11 December 2008
The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) will have a new responsibility for delivering training programmes and courses for those responsible for the delivery of children’s services, it was announced today.
Following a request from the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, the remit of NCSL will be extended so it can set up a new development programme offering structured training and support to every director of children’s services and those hoping to take on the role.
NCSL, which started in 2000, has already been responsible for training over 12,000 headteachers and over 217,000 other school leaders. It also has responsibility for training those leading early years’ children’s centres.
The College, which was recently praised as an international showcase by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has a modern training facility in Nottingham and runs courses around the country.
NCSL Chief Executive Steve Munby said: "There can be few aspects of life today more important than leading services for children. We share the government’s aspirations to make our country a great place for children to grow up in and this new responsibility is a great tribute to the success of the National College.
"NCSL has established high credibility for our work with schools and children’s centre leaders. Today’s announcement shows the great trust that ministers have in the College as an organisation that delivers.
"Children should have nothing but the best. I am delighted that we will be working in partnership with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Children’s Workforce Development Council to develop a programme that will ensure those who lead children’s services get the best training."
NCSL will also chair a group responsible for developing proposals for more coherent support for all senior and middle managers within children’s services. This will take into account the needs and potential of all leaders and managers in the children and young people’s workforce, including the voluntary and community sector and the private sector.
Munby went on to say: "This is an important and urgent task which we will deliver alongside our continued high-quality work with school leaders, which remains our core remit. We will play our part in ensuring that first-class children’s services are developed in England.
"I’m looking forward to working with outstanding leaders within senior children’s services to develop the next generation of great leaders."
Maggie Atkinson, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said:
"ADCS and the Virtual Staff College are delighted to be working with the National College for School Leadership to develop this programme tailored specifically for today’s directors of children’s services and for future leaders.
"Directors of children’s services are responsible for delivering the best possible services for children and young people in their area and it is vital that they have all the relevant skills and knowledge that they need to hold their own staff and their partners to account.
"We look forward to drawing on the expertise of NSCL to provide a sector-led leadership scheme that recognises the unique challenges faced by our members."
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said: "The National College for School Leadership has established a strong reputation with school leaders, focusing on the provision of leadership training under strict quality control. This has brought them into contact with many thousands of school leaders, present and future.
"The College has developed a successful model of school-to-school support to raise the performance of less successful schools. I hope that they will explore how this model can be replicated to raise the performance of the weaker local authorities."
1. The working group will build on ‘Leading and managing children’s services in England: a national professional development framework’ published in April 2008 to provide the basis for nationally and locally delivered training and development for managers and leaders.
2. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s two-volume study, Improving School Leadership (www.oecd.org/edu/schoolleadership), identifies NCSL as a model for school leadership training and praises the organisation, and similar agencies, as "key vehicles for designing coherent approaches and ensuring provision" that headteachers believed had "contributed to improve standards of achievement in their school".
NCSL offers opportunities to develop the potential of school leaders at every level and to enable their schools to work collaboratively with other schools.
Some 87 per cent of school leaders surveyed believe NCSL is helping raise standards in schools – an increase on 2006. [Source: survey of 640 headteachers, deputies and other school leaders in 2007 by independent research agency EdComs.]
NCSL’s four key goals are:
The College’s Learning and Conference Centre in Nottingham is the focus for many of its activities, but NCSL programmes can also be accessed regionally through a network of providers.
NCSL programmes fit around school leaders’ busy schedules, with much of the studying done in free time or in school, often via the internet. Participants can also communicate with each other via the College’s popular online community, talk2learn, which now has over 120,000 members and is open to all school leaders including headteachers, deputy heads and middle leaders, as well as all teachers, teaching assistants and school bursars.
For more information on NCSL, telephone 0845 609 0009.