The Learning Exchange Library
Sustainability: what it is NOT - and what it IS A quick reminder to pin on your wall, adapted from a PowerPoint presentation from Ian Smith and Jean Emdon of the HoPES (Honicknowle & Ham Partnership of Extended Services) – a partnership of schools and extended services partners centred on the John Kitto Community College and the Plymouth YMCA – with thanks from the Learning Exchange.
Sustainability: building the future of learning: A guide to sustaining out of school hours learning
Sustainability and governance The CfBT Education Trust’s document Extended services: ensuring sustainability using the social enterprise model (see below) looks at extended service planning and development within a social enterprise model. However, this is just one governance model that schools could consider for future sustainability of extended services. This document explains other options such as setting up a ‘Charitable Company’ or ‘Community Interest Company’. These two models also offer way to link a business approach with community values.
Sustaining Extended Services through Social Enterprise David Burley's presentation explains how the concept of social enterprise complements extended services and could be used to sustain them.
Should we train 'Small Societies' to help sustain some extended services? Here’s a brilliant example of participatory budgeting in action in Walsall. Could more clusters of schools engage children in making decisions about how to spend funds pooled by their schools to give them wider learning/out-of-school-hours opportunities? Children in Walsall gained confidence through learning the attitudes and skills that make up good citizenship. They learnt to negotiate, filter and sort priorities, manage their own and their peers' expectations, be fair, speak in front of groups about their ideas, use a matrix system to think through ideas, do budgetary calculations, use voting in decision-making and work in teams.
Sustaining extended services - School cluster development tool This is a tool that cluster managers can use as a basis for self-review in relation to sustainability of extended services.
Sustainability: how can PTAs help sustain your extended services offer? Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) have already started and developed some extended services. This sheet from the NCPTA explains how Tapping into the parent power in PTAs is definitely one of the range of strategies that schools and clusters of schools can adopt in order to sustain their extended service offers. PTAs can help with the promotion of extended services, and with funding, delivery and insurance.
Setting up a voluntary group? Visit the Resource Centre website for useful information sheets and guidance about every aspect of setting up a voluntary group.
Sustainability: Things to think about before setting up a new charity Some extended services clusters will decide to constitute as registered charities. This page on the Charities Commission website explains when it is necessary to do so, and offers links to all the information needed to become a registered charity.
Extended services sustainability: using the social enterprise model In an age of funding cuts, is social enterprise a model for sustaining extended services into the future? This guide from the CfBT Education Trust looks at ways in which social enterprises are already used by schools to deliver extended services. The guide offers a six-stage strategic planning and business development process.
The Big Society idea has implications for sustainability of extra-curricular programmes and extended services: 4Children's Big society in practice event You can listen to the contributions from the pop-up panels at 4Children's Big Society in practice event here. In particular, listen to Vanessa Walker's description of asking people in Hull about the Big Society. Thanks to member Pauline Phillips for pointing these out to us.
Holiday childcare and activities: Key learning for sustainability Just in time for summer 2011, this useful publication summarises the good practice, learning and insights gleaned from the Holiday Activities Pilot run during 2010. It has gathered what works best in offering sustainable childcare and holiday activities, and presents case studies and tips on various aspects of organising and running them; for example, it offers a section on what works best when commissioning childcare and holiday activities. (Produced by 4Children and ContinYou.)
Gina Davidson considers community-based management of schools in Scotland Here's a quote from this September 2010 article: 'Potentially, many central education responsibilities would be migrated to clusters of community-run schools.'
Understanding uncertainty: key to making better decisions In this practical article, Decision making in uncertain times, headteacher Chris Luck outlines six different sources and kinds of uncertainty in the fast-changing education scene we are in, posing a way of behaving towards or tackling each. Every point made is relevant to anyone setting up and leading a social enterprise too. Understanding the uncertainties is key to making better decisions. Here are Chris’s three powerful top tips.
Find your ideal partner Do you want to establish or join a consortium? Work with other organisations to deliver your programme? Use this free service from Fundingcentral.org.uk will help you find collaborative working opportunities that can help you sustain your programmes.
The Social Stock Exchange With its own exchange about to launch, is social finance set for a game-changing boost?
