Transition information sessions evaluation

This report by the DCSF examines the impact of Transition Information Sessions (TIS) which form part of the parenting support core offer within the Extended Schools prospectus, Access to opportunities and services for all. This pilot covered two years, which included 9 LAs in year 1 and a further 11 LAs in the second year.

TIS aim to:
• lay the foundations of effective home-school partnerships;
• give parents information, ideas and an opportunity for discussion about parenting issues, including how to keep their child safe, happy and learning; and
• signpost parents to local and national sources of information, advice and support

Key points:
- Sessions were offered to a cohort of parents with a child entering a new school setting. Session content was shaped by local preference and need but with a focus on how parents can keep their child safe, happy and learning. Session duration was expected to be around one hour with some additional time for informal conversation. All sessions were expected to signpost parents to local and national services that are there to support them and sessions often directly involved such service providers - in planning, delivery and providing materials.
- The key success factors for local strategic planning were reported by local authorities to include; clarity of aims, effective publicity and branding, and strong leadership from the local authority. Local authorities and schools routinely benefited from the lessons learned from year 1.
- Despite the similarities to TIS in year one, a number of characteristics were found to be distinctive to the project in year two. The main ones were identified as follows:
o more defined links with other local programmes and strategies;
o expanded local authority performance management for TIS, such as the requirement for schools to produce action plans or mini-funding bids, to confirm their approach;
o a greater focus on accountability and value for money ;
o more ambitious TIS formats, with a wider view of 'transitions'; and
o positive influences from the TIS capacity-building programme for all local authorities, drawing on a toolkit for sessions and models of delivery developed within the demonstration project, and offered to all local authorities in 2007-08.
- The evaluation showed that schools were at a varied baseline position in developing their extended service core offer, with some already having a wide range of services in place and others making slower progress. The project often coincided with school-level issues that affected the priority of TIS. These included leadership changes and inspection.
- Steps to engage whole local populations were said to include –
o the use of mapping and consultation data to establish levels of need,
o closer work with district or cluster teams to reach deprived local communities; and
o strengthening third sector involvement within local TIS partnerships

- In Yorkshire & Humber Calderdale and Leeds have schools which took part in this pilot.