Management Information Sheet
Progress on Provision of Extended Services
We are delighted to let you know that there are now 88% of schools in Norfolk providing access to the full core offer of extended services and this means that the national target for September 2009 (85%) has been exceeded. So we would like to extend a really big "thank you" to everyone in the schools that have enabled this achievement.
We hope that governing bodies will formally recognise all the hard work and continued efforts in making such invaluable provision available for the children and young people in their care. Research carried out by different organisations, including Ofsted, over the last four years suggests that those schools which are already offering extended services are experiencing a range of benefits, including:
"Extended Schools is well worth doing: the children love the clubs, and the parents are delighted with them. It is beneficial to the school in that it adds another dimension to what it offers to the community".
"Extended Services enables the school to provide a wider, more encompassing service to better meet the needs of individual children and their families, including those previously hard to reach".
"Extended Services provides powerful new opportunities to meet the Every Child Matters agenda, and enables the school to be the beating heart of the local community".
"Being encouraged to engage and work with partners in the local area has allowed the school to become a genuine centre of the community".
"The children are getting better guidance and support for life skills through the wide range of opportunities and activities that are open to them as a result of extended services".
To read the full content of the case studies, please click here.
Schools are no doubt aware that through audits and visits, Children's Services Area based Early Years, Childcare and Extended Schools Development Workers supply regular updates on progress in Norfolk on the number of schools providing access to the full core offer of extended services. The Local Authority monitors and analyses these data reports as the DCSF expect every school to be providing access to the full core offer of extended services by July 2010.
The Schools, Childcare Services and Sure Start Children's Centres Finder (www.direct.gov.uk) on DirectGov already provides contextual details about every school in England as well as each school's performance data, Ofsted report and school profile information. There is also a category flag for extended services that indicates whether a school is providing access to the full core offer of extended services, or not, and this information is updated quarterly.
Specific actions required: if your school is not yet providing access to the full range of extended services, ongoing support and advice is available from your LA Development Worker. They will be available to help you meet the DCSF requirements by July next year. The Extended Schools programme is not about schools trying to do it all for themselves, but about being a hub through which the community can access services. By providing extended services, schools will be supporting and reinforcing initiatives such as the Healthy Schools programme and fulfilling their statutory duties to promote pupil wellbeing and community cohesion, and to serve the wider community.
As a result, the services offered via schools might be away from school sites, or may be on school sites but run by third party providers using people who aren't school staff. In such cases, schools would be expected to signpost users to appropriate provision, e.g. childcare, but should not be expected in all cases to quality assure the provision themselves. Where provision is not quality assured by the school, a disclaimer should be applied to ensure users are aware of the need to reassure themselves of the quality and safety of the services on offer, for example by visiting provision, looking at inspection reports, etc. Schools should take all reasonable steps to ensure users are aware of the disclaimer at the point of enquiry.
It may also be that a member of staff in your school needs to attend the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) training which will assist the school in being able to respond to early concerns from parents or other agencies about potential individual problems that children and young people may be experiencing. For details of the CAF training, please click here.
There will be further scrutiny of the data on extended services and escalated support available to schools during the Autumn and Spring terms. If your cluster has an Extended Schools Co-ordinator, they are encouraged to continue to work closely with their LA Development Worker and other agencies and organisations in achieving the provision of quality sustainable extended services across schools. Other staff such as parent support advisers can also play an active part in helping with this agenda.
For the full list of LA area based Development Workers supporting schools in localities and clusters please click here.
For any query on data or progress in Norfolk on this agenda, please contact either Peter Simmonds on 07795 265669 or email or Virginia Wakely on 01603 638092 or email in Children's Services at County Hall.
Fred Corbett
Deputy Director Children's Services
We hope that governing bodies will formally recognise all the hard work and continued efforts in making such invaluable provision available for the children and young people in their care. Research carried out by different organisations, including Ofsted, over the last four years suggests that those schools which are already offering extended services are experiencing a range of benefits, including:
- more motivated pupils
- better attendance and behaviour
- more engaged and better equipped parents
- greater willingness to adopt healthier lifestyles, and
- better community access to local services.
"Extended Schools is well worth doing: the children love the clubs, and the parents are delighted with them. It is beneficial to the school in that it adds another dimension to what it offers to the community".
"Extended Services enables the school to provide a wider, more encompassing service to better meet the needs of individual children and their families, including those previously hard to reach".
"Extended Services provides powerful new opportunities to meet the Every Child Matters agenda, and enables the school to be the beating heart of the local community".
"Being encouraged to engage and work with partners in the local area has allowed the school to become a genuine centre of the community".
"The children are getting better guidance and support for life skills through the wide range of opportunities and activities that are open to them as a result of extended services".
To read the full content of the case studies, please click here.
Schools are no doubt aware that through audits and visits, Children's Services Area based Early Years, Childcare and Extended Schools Development Workers supply regular updates on progress in Norfolk on the number of schools providing access to the full core offer of extended services. The Local Authority monitors and analyses these data reports as the DCSF expect every school to be providing access to the full core offer of extended services by July 2010.
The Schools, Childcare Services and Sure Start Children's Centres Finder (www.direct.gov.uk) on DirectGov already provides contextual details about every school in England as well as each school's performance data, Ofsted report and school profile information. There is also a category flag for extended services that indicates whether a school is providing access to the full core offer of extended services, or not, and this information is updated quarterly.
Specific actions required: if your school is not yet providing access to the full range of extended services, ongoing support and advice is available from your LA Development Worker. They will be available to help you meet the DCSF requirements by July next year. The Extended Schools programme is not about schools trying to do it all for themselves, but about being a hub through which the community can access services. By providing extended services, schools will be supporting and reinforcing initiatives such as the Healthy Schools programme and fulfilling their statutory duties to promote pupil wellbeing and community cohesion, and to serve the wider community.
As a result, the services offered via schools might be away from school sites, or may be on school sites but run by third party providers using people who aren't school staff. In such cases, schools would be expected to signpost users to appropriate provision, e.g. childcare, but should not be expected in all cases to quality assure the provision themselves. Where provision is not quality assured by the school, a disclaimer should be applied to ensure users are aware of the need to reassure themselves of the quality and safety of the services on offer, for example by visiting provision, looking at inspection reports, etc. Schools should take all reasonable steps to ensure users are aware of the disclaimer at the point of enquiry.
It may also be that a member of staff in your school needs to attend the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) training which will assist the school in being able to respond to early concerns from parents or other agencies about potential individual problems that children and young people may be experiencing. For details of the CAF training, please click here.
There will be further scrutiny of the data on extended services and escalated support available to schools during the Autumn and Spring terms. If your cluster has an Extended Schools Co-ordinator, they are encouraged to continue to work closely with their LA Development Worker and other agencies and organisations in achieving the provision of quality sustainable extended services across schools. Other staff such as parent support advisers can also play an active part in helping with this agenda.
For the full list of LA area based Development Workers supporting schools in localities and clusters please click here.
For any query on data or progress in Norfolk on this agenda, please contact either Peter Simmonds on 07795 265669 or email or Virginia Wakely on 01603 638092 or email in Children's Services at County Hall.
Fred Corbett
Deputy Director Children's Services