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| The
role of the Local Education Authority in school education |
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| Part
1: The role of the modern Local Education Authority |
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| Responsibilities
of schools and Education Authorities |
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| As
the pace of reform of school education has increased under this Government,
schools have gained new responsibilities and Local Education Authorities
have a clearer focus. Schools are, as the Green Paper says, the key
unit of delivery. They are responsible for their own performance,
for the conduct of the school and its discipline, for the control
of school premises, the repair and maintenance of buildings and, in
the case of foundation and voluntary aided schools, for admissions.
All schools have staffing powers and many are the employers of their
own staff. And they should apply the principles of Best Value when
deciding on the most cost effective provider of the services they
now purchase. They are not bound to buy back services from their Education
Authority. Where Authorities do provide services to schools, they
are expected to offer only relevant, responsive and cost effective
services so as to be truly competitive with the best alternative providers.
Schools thus have considerable freedom to deploy their own resources,
and are accountable for their performance in raising standards. But
autonomy does not mean isolation. Many schools recognise the importance
of working in co-operation with each other, with Local Education Authorities
and with private and voluntary sector bodies, in the interest of serving
the whole community. |
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| Local
Education Authorities, in common with all Local Authorities, are currently
undertaking a radical modernisation programme. The new constitutions
to be introduced under the Local Government Act 2000 will ensure that
councils become more efficient, open and accountable. Separate executives
will be held to account in public by overview and scrutiny committees.
Under that same Act, Authorities have a duty to prepare community
strategies to promote the economic, environmental and social well
being of their areas. Work to improve education standards, drawn together
in Education Development Plans, will have a central role in those
strategies. Education is crucial to achieving the Government’s objective
of closing the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the more
fortunate, in particular by promoting the interests of children at
risk of social exclusion. One example of this is the work going forward
to plan out of school learning activities, like homework, literacy
and numeracy clubs, so that they link with and reinforce the work
going on in school. A co-ordinated approach can help maximise the
range and choice of opportunities available to young people in a particular
area. |
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| Education
Authorities will work with local partners, including the health, police
and probation services, to contribute to the cross-cutting approaches
which are critical to tackling deprivation. In particular, they will
work with and support schools serving deprived areas so that they
can raise levels of attainment and meet the new ‘floor’ targets for
threshold levels of achievement in every Authority. |
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| Linked
to these wider objectives will be, for example, Authorities’ work
with the new Connexions Service to reduce youth offending, drugs misuse
and teenage pregnancy, and to raise the level of education, employment
and training among young people at risk. Schools themselves can play
an important role in bringing communities together and regenerating
neighbourhoods. And Education Authorities can contribute to wider
social inclusion strategies by working with schools and other partners
including, where appropriate, through Local Strategic Partnerships,
to help schools extend the services they offer so as to help build
learning communities and support community activity. Core and cluster
structures could, with the agreement of the schools, take more responsibility
for organising, stimulating and, if appropriate, purchasing services.
Joint working between schools, including sharing staff and resources,
is already taking place. There is scope for this to develop further
with the backing, advice and help of the Education Authority, and
support from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. In this way schools can
contribute to meeting the particular needs of both young people and
the community, and to focusing adult and community education services
where they are most needed. This will also help to develop still further
the Community Schools Network and the function of the school as a
key contributor to economic and social regeneration, as set out in
the Policy Action Team Report, Schools Plus: Building Learning Communities,
published in March 2000. |
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Authorities
have a valuable role, too, in implementing national initiatives.
In the last few years, they have:
- in partnership
with the Department, managed the highly successful National Literacy
and Numeracy Strategies;
- managed the
coherent and co-ordinated introduction of the National Grid for
Learning, such that all schools will be connected to the internet
and the National Grid by 2002;
- managed the
reduction in infant class sizes to ensure children get a good
start to their infant education;
- helped to
support and develop, and worked with Early Years Development and
Childcare partnerships to provide nursery places for all 4 year
olds and, progressively, for all 3 year olds, so as to raise the
general standard of pre-school learning;
- supported
and worked with local community partners to help develop Sure
Start;
- worked across
Authority boundaries to plan effective provision for children
with particular special educational needs;
- worked with
social services departments and others to drive up the educational
attainment of children in care through the Quality Protects programme;
- worked across
boundaries and with schools and clusters of schools to develop
the Excellence in Cities initiative to raise standards for all
pupils in our cities; and in future
- will work
as partners in the new arrangements for post-16 education and
(with their youth and education welfare services, and other relevant
Local Authority services) in the new Connexions Service, providing
information, guidance and support to all 13-19 year olds in England.
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