Every Child Matters Think Tank - 5th April 2006

Report of Think tank held 5 April 2006

1. The think tank event

1.1 In April 2006 Naace convened a “think tank”, sponsored by DfES, on the subject of Every Child Matters. The aim of this event was to bring together the main official agencies involved in ICT in education in the UK, and Naace members, to debate the issues surrounding the potential role of ICT in the “Every Child Matters” agenda and provide recommendations on how best to support the use of technology to improve outcomes for children and young people. A number of themes emerged during the think tank which provided evidence of the importance of the value of ICT within the ECM agenda to bring together a number of aims and objectives. These are brought out within Annex 1: Key themes, ideas and principles of Every Child Matters

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2. Aims

2.1 The aims of the Think Tank were to:

1. Examine the key themes, ideas and principles of ECM from a range of perspectives;
2. Debate the changes in the way we will need to work to accommodate ECM and what it means for the ICT Community that serves schools, extended services and multi-agency partnerships; and
3. Seek a consensus view on how best to facilitate multi-agency collaboration to ensure effective partnership.

2.2 This report summarises the issues raised at the Think Tank and subsequent discussion in Naace and sets out a range of recommendations for consideration by DfES and other agencies and the ICT community.

3. Organisations and agencies represented

3.1 Representatives at the think tank were as follows:

• Delegates from the Naace community, including Local Authority advisers, independent consultants, sponsoring partners, teachers, educational advisers and development centres, general inspectors and research teams
• DfES
• Becta
• QCA
• PfS

3.2 Naace has a tradition of using Think Tanks as a means of debating key issues of interest to the membership. The aim of a think tank is to explore current issues, often with the support of external speakers, determine a number of areas for focus, and within the Naace community develop recommendations that can progress and where possible alter and improve the outcomes of the issues raised.

4. Context

4.1 In September 2003, the government published a Green Paper “Every Child Matters” in response to the Victoria Climbie inquiry, proposing changes in policy and law to maximise opportunities and minimize risks for all children, focusing services more effectively around their needs and those of their families. This was followed by the Children Act 2004, which aims to create clear accountability for children’s services, enable more effective joint working and to secure a better focus on safeguarding children and “Every Child Matters: Change for Children” which sets out the national framework for local “change programmes”.
4.2 The main changes brought about by Every Child Matters are:

• The impact of all provision for children and young people should be measured against 5 outcomes:
  
  • Stay safe;
  • Be healthy;
  • Enjoy and achieve;
  • Make a positive contribution;
  • Achieve economic well-being.
• A duty on local authorities to co-operate with key agencies to improve outcomes for children and young people;
• A requirement for Local Authorities to lead the development of a strategic unified plan in partnership with all key agencies, including the voluntary, community and faith sector, setting out priorities for their work to improve outcomes for children and young people. As a logical consequence to this, a number of local authority plans including the Education Development Plan are to be replaced by a Children and Young People’s Plan by April 2006;
• Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are to be replaced by Children’s Services Authorities by 2008. Directors of Children’s Services accountable for the education and social service functions for children, are to be put in place by 2008, with most Local Authorities doing so by 2006. A Lead Member for Children’s Services is to be designated in each Local Authority, and to be accountable at a political level. Again, all Local Authorities have to appoint a Lead Member by 2008;
• Services for children and young people should be commissioned jointly by partner agencies through a Children’s Trust approach, bringing together all services for children and young people to focus on improving outcomes for children and young people;
• Integrated working and information sharing between agencies are key to improving outcomes, as are new arrangements for working together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. A strategy for developing the Children’s Services Workforce will support these changes; and
• The impact of this work on outcomes for children and young people will be assessed through a national integrated inspection system of Joint Area Reviews.

4.3 At all times, the views of children and young people should be integral to decision-making, design and delivery of services.
4.4 The changes brought by the Act will inevitably impact upon the role and focus of how ICT is used and supported and there are a number of key areas that the Naace community should debate and manage to ensure that the ways in which ICT can support the Every Children Matters agenda are understood and promoted, at a national and a local level.
4.5 Alongside this, we are aware that the economic goal for our country, now and for the future must be supported by an education system that equips our young people with skills they will need to complete on a global scale. This means matching the best in the world for standards in our schools, leading in science, excelling for the creativity and inventiveness of all our people.

5. How will this be achieved?

5.1 There are currently 150 local change programmes going on across the country set into a framework of regulation, strategic planning and advice with plans, outcome measures and compliance structures. There are numerous advisers working with one local authority at any one time and the role of the LA is shifting towards a commissioning role rather than as deliverers of support to schools
5.2 It could be thought that curriculum ICT is reducing in status and importance, with ICT fighting for breathing space amongst the many other pressing strategies and activities. Instead, the focus of ICT is broadening, to include the use of ICT for managing performance data, providing learners with high quality broadband, access to resources and personal web space, while safeguarding them from any undesirable aspects of the internet . This change has implications for the work of members of the Naace community. It is important that we remember that the most impressive gains are the ones where thinking, creativity and trial and error have provided mankind with awesome changes. ICT has a major role to play here and it is important that we raise awareness of its unique contribution.
5.3 The impact on the IT community that serves schools, support staff, suppliers, builders, for support roles that currently reside in IT centres, in providers of products and services and in schools learning settings will be significant. The magnitude of cultural change and strategic approaches to long term planning to embed anytime anyway learning must not be under estimated.
5.4 Every Child Matters is also working in a wider context which encompasses many different initiatives, each with areas of commonality and yet representing a different approach, which is moving from organisation-centred to person-centred.
5.5 This shift is indicated by:

• The new inspection arrangements for schools: Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) inspections are now based on the Self-Evaluation Form (SEF), which now includes references to the 5 outcomes of Every Child Matters;
• Ofsted has led the development of a common inspection framework for all services to children, looking at all 5 outcomes;
• The emphasis on personalised learning (which is insufficiently understood by many), demonstrates a shift to providing resources and tasks which are tailored to meet the needs of individual children;
• The development of Extended Schools and Children’s Centres which provide an integrated approach to the provision of services built round the child and the family;
• Lead professional: single named person with responsibility for each child with additional needs; and
• The importance of involving parents and carers in decision-making over the services for children and young people.

