Staying Safe Action Plan

The DCFS have published their Staying Safe Action Plan, as promised in the 10 year Children's Plan. This follows consultation across government and with practitioners and the public. Children themselves stated that of the 5 Every Child Matters Outcomes, Staying Safe was the most important.

The public believed that children's safety is everyone's responsibility and that it is important to have a balance between risk and safety. The public also see fighting child poverty as the best way to ensure child safety.

The Plan is structured around three approaches, as shown below:
It draws on the Public Service Agreements as set out in the Comprehensive Review (as shown below):

Within the universal safeguarding:

- A big focus on play with new play areas and the most deprived wards receiving staffed play areas.

- Links to the 10 year Youth Strategy

- Communication with parents

- PHSE Continuing Professional development

- Await the Byron Review (due March 2008) into the role of the media and Internet

- Identify and promote best practice in work between Children's and Housing Services (Spring 2008)

Some issues within targeted safeguarding:

- Children's workforce action plan (Spring 2008) will tackle issues in social care for children

- Initiatives for road accidents, fire, domestic violence, bullying, public transport and a range of others

And within responsive safeguarding:

- Strategies focus on work with asylum seekers and migrant children; those at risk of sexual exploitation and those at risk of forced marriage.

Growth of specialist schools

At the end of Januaty 2008, the DCFS announced 89 new specialist schools. This takes the total of specialist schools up to 88% of the maintained secondary school sector. There are 26 Local Authority's which are 100% specialist: in the Yorkshire and Humber Region there is only one local authority which is 100% specialist - York.

NFER Survey into schools view on 14-19 changes

The NFER Annual Survey had a section on changes to the 14-19 curriculum.

Key points:
- There was a link between certain types of school and the levels of preparedness, schools with high proportions of students qualifying for free school meals, large schools and comprehensive schools tended to report better preparation.
- The main challenges faced by schools were around working in collaboration and partnership with other schools, colleges and employers; uncertainty or lack of funding to allow changes to the curriculum; and the practicalities of implementing the curriculum including timetabling.
- With regard raising of the participation age the main concerns were curriculum related; funding related; staffing related and that young people would be forced to stay in education against their wishes.

Support for Community Cohesion

As from September 2007 all schools have had a duty to promote community cohesion. This will be monitored by ofsted as from September 2008. To support the Institute of Community Cohesion has produced a useful links document for schools.

NFER Annual Survey of trends

The NFER have surveyed 350 primary and 850 secondary schools to produce their Annual Survey.

Key points:
- Budgets are now the main concern of primary schools although this was reduced from the 2006 level. At secondary level staffing had overtaken budgets as the main concern.
- More than 80% of schools preferred the 3 year cycle of funding.
- There was a marked growth in school partnership and collaboration but a small number of schools reported no involvement. Health, social care and police were accessed by about 90% of all schools. Housing was the least accessed. With the exception of health, secondary schools were more likely to access the services.
- 57% reported been in cluster groups and 42% in learning networks.
- Almost half of secondary schools did not feel well informed on youth provision in their area.

Evaluation of Teach First

Ofsted have evaluated the Teach First programme in London to find:

- The training is effective because of the close links to the Canterbury Christ Church University and the Teach First office
- The expectation that trainees should develop beyond the minimum qualified teacher status requirements is a significant feature and resulted in over half achieving "outstanding" status and a further third achieving "good" status
- The majority of participants would not have considered teaching and around half chose to stay in the classroom for a third year
- Teach First participants were highly motivated by the mission of reducing social disadvantage
- Teach First participants were most likely to struggle with behaviour management
- Schools should better monitor how they train the Teach First participants

The Leadership Effect

A study by the Policy Exchange has questioned the impact that head teachers have on raising pupil performance. Based on the premise that a new head teacher will perform differently than the old one the authors found:

- No change in pupil performance between the schools which had changed head teachers and those which had not (within the first 5 years of a new head)
- Teachers have the greatest impact on pupil performance and as the head is usually at greater distance from the pupils their impact is greatly reduced
- The best thing head teachers can do is ensure good teachers

The authors believe that there are problems in head teacher recruitment.

Other commentators state that part of been a good head is the ability to sustain and embed practice, so that it outlasts any leadership tenure, thus good schools will continue to be good even if the leader departs. The authors advocate much greater freedom for schools which fail for 2 years. After been taken over such schools should have curriculum, financial, personnel and other freedoms partly supported by an "advantage premium" of increased funds.

School Choice

The Policy Exchanged published a paper looking at school choice and the Academies programme which it states as being the major supply side educational reform of the labour government.

Key points:
- Many parents do not have choice as good schools are over subscribed and failing schools under subscribed
- The Brown government seems less keen on implementing the "choice agenda" started under Blair, although the legislation exists on the statue books
- Local authorities should be publically accountable for ensuring parent choice by releasing school data on unfilled places
- Better competition between local authorities and academies are needed and there should be protection to ensure competition prevails

Impact of raising of the participation age

The Policy Exchange has published a paper by Alison Woolf which dismisses many of the claims made by government on the positive impact that raising the education participation age will have on individuals and the economy.

Woolf believes that:
- raising the participation age will result in a net annual cost to the economy of £1.7bn, opposed to the government's beliefs that the economy will benefit by £1.6bn
- many young people work in small companies (less than 25 employees) who will be unable to bear the costs associated with additional training and the time this will take, thus reducing the chances that such employers will hire young people
- none A-level qualifications are not proven to have significant economic impact
- coercing young people into education or training will prove counter-productive as the motivation to learn will be weak
- to truly tackle the issue of NEETs money would be better spent on primary education