I have been reflecting on a recent webinar conversation with two colleagues and friends: Richard Paul, Headteacher of Greatfields School in Barking and Dagenham, and Henry Annafi of Annafi Consulting. The title and synopsis of this webinar were:
Schools in Crisis: Why it’s every businesses’ business.
Like all public services, education budgets are severely stretched and schools are struggling to cope with increasing challenges of school readiness, special educational needs, pupil behaviour, mental wellbeing and teacher recruitment. In this short webinar you will learn why these issues affect every business for reasons that include taxation, staff and skills shortages, and even business development. More importantly, the expert panel will discuss how recent evolution of the Social Value Act, and introduction of the Procurement Act, could help to solve these associated challenges and deliver simultaneous societal benefits across education, health and justice sectors.
Early in our conversation, Richard challenged the webinar title and stressed the importance of not denigrating the teaching profession. In my defense, I did state that we used a “clickbait” title in the hope of generating more interest in the discussion. However, I now wonder whether I fell into the trap of reactive thinking where I could maybe have done better.
Society in Crisis: Why school’s are now doing more than their funding allows. And why it’s every businesses’ business to help them.
In terms of pupil behaviour, Evolve has recently started working with a number of local education authorities through their alternative provision frameworks. This has given us access to both the scale of the challenge and the stark vulnerabilities of many young people.
In terms of SEND, a school leader recently shared details of their ASD hub that can only support 15 children per year. Due to the funding arrangement they have with their council, they must still respond to all applicants seeking a coveted slot in this provision. So far this academic year, with just under one full term still remaining, this totals over 200 emails explaining how the school cannot accommodate new requests.
As Richard eloquently states in the conversation, society has changed and schools are expected to meet this increasing range of pupil needs without any additional budget or resources. Despite this challenging backdrop, schools are still moving mountains every day and maintaining focus on their core KPIs of academic progress and achievement.
It is the wider range of outcomes adopted by schools where they need additional input and investment. When I enrolled on my teaching qualification I didn’t expect to have conversations with 8 year olds about their mental health, 14 year olds about knife crime, and 17 year olds about the importance of getting a job. I certainly don’t remember seeing any modules on these subjects during my initial teacher training.
Fortunately, Henry was able to balance my perceived negativity with his inimitable optimism and wisdom. Henry shared some shining examples of best practice from businesses that he has worked with who have collaborated with schools on a variety of projects to good effect. There is clearly commitment and intent from the business community to support the education agenda.
But can this goodwill be harnessed to address the aforementioned societal challenges in a strategic and impactful manner?
Possibly.
Henry also described recent Government legislation called the Procurement Act and its links with another useful piece of legislation, the Social Value Act. Very briefly, businesses that receive taxpayer money to deliver contracts with central, regional and local governments now have to demonstrate their commitment to developing the communities in which they operate.
From my own experience, I have had the pleasure of working with one of the leaders in social value from within the construction sector. Wates invested in a project to create the first ENHANCE Studio within the prison estate at HMP Stoke Heath in Shropshire. Wates’ ability to do their own due diligence and develop the project de-risked the investment of time and energy on behalf of HMPPS colleagues and this has led to interest in taking the programme to other prisons and has even been visited by policy leads from both the MoJ and DfE.
These targeted social value investments serve a wider purpose than an organisation meeting their contractual requirements. The introduction of an evidence-based programme has generated momentum that is needed for innovations like ENHANCE to become mainstream practice.
The question I am left with after this conversation is this: How can relatively small project funding be pooled to help address some of the systemic challenges facing society that schools are best placed to lead?
These solutions must surely involve local education authorities and/or multi-academy trusts, which adds an additional layer of complexity and relationships to build. Whilst I ponder further on this, here are three strategies that local authorities, school leaders and social value managers could employ if they are looking to collaborate and deliver both funded and pro-bono projects:
- Invest time to develop relationships. This is how all parties can understand respective needs, priorities and limitations. Attending conferences and events as delegates from different sectors is an effective way to do this.
- Investments of time, energy and commitment should be shared, agreed and equitable. The “funder” does not have to be the project manager with power imbalances an unnecessary challenge to avoid at all costs.
- Align project outcomes to avoid replication, duplication and reinvention. This is relevant to all stakeholders and should be avoided for the greater good. Funding is what’s scarce, not solutions. If a solution from somewhere else is working then give it space to succeed. Focus efforts and the limited funding that is available on something else.
Hosting this webinar conversation reminded me of an early podcast series I produced where I interviewed school leaders who were “A Head of Our Time.” Richard certainly fits into this category and Henry is also ahead of his time in many fields of public service delivery. Hopefully, conversations like this across sectors and government departments will help to break down some of the silos that hinder innovation and investment in public procurement.
You can watch or listen to the webinar discussion on Youtube here – https://youtu.be/ves91PvrO_k
