5) Sian Carr - NCSL

Warwickshire Primary Heads Conference

Leadership for the Future

Sian CarrOperational Director – Stakeholders and Networks, NCSL9th February 2009

Future Leadership Roles

From Victorian – 21st Century

Leadership in a time of change

Global Challenges

National Challenges

Local Challenges

School-level challenges

Credit Crunch, Sustainable Development, Globalisation, war on terror, new technologies and communication

Inequality, ageing population, societal change, Generation Y, citizenship, recession

Regeneration, crime and anti-social behaviour, health and well-being

Personalised learning and raising standards, ECM/ Extended Schools, 14-19

The Children’s Plan vision…

“The 21st century school is a school that…

• provides an excellent education and…actively contributes to all aspects of a child’s life…

• engages and listens to parents...

• looks beyond the pupils on its roll, and works in partnership with other schools to ensure education in the local area is as good as it can be.

• plays a central role in the wider community, opening its facilities for the benefit of families and others…

• (is) an active partner in planning and delivery arrangements under Children’s Trusts, helping to define the priorities for their local area, and agreeing how the whole pattern of local services best fits together to meet need.”

The Children’s Plan, DCSF, 2007

Strategic leadership = sustainable leadership

‘It is a dual approach really – how to get the staff to give the best deal possible to the kids today, but to get them to rethink the way it might be a different deal in the future!’

Headteacher in Leading the Strategically Focussed School – Success and Sustainability, Brent Davies, 2006

Without strategic leadership…‘the urgent drives out the important; the future goes largely unexplored; and the capacity to act, rather than the capacity to think and imagine, becomes the sole measure for leadership’.

Hamel and Prahalad, Competing for the Future, 1994

School Leadership today

We have the best ever generation of school leaders…but the context is continually changing

The demands on school leaders have increased significantly since LMS, straining leadership capacity, but so has their autonomy and ability to make a difference

There are skills gaps in some areas

Recruitment difficulties are already hitting and succession planning is a priority

Schools are exploring a range of alternative models of leadership, but the key message is that one size will not fit all

Findings from PwC and other key sources

“Evidence suggests many school leaders are too involved in operational and delivery matters and that this has been, to some extent, at the expense of embracing their more strategic imperatives.”

“Longing for that mythical period of calm and stability is to misunderstand the nature of the world and of leadership.”

"Independent study into school leadership" 1/07 www.dfes.gov.uk/research or www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications ref RR818A 

Independent Review of School Leadership

Three themes for future leadership

Leadership for Personalised Learning and User Centred Leadership

Models of School Leadership

Change Leadership

Alternative models of leadership are emerging…

co-headships

executive heads

leadership of federations

community leadership

multi-agency leaders

academies, trusts

system leaders – leading beyond own school.

Key influences on pupils

The task of school leaders is to mobilise the key resources available to secure better outcomes for children…

parental engagement

teaching and learning

barriers to learning &

wider outcomes

Narrowing the gap: making a reality of ECM and Extended Schools

“The schools with the most effective services had integrated the development of extended provision within their school improvement plans, with a clear focus on improving positive outcomes for children and young people.”

Source: Ofsted quoted in ‘How Well are They Doing? The Impact of Children’s Centres and Extended Schools’, 2008

Narrowing the gap: 8 high leverage leadership actions

External

Understanding and navigating the political arena

Managing relationships with external partners

Internal

Engaging others in the vision for ECM

Distributing leadership

Workforce remodelling

Establishing a ‘student-centred’ ethos

Promoting school-wideCPD

Ensuring sustainability

‘ECM Premium Project’, University of Cambridge, NCSL, 2008

8 schools in the town, 1 Secondary and 7 Primary - with a history of informal collaboration…

Town services deal with every school individually…

The L.A. sees the town as the administrative unit, but the schools as discrete delivery units…

Local Authority Perspective

The Secondary school agrees to act as ECM mobilser - and lead “whole town” shared ECM provision…

Services and Service leaders invited to participate in a “single service distributed campus”…

A new leadership team is appointed to manage the ECM provision…

Set up joint governance through a shared committee of delegated members from all the schools…

The Local Authority engages directly with the joint governance group as a new entity…

New Local Authority Perspective

New entity; pools budgets, makes new appointments, has intervention authority, shared accountability, cross-service CPD, develop a

Family Support Strategy etc…

Pooled BudgetsPooled Budgets

Makes New AppointmentsMakes New

Appointments Intervention AuthorityIntervention Authority

Shared AccountabilityShared AccountabilityCross-Service CPDCross-Service CPD

Family SupportFamily Support

2 of the Primary schools making plans to establish a Sure Start children’s centre, governed by ECM group…

New Sure Start

Centre

New Sure Start

Centre

There are just 4 considerations for most partnerships…

• Defining the Partnership

• Kinds of shared provision

• Form and location of leadership

• Boundaries and form of governance

…and two other determinants

1. Shared purpose and vision – the drivers

2. Defining the Partnership

3. Kind of shared provision

4. Form and location of leadership

5. Boundaries and form of governance

6. Relationships and alliances beyond the partnership

Or, in other words…

1. Why are we doing this..?

2. Who’s in / who’s out - who’s close by..?

3. What will we do together..?

4. Who’s in charge..?

5. Who keeps their eye on it..?

6. Where can we go now..?

Leadership for the future

Some priorities…

Encourage the best school leaders to support the rest within and across schools.

Develop collaboration with accountability – at local and national level.

Further equip school leaders to focus on leadership for learning.

Develop models of leadership that lead outward and which engage parents and the community.

Embed leadership development within schools and develop a more coherent approach to leadership development for children’s services.

Use the demographic challenge as an opportunity to transform school leadership.