not required to concern themselves with financial realities. Schools controlled less than 5% of the LEA schools budget. Schools had school secretaries but few considered bursars as a necessary requirement as part of their senior management team. As the 1990s progressed more funding was released to schools to manage directly. In many cases, it remained in the hands of teachers. Somehow strategic financial planning got lost in the overall drive to improve standards.

Today schools control around 88% of local authority spending on education. Local councils spend circa 38% of their total budget on education and it is the area, in most authorities, most likely to be protected in any crisis scenario. In some cases this has led to serious cut-backs in other services, such as social services, and rises in Council Tax. The latter provides around 25% of the funding for local services including education.

The introduction of the Education Formula Spending Share (EFSS) in 2003 and the concept of Fair Funding has begun to take the lid off Pandora's box. If we add into the equation the philosophy underpinning Time for Standards and the accompanying publications including Raising Standards, Tackling Workload: a National Agreement it is not difficult to understand why many schools are now faced with a very real financial crisis.

The DfES and the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) have set up the Financial Management in Schools team (FMiS) to work with KPMG, the governors' associations and the headteacher professional associations to provide support for some schools in 53 LEAs in the short-term. The Value for Money team at the DfES has commissioned a toolkit which is due for publication in the near future. Training and support for school financial managers is available through the two bursars' programmes available from NCSL.

The reality is that schools need to move from the concept of the 19th Century industrial world cottage industry to a concept that ensures they are fit for purpose in a 21st Century world. Some schools have adopted a 20th Century entrepreneurial stance while remaining focused on their core purpose. This is a 'dream-on' world for the vast majority. What is not such a 'dream-on' concept is the idea that schools need to address the financial realities they face. Nationally there is not a lack of funding, but there may well be a lack of financial planning underpinning the strategic objectives the school has set. This is why schools need well-trained, skilled financial expertise available able to focus on this area.

FMiS exists, in the short-term, to promote, as part of the remodelling agenda, the notion that financial planning is a key part of school development planning and is crucial if schools are to continue to raise standards. It is no longer possible to assume that the headteacher, one or two governors and maybe a deputy headteacher should carry the responsibility for ensuring that the school rests on a solid financial foundation. Using a 'fingers crossed' approach to year-on-year budgeting is a concept that belongs in the archives of history. Strategic financial planning is crucial to the survival of schools in the 21st Century and requires a team approach and input and management from well-trained, well-paid staff with the financial acumen and focus to provide the necessary knowledge and skills to support the process.

Dame Pat Collarbone is the Director of Leadership Programme Development at the National College for School Leadership and the Director of the National Remodelling Team. She is a former secondary headteacher.

Neil Townsend is the project manager of the Financial Management in Schools team. He is a qualified accountant who has led a large number of major change management projects in both the public and private sector

The online version of the FMiS workshop, is now up, running and proofed!
It can be accessed from the right hand e-learning bar on the FMiS home page www.ncsl.org.uk/fmis under the Process part of the Strategy & Planning button. This launches a menu that follows the structure of the workshop through a strategic financial planning process, which can be followed either in a linear fashion or dipped in and out of according to need and priorities. The additional Tools menu enables schools to access the key process tools either via the strategic planning menu or directly. The workshop is user friendly and well adapted for schools to use in a group.
The FMiS team would appreciate your feedback on any aspects of the project.
Carol Woodhouse and Jane Phillips share the NAGM representation on the Financial Management in Schools Group.

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YOUNG PEOPLE'S
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Interventions with young people deemed to be 'at risk' take many forms. They are delivered by a multiplicity of services and agencies, often supported by funding which is short-term or withdrawn at short notice as local and national priorities change.

A major criticism levelled at many such interventions is the rigour with which they are evaluated. How much depends on the experience, skills, not to say charisma, of the workers involved? How influential are family, school and community issues? How critical are the specific activities undertaken to the eventual outcomes? What, indeed, constitutes a successful outcome? A young person re-engaged in education or training? Holding down a job? Able to make informed life choices about sex and drugs? Able to control their emotions?