Growing Social Ventures The Young Foundations report on social investment says Britain is a leader in the field and that banks should not be afraid to take risks to help merge skills in finance with civil action.
Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill 2010-11 Keep up with the progress of the Bill through the House of Commons. (The Bill aims to strengthen the social enterprise business sector and make the concept of 'social value' more relevant and important in the placement and provision of public services. Among other things, this private member's Bill also places a duty on the Secretary of State to publish a 'national social enterprise strategy' to encourage engagement in social enterprise.)
E13 Learning Community This group of schools in Newham, East London, has been cluster working since 2004. To sustain what they offer to schools and address barriers to the group's development, the people involved have set up the E13 Learning Community. Find out how they did it and explore their useful documents.
Opportunity in Hard Times: Building Out-of-School Time Learning Systems that Last (from the Wallace Foundation, US.)
Being heard: getting your story out there If you and your cluster manager colleagues are setting up a social enterprise to offer extended services advice and support to schools, here is some useful advice how to tell the stories that will put who you and are what you do in front of people, and so that schools can see how you are different from profit and not-for-profit organisations. Also, some advice on how social enterprises can harness social media.
Should organisations move their IT to 'the cloud' to save money? A practical guide to what should be considered when investigating the options of cloud computing.
Mutuals Information Service Employee-owned mutuals will enable public sector workers to deliver services in partnership with the communities in which they work. If your extended services cluster is considering continuing its advisory and support services around extended/integrated services, you may wish to consider the mutual option. The Mutual Information service offers advice, support and mentoring.
Charities and public benefit To be a charity in England and Wales, an organisation must have charitable aims that are for the public benefit. Visit the Charity Commission’s website for statutory guidance which explains this requirement and how the 'public benefit requirement' operates in practice; it also explains the new requirement for charity trustees to report on public benefit.
What you need to know about the social enterprise and social value (Public Services) Bill Mark Cook decodes social enterprise jargon in this Bill and reveals the 'big questions' and 'big opportunities' it presents. Crucially, for extended services, the Bill enables 'social and environmental well-being to be considered each time a public procurement excercise is undertaken'. Mark explains why the law will be an asset.
From the Social Enterprise Coalition: Advice about setting up a social enterprise And here are some more useful links.
Social Enterprise Coalition: children and young people Read about the coalition's work in relation to social enterprises within the Children and young people's services sector
Social Enterprises: a useful factsheet This fact sheet explains the ins and outs of various social enterprise models. For example: 'Social enterprises include both non-profits that use business models to pursue their ambitions and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. This fact sheet explains the ins and outs of various social enterprise models.' (Produced by www.communitychannel.org.)
Making employee ownership work: a benchmark guide This is a very user-friendly report offering guidance to help co-owned companies or social enterprises handle key performance issues such as employee engagement, reward, governance, culture, and social responsibility. (Produced by the Employee Ownership Association.)
Get Legal This website will be invaluable to you if you are considering legally constituting your extended services cluster as a charitable body or social enterprise. You may not even be sure yet which route you will take. This tool is free, it's online and it has all the references and decision-making tools you need to guide you to the right decision about which kind of legal governance structure most suits your purposes. It has been developed by the NCVO and solicitors Bates, Wells & Braithwaite
Charities: survival in relation to the Big Society Clear communication of purpose is key to how small charities can engage with the Big Society. This could well include groups of cluster managers who have constituted themselves as charities or even social enterprise organisations to continue managing and developing extended and other services for schools. Dean Russell, director of Digital Fleishman-Hillard and a Conservative district councillor points out, among other things, that charities need to start defining, now, what they offer in terms of economic value, sustainability and results - alongside their fundraising and campaigning activities. If they do this properly, they could have a role in defining the Big Society as well as surviving in it.
John Lewis Partnership model for social enterprise Read about this model and download the report, Model Growth: Do employee-owned businesses deliver sustainable performance? by Professor Joseph Lampel and Dr Ajay Bhalla (Cass Business School) and Dr Pushkar Jha (Newcastle University Business School). The repot was produced with support from the Employee Ownership Association, which represents companies wholly or substantially owned by their employees - such as the John Lewis Partnership. (Go to the bottom of the page to download the report.)
