Mistake to scrap school improvement partners

The schools white paper, published last week, outlined government plansto overhaul school improvement so that individual institutions can leadtheir own development.

As part of this, the government wants to lift the duty on schools tohave a SIP, while instead allowing local authorities to sell schoolimprovement services in a wider market alongside other providers.

John Chowcat, general secretary of the children's services union Aspect,argued that reducing the use of SIPs would harm school improvement.

"It's easy for the government to have a mantra of 'schools can do it allfor themselves', but that's not the real world," he explained.

"The SIP is the strongest connection between the local authority and thereal life of a local school. You can get data from schools - however,data is always after the event. A SIP goes to a school regularly, knowsthe health of a school and is able to spot if a problem is beginning.The data will only show you a problem once it is there already."

Chowcat added that councils and schools would benefit from thecontinuing use of SIPs. "Under the white paper, local authorities areexpected to keep an eye on the performance of schools and raise thealarm if there is a major slide. How can they do that if they don't havea close connection with the life of a school?" he asked.

A Department for Education spokesman denied that the change would damageschool improvement.

"We are putting power back into the hands of head teachers," hesaid.

"School improvement support will no longer be thrust upon schools andthey will be able to choose and purchase what is most appropriate to theneeds of their schools."