Every Child Matters Think Tank Annex 3: Facilitating collaboration

How best to facilitate multi agency collaboration to ensure effective partnerships

• Naace is uniquely placed in that it represents a very broad spectrum of niches, and therefore views, in the area of ICT in education. The Think Tank was a good way of bringing together representatives of various interest groups in a non-threatening manner, and now we need to capitalise on that.
• We recommend, therefore, that a working group is established with representatives from all of the agencies in order to ensure that there is a continuing dialogue and exchange of views between all the groups concerned, and between them and Naace members, strengthened by an on-line community for continued debate and inter-agency responses to member queries and concerns.
• These questions and concerns could then be brought to a termly (or even twice-yearly) meeting of official agencies' representatives, and the outcomes summarised online afterwards.
• There are financial implications of this recommendation, in the form of the costs of running the meeting (including time) and the cost of paying a Naace member to moderate the online forum. However, the benefits in terms of co-ordination across the ICT in education sector and the furtherance of trust are likely to make this a highly cost-effective outcome.
• The working group should consist of a representative from DfES, Becta, Ofsted, QCA, PfS and other relevant bodies to meet regularly (eg. once a term, or twice a year) to discuss issues raised by the Expert Panel (see Recommendation 2), summarising the concerns discussed in the online forum.