Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office
(NAO), said today:
“It is clear from teachers'
responses that partnering delivers motivational benefits and plays
naturally to their style of collaborative working and
problem-sharing. With a somewhat more demanding assessment of
costs against the benefits achieved, these valuable relationships
could deliver significantly more demonstrable benefits than they do
now.”
The Department for Children, Schools and Families is achieving its
aim of promoting partnering in secondary education in England,
according to a report today by the National Audit Office.
Some 87 per cent of schools work with other schools and
organisations on improving attainment and behaviour - and
headteachers are clear that partnering is delivering very
substantial benefits that support school improvement. But
partnering has yet to realise its full potential.
It is difficult to demonstrate a direct,
quantifiable impact of partnering but the NAO does find evidence
that partnering has wider benefits. Headteachers told the NAO
that partnerships are a valuable tool for improving standards and
that they had positive outcomes beyond the impact on pupils’ test
results, such as sharing resources, energizing teachers and
broadening the curriculum.
However, schools with better attaining 11 to
14 year olds, with fewer problems with pupil behaviour, and with a
relatively small proportion of pupils receiving free school meals
are less likely to be working in partnerships than other
schools. These schools could do more to share their expertise
with and to support other schools in their locality.
The spending watchdog also concludes that, at local level, there is
greater scope to evaluate the costs and benefits of individual
partnerships. Without such evaluation, there is a risk that
some partnerships will continue while the costs outweigh the
benefits.
Among schools involved in partnerships, the
NAO’s analysis did not demonstrate a link between how partnerships
are managed and school improvement. The NAO therefore recommends
that - except where there is a good reason otherwise - partnerships
should have the freedom to tailor the form and management of
partnerships to fit their local circumstances.
Isolating the specific costs of partnering is
difficult, but the NAO estimates that in 2007-08 the Department
spent at least £400 million on initiatives that feature
partnering. This is around 2.5 per cent of the amount spent
nationally on secondary education.
The analytical
supplement describes the main methods used by the NAO in
undertaking the study. In particular, it describes a survey of
English secondary schools in which headteachers were asked about
their schools' participation in partnerships aimed at improving the
attainment and behaviour of 11-14 year olds. The supplement
also provides background information on attainment, behaviour and
national programmes that utilise partnering approaches, and a
detailed explanation of the statistical work underpinning the
report.