NCSL is committed to providing resources, not only to schools, but to the needs of leaders within multi-agency and early years settings. These resources provide research findings, advice and suggestions to people seeking more information about the development of multi-agency environments.
Children’s centres:the new frontier for the welfare state and the education system? (2006) 
(23kb, 11 pages)
Speech by Dr Margy Whalley, presented at the "Early Interventions for Infants and Small Children in Families at Risk" conference in Norway. She discusses the development of children’s centres and the role they have within the education system.
(Download only)
Community conversation (2006) (94kb, 6 pages)
Kay Lindley
This research was carried out in several extended and full-service schools by talking with heads or extended school managers about their consultations with the community connected with their school. It looks at one school’s approach to developing an extended school through stakeholder conversation.
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Every Child Matters. Taking the wider view: living leadership – making a difference (2008) DVD
This short film demonstrates what can be achieved when schools and communities work together. Here are some great examples of ECM in action, with sound advice from the leaders who are working across schools, children’s centres and communities to make a difference to the lives of children.
This DVD is available free of charge.
Every Child Matters: how school leaders in extended schools respond to local needs (2007) (828kb, 8 pages)
This report describes the findings of research into how school leaders contextualised the principles of Every Child Matters (ECM) and the leadership of extended schools for their local area. It explores how school leaders aligned ECM, extended schools and standards agendas, the ways in which school leaders adapted ECM for their own context and investigated whether responses to the principles of ECM varied according to the socio-economic levels of the community that the school served.
Full report (1.4Mb, 57 pages)
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Leadership for public value: achieving valuable outcomes for children, families and communities (2008) (172kb, 28 pages)
Charles Leadbeater and Denis Mongon
This report shows how a set of schools and centres are engaging with their local communities to explore new ways of working, with the aim of doing a better job both for the young people and families they serve directly and for the communities they work with and within. The printed copy includes a CD that explores the issues covered in the report.
Lessons from the extended school (2006) (364kb, 32 pages)
Extended schools are intended to ensure improved access to a range of services for children and their families, moving towards a focus on the needs of the whole child. This is one of a number of documents that explore in more detail the implications of extended schools for their leaders.
A printed version is available, priced £5.
Only connect: using a critical incident tool to develop multi-agency collaboration in two children’s centres (2008) (77kb, 6 pages)
Alison Cummings
This research associate report describes the approaches two children’s centre leaders adopted in running whole centre development days and the respective benefits and learning points from each.
Only connect – full report (521kb, 34 pages)
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