Opinion
Engagement and
collaboration
The expectations placed on partnership and collaboration in education have never been greater, says
John Stone, chief executive of the Learning and Skills Network, who presents a further education view
he “duTy to collaborate” outlined in the limits of what it is reasonable for partnerships to
T
the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and be expected to deliver and what the characteristics
Learning Bill represents the culmination of effective partnership might be. As a mechanism
of a decade-long journey through which for driving through substantive change, partnerships
government policy has sought to achieve the optimum often suffer a disadvantage as the partners involved
balance between the benefits of competition and the are seldom under any obligation to take forward the
advantages of collaboration. decisions made.
With post-16 policy placing such great emphasis on Partnerships, however, have had their successes.
collaboration, we are, we would claim, already good They can have the effect of building the relationships
collaborators. however, we should not let this slip by and trust on which meaningful and realistic
without asking a few basic questions. In particular, collaboration can be based. examples of effective
what precisely are the benefits of collaboration and collaborative activity are characterised by smaller
what added value does the significant investment in groupings in which each partner brings essential skills
opportunity costs create? and complementary resources. A clear focus on an
The further education view on collaboration is agreed set of achievable outcomes is required, backed
complicated by its history. The long-standing choice by cross-partnership management arrangements which
of institutions offered to 16-year-olds between staying are capable of delivering the agenda.
on at school or crossing town to go to the local tech The expectations placed on partnership and
has pitted school against college for longer than collaboration in education have never been greater.
anyone can remember. Children’s Trusts bring with them a statutory duty
The incorporation of colleges in 1992 has been on local authorities to promote collaboration. The
widely interpreted in the further education sector as a Children’s Plan requires 10 different groups of
success – interference from local politicians was shown partners, including the 14 to 19 partnership, to be
the door, while many colleges were able to use their consulted. The new post-16 planning functions are
independence to become more innovative and agile. coupled to a range of complex entitlements,
Many of the more entrepreneurial colleges used their including an extensive variety of
independence to considerable effect, not only taking qualification pathways. These are
on the local schools, but also other neighbouring all to be delivered on the back of
institutions. collaboration between institutions
The unease felt both inside and outside the sector at that have not always seen eye-to-eye.
some of these activities provided the impetus for the If this bold vision is to succeed,
new government to reign in its otherwise sympathetic a much clearer understanding of
instincts towards competition. Wasteful competition the capability and limitations as
was frowned on, new rules were introduced to to what can be delivered through
regulate behaviour, and the term collaboration started collaboration and what can
to assume more prominence in our dictionary of only be achieved through active
acceptable terminology. management within institutions
early results were not promising. The first structural will be a pre-requisite. DD
foray created the Local Learning Partnerships. These
voluntaristic arrangements met with depressing • John Stone, chief executive of
frequency and sought to include everyone with any the Learning and Skills Network,
involvement in post-16 education. This turned out to will speak at our Fourth National
be quite a lot of people and, in my experience, most Delivering Diplomas Conference in
of the time was spent discussing what we were there to Birmingham on October 1, 2009 (see
do. The exercise, however, did help us to understand page 29). Visit www.lsnlearning.org.uk
Delivering Diplomas • Volume 1 No 1 Autumn 2009 13
12-13 research.indd 9 17/9/09 18:03:19
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