6. Recommendations

6.1 The following recommendations have been split into two areas. The first listing suggests those actions which should be taken forward by Naace; the second listing contains those actions that Naace recommends are taken forward on a national basis. Where recommendations are for national action, Naace suggests that they are taken forward by Becta, as the DfES lead agency for ICT.

6.2 Naace Actions

6.2.1 Recommendation 1

A small expert panel of Naace members should be established to contribute to the debate around the issue of vulnerable children’s achievement using ICT in order to identify and refine issues for further action. Some of these were raised in the Think Tank event, but the size of the agenda proved too large for resolution within one day.
The work of this expert panel would take the form of an on-line discussion forum and its purpose would be to make recommendations to national decision makers and the ICT community through the Naace Executive Committee

6.2.2 Recommendation 2

Directors of Children’s Services may be unfamiliar with the potential benefits of ICT beyond its use for referral and tracking. We therefore recommend that Naace writes to the Children’s Commissioner, explaining the aims of the Association and seeking a meeting to determine what our children and young people think about the role and function of ICT in education; to explore how we might help to assist facilitate their voice; and to explore how best to work together on the safeguarding agenda

6.2.3 Recommendation 3

That Naace produces guidance for its members to support them working alongside LAs to implement their Children and Young People’s plans and to encourage the role of ICT in the safeguarding agenda.

6.2.4 Recommendation 4

The interdependencies between partners and stakeholders are essential to move the Every Child Matters agenda forward. The need to be able to speak a common language of partnership and stakeholder management continues to increase in priority and local partnerships need to be improved. Despite this, funding streams are subject to the vagaries of the allocations from government departments. Naace should work with DfES and key agencies to influence this

6.2.5 Recommendation 5

That Naace consider how best to influence senior managers and leadership teams in relation to the benefits of technology; and to debate how best to work within the efficiency agenda; promote products, services and support to professionals in an environment where its members remain professionally accountable for the delivery of Authorities’ education and social services functions for children and any delegated health functions for children.

6.2.6 Recommendation 6

It is recommended that Naace examines how to optimise communication routes to ensure they are aware of the support available from its members and how they can contribute to the Every Child Matters agenda.

6.2.7 Recommendation 7

That Naace works with national agencies and members of the ICT community to contribute to the development of BSF – to promote the importance of ICT as a force for the curriculum of the future in line with the ECM agenda.

6.2.8 Recommendation 8

That Naace works with national agencies and the ICT community to alert schools and parents to the importance of e-safety and to support training of staff to increase confidence in dealing with the issues of child safety

6.3 National actions

6.3.1 Recommendation 9

Naace is uniquely placed in that it represents a very broad spectrum of communities / and specialist interest groups with a direct interest in the Every Child Matters agenda, focusing on the area of ICT in education. The agenda is so big that no single agency yet has a complete grasp of it.
Naace therefore recommends that a working group comprising Naace and representatives from stakeholders and key agencies and professional associations, is established to bring together representatives from all agencies to ensure that there is a continuing dialogue and exchange of views between all the groups concerned, and between them and Naace members. The remit of this group should take into consideration the recommendations contained within this report.
An associated action is to further strengthen the work of this group through the establishment of a moderated online mechanism for raising questions and issues concerning ECM and ICT. This will enable recommendations for action based upon the expert views of those working within the field and to encourage the sharing of best practice.

6.3.2 Recommendation 10

The Think Tank established that it can sometimes be difficult for LAs to share the good practice they have established in the use of ICT. Therefore a mechanism for sharing good practice in a manner which is non-threatening for the LAs concerned should be established.
The production of a termly update comprising reports by LA representatives, perhaps along the lines of the reports and bulletins produced by EMIE could be used as the mechanism for this.

6.3.3 Recommendation 11

There are many ways in which ICT can support ECM in a variety of contexts, which this Think Tank has only begun to explore. For example, ICT can help to bring about the inclusion of excluded groups such as the child carer community and to enable young people to achieve through personalised learning. We therefore recommend commissioning a further paper setting out in details what these contributions might be.

6.3.4 Recommendation 12

That Naace works with DfES and other key agencies to ensure that experts in the field working in the Every Child Matters agenda are invited to sit at the table of commissioning and decision making to enable the ICT community to bring its services and products into this arena to act as the driver for change in Children’s Services with a focus on local needs. This could also facilitate the requirement of how ICT can be used to support in non educational contexts ie children’s homes and social care

6.3.5 Recommendation 13

A key feature of the thrust for local planning is the joint commissioning process. Debate should be expanded beyond the issues of interoperability, infrastructure, single procurement to include creativity, innovation and invention across the whole curriculum using ICT and establish what a good LA should offer to schools in promoting good practice in the use of ICT.

6.3.6 Recommendation 14

An ICT blueprint should be developed for working and supporting Children’s Trusts.

Annexes