Education Improvement Partnerships!

I learnt about the Education Improvement Partnerships in Nottingham today...

Pat Whitby who leads the coordination of the Education Improvement Partnerships in Nottingham City talked me through their work.
The Government introduced the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme in the late 90s as part of a strategy to provide a high level of support to schools serving areas with high levels of deprivation. The focus of the programme was to raise standards, improve attendance and address behaviour through additional resources, cross phase partnerships and collaborative working within communities. In 2001 the programme was extended under the banner of "Excellence Clusters". Drawing on what was successful in EiC a centrally devised model was rolled out across the country. The Behaviour Improvement Programme was introduced in 2002 as part of a national behaviour strategy which included the introduction of the behaviour and attendance strand of the KS3 strategy. In 2005 the Education Improvement Partnership Prospectus was launched by the DfES. Education Improvement Partnerships (EIPs) were not a new form of partnership but a way of working that built upon the long history of partnership working between schools to improve outcomes for children and young people. EIPs were intended to improve existing partnerships by

• sharpening their focus
• maximising their resources
• improving their links with other education providers
• developing their capacity to take on a wider role in the provision of high quality local education.

Education Improvement Partnerships (EIPs) were an enabling mechanism to help schools to work together to raise standards and take on wider responsibilities for the children and young people in their local communities. They allowed existing and new partnerships to evolve to take responsibility for a range of functions and to be collectively accountable for delivery. EIPs also provided a vehicle to deliver education and children’s services as local authorities are shifting to a "commissioning" role.  In Nottingham there are nine Education Improvement Partnerships (EIPs) involving all the schools in the City. The approach clearly has been built on successful partnerships which have existed in the City for a number of years. This is another area where Nottingham is doing great things with the Education Improvement Partnerships (EIPs) clearly at the heart of sustainable partnerships which are developing an integrated approach to Children's Services and supporting collaborative and cooperative approaches to school improvement.
Chris