Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities

'Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities: Realising the Potential of School-based Networks' is a publication designed to assist local authorities in their efforts to realise the potential of school-based networks, especially as they endeavour to meet the demands of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda.

The material has arisen out of a programme of work involving more than fifty local authorities who took part in a series of 'strategic exchanges' hosted by The Innovation Unit in partnership with the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) through 2005.

Participants at these events were asked to tell the story of their particular approach to the strategic development of school-based networks. While the story each authority told was unique, a pattern of generic challenges emerged which every local authority in the country is likely to face, in one form or another, as it works through its own change programme.

'Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities' outlines these generic challenges, illustrating each with examples of how they are currently being interpreted and addressed by different local authorities. It is hoped that this publication will stimulate discussion within and between local authorities, assisting them in their efforts to realise the potential of school-based networks.

How to use this publication

There are a number of ways in which local authorities might use this publication. These include using its findings to:

• focus workshops with participants from across the local authority, which encourage discussion and joint approaches to problem solving;
• focus meetings amongst groups of headteachers who are considering the implications of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda for schools and networks;
• stimulate thinking at a strategic level about the relevance of these challenges to a local authority, and to help identify further challenges not addressed here;
• act as a planning tool in the development of pre-existing network structures;
• help engage new local partners in developing a strategy for realising the potential of school-based networks.

Discussing the findings of this publication in a group setting, you might also find it useful to access our accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

Download the presentation Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities (437 KB).

Download the publication Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities (443 KB).

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