The Young People's Development Programme (YPDP), launched in February 2004, is an ambitious three-year initiative funded by the Department of Health in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills which seeks to answer some of these questions and provide solid evidence of what works and why.

Its aim is to reduce risk behaviour in 13-15 year olds especially in relation to teenage pregnancy, substance misuse and educational attainment through a long-term, broad-based developmental programme. Young people enrolled in any one of the 27 pilots around the country may have been referred by their school, Connexions, or other local agency as particularly vulnerable to school exclusion, teenage pregnancy and/or substance misuse.

What marks out YPDP from other such initiatives are two important features. Firstly, the programme has drawn on well-evaluated schemes running elsewhere in the world in its design. Secondly, a young person's inclusion in a YPDP pilot requires their commitment to a fairly structured and extremely intensive contact programme, which will also involve their families and wider communities.

We want to see the programme developed and implemented in collaboration with young people, says Karen Turner, the Department of Health lead on the programme. Within a broad and structured framework, we want to see as much opportunity as possible for local flexibility and playing to strengths. It will be a balancing act: between ensuring there is sufficient standardisation to allow for thorough evaluation and comparison and not too much which stifles innovation and existing local partnerships. This is why we appointed the evaluation agents, The Social Science Research Unit of the Institute of Education at the University of London, right at the start of the programme. They will be working closely with all parties to ensure we capture all the learning as we go along. The long-term aspiration of both Departments and all the parties involved is that, if the programme proves successful, it will be rolled out nationally.

The 27 pilots include projects located in rural, seaside, former coalfields and urban settings across the nine Government Office regions in England. Nineteen of the pilots are in the voluntary sector. They focus on areas of deprivation and include young people from a range of communities and a wide range of projects and activities, including outdoor pursuits, IT, journalism and alternative education provision. Each pilot has secured the support of its local Primary Care Trust or local authority.

Our aim as the Training and Coordination Agent, explains Hazel Malcolm, the lead at The National Youth Agency, is to build on the existing strengths and expertise of the pilots selected. With our strategic partners - Youth Access, FPA and Getting Connected - we'll be helping the pilots to acquire the necessary skills both to manage their input to YPDP and to deliver the different components. At every stage, we will be looking for young people's involvement in planning and delivery because their ownership and commitment will be vital to the success or otherwise of this initiative.

The programme aims for the young people to participate for six to 10 hours a week - that's a lot of time unless you are really committed and are doing things that are both enjoyable and relevant to you.

All the following elements will be provided to differing degrees throughout a young person's year-long contact:

• education, training or employment opportunities;
• life skills such as communication, decision-making, negotiation, anger management;
• mentoring (formal mentoring by adults or peers or one-to-one sessions with staff);
• volunteering (both career-oriented and community-based);
• a health element, particularly covering sex and relationship education, teenage pregnancy, sexual health and substance misuse;
• arts and sports;
• access to information, advice and services (such as health, housing, substance misuse); and
• other activities in response to young people's needs.

The focus of YPDP on improving self-esteem, increasing aspiration and developing concrete skills focuses not on systems and institutions, but on the young person. Helping them to gain confidence both in themselves and their ability to make choices gives them control over their lives and their futures, says Hazel Malcolm.

Information about a local pilot's involvement in YPDP will be circulated to all relevant bodies, including schools.

Every aspect of a young person's life - and this must include schools and individual teachers - will have an impact on eventual outcomes, adds Karen Turner. We believe that YPDP has the potential to change lives: we are confident that anyone with an interest in young people's development, personal growth and the potential for a fulfilling and healthy future will want to play their part.

For more information on the Young People's Development Programme, contact Hazel Malcolm, NSF/YPDP Team Manager, The National Youth Agency, 17-23 Albion Street, Leicester LE1 6GD, tel: 0116 285 3779, email: hazelm@nya.org.uk or visit www.nya.org.uk.

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