Scottish Government

Main Findings

• There is limited guidance material on the development of partnerships for use by colleges and schools.
• There are a range of reasons for schools and colleges to embark on partnership programmes for disaffected pupils. Programmes for disaffected pupils featured significantly but there was also evidence of institutions embarking upon a wide range of partnerships involving flexible delivery of the curriculum, dealing with skills shortages and improving access to vocational qualifications.
• Increasing the numbers participating in existing programmes could impact on ability to meet the demand.
• Some evidence of detailed planning being undertaken, feeding into annual and strategic plans, for the larger collaborative arrangements but there was limited corresponding evidence for the smaller schemes.
• There was no information on how proposed collaborative schemes are evaluated so as to ensure that only those that are viable will be implemented.
• Some funding is short-term but there is little indication of whether this factor had been taken into account at the planning stage. Aside from the risk to the learner, short-term funding could affect the ability of college and school managers to plan for collaborative ventures.
• Guidance material on collaborative arrangements, designed specifically for Scottish colleges and schools, may need to be developed.
• There is a need to counter the view that collaborative arrangements are only for disaffected young people and that this might be achieved by developing publicity material describing and emphasising the full range of partnership models.
• There may need to be further work carried out on the process by which partnerships are developed to ensure that they take account of the stability, or otherwise, of the funding in their planning processes

Purpose of Collaboration

The literature search reviewed the reasons that schools and colleges might have for embarking on collaboration. These all related to increasing flexibility in learning and teaching and covered areas such as providing 'taster' courses for pupils, easing transition into college, accessing vocational qualifications, providing training in areas of skills shortage, and programmes to re-engage disaffected learners.

The literature contained case study examples of collaborative arrangements being put into place. There was some evidence that collaborative partnerships might sometimes be perceived as being only for dealing with disaffected youngsters. However, the literature also gave good examples of other types of collaborative working. There was an indication that some partners might not always agree on the purpose of their partnership. This could cause confusion for the pupils involved. The development of good partnership agreements might help to avoid this kind of difficulty.

Supply and Demand

The search looked at the way in which demand is met by partnership arrangements. The literature showed that college and school collaborations are embarked on either to address a particular need identified locally or to meet a need identified at a more macro level - for example with the involvement of local authorities.

A report for the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC), Demand and Supply of Further Education in Scotland (SFEFC, 2002), considered participation rates of colleges in Scotland. In its conclusions it noted that supply of FE programmes was "barely keeping pace with demand" and that there were significant funding issues.

It was not always easy to see how the need for some programmes involving partnerships was identified and this occasionally gave the impression that some partnerships might be somewhat ad hoc. However other partnerships were noted as having processes for identifying need, planning for delivery, implementing the process and reviewing the outcome.

The literature noted that for the moment, pupils participating in partnership arrangements are volunteers who have been selected for a specific programme. Selection procedures varied from formal selection (interviewing) processes in the large schemes involving local authorities to the "softer" processes of guiding pupils, who had already selected themselves for participation in a scheme.

Funding responsibilities

Funding for partnerships was found to come from a wide range of sources including funding councils, enterprise councils, local authorities, education authorities, careers services, charities, European funding and lottery grants. However, the literature did not cover the process by which funding was accessed and what the implications were for planning. The literature noted that long-term projects were sometimes subject to short-term funding and that there could be difficulties in accessing funding. The literature showed that sometimes there had been confusion over the funding responsibility for a particular set of pupils.

It was noted that partnerships are expected to increase and the literature reported that there could be economic efficiencies in collaboration.

Implications for Schools and Colleges

The literature shows that there are already many partnerships in operation between schools and colleges which involve pupils attending a college. While there have been fears expressed about the effect school pupils might have on the learning environment of a college, the literature records no strong adverse comment. It is not clear what the effect would be, however, if larger numbers of school pupils attended colleges regularly. There was limited reference in the literature to the arrangements that were being made to bring schools and colleges in rural areas into partnerships although where it was mentioned, it had been suggested that ICT would be involved.

There was evidence from England that quality assurance measures for learning delivered in some partnerships had been found to be inadequate. There was little evidence in the Scottish literature that partnerships, as opposed to individual schools and colleges, were aware of their responsibilities with respect to quality assurance by the Inspectorate, the funding bodies or the awarding bodies.

The literature showed that many colleges are already in partnership with a number of different organisations (schools, other colleges, employers and universities amongst them).

To assist them, it might be helpful for partnerships to use a common form of agreement or partnership document clearly showing the responsibilities of all concerned so that those who are working on several contracts are able to manage them more easily.

Pupil welfare and support

There was regular reference in the literature to the guidance and support that was given to youngsters in making the transition from school to college. Case study information showed good practice in operation in many partnerships. This could be developed into more formal guidance documents for use by partnerships. The literature also noted the publications provide by the Enquire Service for pupils on a number of topics. It is possible that this series could cover guidance and support information on school and college partnerships in future.

There was limited information about the steps the partnerships were taking in relation to duty of care and pupil safety. There is no evidence that this issue is being ignored but for the sake of clarity and good practice in partnerships, appropriate guidance documents may need to be developed.

Conclusion

Overall the search revealed that when partnerships are developed each group of institutions has evolved its own processes for establishing collaborative working. While there is a significant volume of good practice information in Scotland there is limited guidance material for use by potential partners on the processes for developing partnerships. This gap is significant as it may affect the partners' knowledge of such specific issues as funding, quality assurance and management of the partnership.

About the Literature Review

This research was undertaken by consultant Anne Galloway. The aims of the literature search were to:

• identify material dealing with collaboration or partnerships or links between schools and colleges in Scotland and in the wider context of the UK as a whole
• identify significant themes noted in the literature, especially those related to the four key themes of the Review described above
• highlight any significant differences between the reported findings and the general direction of the consultation document
• identify any significant gaps and omissions in the literature (especially any in relation to the key themes)

The literature on collaboration in this search broadly has two different sources: the material on the colleges' own websites and printed material, particularly reports, books and journal articles. While there are many publications in Scotland supporting good practice in collaboration and partnership arrangements, the literature did not reveal any formal guidance dealing with operating partnerships. Such documents are beginning to be developed in England. The report concentrates on the literature available in Scotland and England and makes only limited reference to other countries.