How charities can make the most out of strong partnerships? This Guardian podcast features views from groups like NAVCA, NCVO and ACEVO.
Why looking back could be the best way of looking forward If you are considering different ways of sustaining your extended services - through a social enterprise, or a mutual, for example - this may interest you. Julian Dobson thinks we need a bill of rights for the community sector so it can thrive in the 21st century. Here's a quote from his piece dated 15 July: 'As Stephen Thake, adviser to the [Joseph Rowntree Foundation's] community assets programme, pointed out, the current urgency in considering different forms of ownership follows a 30-year renaissance of community action. Such action needs time to succeed – and protection from the caprices of policy-making.... History tells us that those in power have not protected the interests of co-ops and mutuals."' (Julian is editorial director of New Start magazine a consultant specialising in placemaking and sustainable communities.)
Community and mutual ownership: a historical review There's lots of talk about 'mutuals' these days. This July 2010 research paper argues for systematic and values-based approaches to be the basis of community and mutual ownership if these are to adequately respond to current social problems. It notes that developing democracy, membership and belongig takes time, and looks at five models of community ownership over the past 2,000 years. (By Tom Woodin, David Crook and Vincent Carpentier of the Institute of Education, University of London and produced by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation.)
Extended Services Evaluation: End of Year One Report A third of schools still struggle to engage disadvantaged pupils in extended services; at least seven in ten schools agree that extended services have led to greater pupil enjoyment of school, greater pupil engagement in learning and greater parental engagement in children's learning. Fewer, however, report reduced behaviour or discipline problems and improved attendance, and the report also says it's much less common for schools to have observed a reduced number of exclusions. (Hannah Carpenter, Mark Peters and Daniel Oseman, TNS-BMRB; Dr Ivy Papps, TECIS; Alan Dyson and Lisa Jones, University of Manchester Colleen Cummings, Karen Laing and Liz Todd, Newcastle University.)
Making extended services sustainable: the 'Cluster' is key This is a PowerPoint presentation created to help extended services cluster managers assess the conditions for sustainability within their clusters. It's a tool that resulted from work done with 30 ESRAs and cluster managers from 20 local authorities and is designed to be used by cluster managers in meetings with headteachers or other school leaders – rather like a ‘moderated self-assessment’. By comparing the results across the cluster, it could serve as a useful developmental tool for both individual schools and clusters as a whole.
Mental health and well-being This article from Third Sector Foresight affirms multi-agency working, sharing good practice - and points out (among many other useful things) that in this period of austerity, organisations that strategically look at the whole person and support active, empowered lifestyles are most likely to thrive.
Indices of multiple deprivation: helping you understand levels of deprivation in your area The government's indices of multiple deprivation are used to analyse patterns of deprivation, identify areas where special initiatives or programmes would work and to determine eligibility for specific funding streams. And here is a document that explains how to use them.
Sound business plans are an essential part of planning for sustainability This article from Charity Times explains why. Here are two useful Business plan models:
- A very clear business plan model from the Hillingdon Community Trust
- A social enterprise business plan model from Bright Knowledge
A Journey to Charitable Status: the hare and tortoise race in London's East End This PowerPoint presentation from Learning Exchange member Simon Vincent of the E13 Learning Community describes the journey to charitable status that the E13 Learning Community is undertaking - slowly but surely - with the aim of making extended services sustainable for the schools in E13. The journey isn't yet complete, but so far it can be a useful model for other clusters. Please send a message to Simon on the Learning Exchange if you wish to ask questions.
Coalition government: Impact on extended services This powerpoint from Eddie Needham and Corinne Cappell looks at who's who in the coalition government education team, how the coalition will affect extended services and reiterates the fundamental points to bear in mind when assessing the sustainability of extended services.
Opportunity in Hard Times: Building Out-of-School Time Learning Systems that Last At a recent Wallace Foundation conference, decision-makers, experts and organisers in the United States considered how to build out-of-school-hour programmes that can be sustained – particularly in the context of this severe economic downturn, which may last a long time. Surprising and hopeful thinking emerged. where you can find many other useful tools, guides and reports about out-of-school-hours learning, school leadership, arts participation and education.
Download this document at the Wallace Foundation website. All documents are free.