The document on education improvement partnerships, formerly known as foundation partnerships, comes weeks before the Government is due to publish a prospectus for extended schools, which will set out a checklist of "core services" for them (Children Now, 17-22 February).
The partnerships encourage schools to work together to offer a range of services including behaviour improvement programmes and childcare.
Stephen Twigg, minister for school standards, launched the prospectus at the annual conference of the teaching union NASUWT, but teachers said they were disappointed.
A spokeswoman for the Secondary Heads Association said: "Funding is a main incentive for schools to become involved. School budgets are tight." However Phil Street, chief executive of education charity ContinYou, said that education improvement partnerships and extended schools were inextricably linked.
He added: "I cannot see how you can achieve improved behaviour and learning without co-operation and help from outside agencies."
The NASUWT said it feared that partnerships could become mired in funding problems and league tables.
The 23-page prospectus said no new money would be explicitly earmarked for facilitating the partnerships. Possibilities for "effective resourcing" included local authorities and schools, which could pool cash for shared functions. They could also tap into specialist schools' community funding, said the prospectus.
Patrick Roach, assistant secretary for policy at NASUWT, said: "Partnerships will not receive dedicated specific funding and we must have clarification on how they will function. We would also expect guidance and union consultation on service-level agreements." He added: "Where schools work together their contribution should be seen collectively. But current accountability arrangements lean towards individual assessments."
The NASUWT conference was in the same week as the National Union of Teachers' gathering in Gateshead, which called for education rather than childcare to be a priority in early years centres.
Meanwhile NASUWT's deputy general secretary, Jerry Bartlett, welcomed Twigg's announcement of increased funding for school meals and support for zero-tolerance of pupils who physically abuse teachers.
"His views concurred with ours. All too often the measures taken by school managers and governors are inappropriate, ineffective and fail to create an atmosphere where children understand the limits of acceptable behaviour," he said.
- www.dfes.gov.uk.
