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Developing extended services

As a school leader you have a key role in finding out which extended services your community needs. You will need to use your leadership skills to develop these extended services in partnership with other agencies.

What are ‘extended services’?

Extended services are one of the main ways for schools to meet the requirements of the ECM agenda. As part of their extended services, schools work with the community and a variety of agencies to offer:

  • provision of high-quality care for children before and after school
  • activities which can add to and improve children's learning
  • support for parents, including information sessions and family learning
  • quick and easy referral to a wide range of specialist support services
  • wider access to ICT, sports and arts facilities, including adult learning, for the wider community'adult learning

There is no template or blueprint for the exact shape any school’s extended services takes. These reflect the needs of your own local community.

For further information see:

What role do schools play?

Schools have an increasingly complicated role to play in furthering the ECM outcomes (for children’s health, safety, achievement, social contribution and economic wellbeing). The notion of what constitutes ‘a school’ is changing to address the needs of the whole child, including those areas of a child’s life that extend beyond the school gates. Housing, health and employment issues all have an impact on family life and therefore affect how children feel when they are in the classroom.

It is crucial that these services are tailored to specific community needs. In this respect, schools play a key role both in identifying what children and families need and in finding ways - while working in partnership with others - to meet those needs.

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What are the implications for school leaders?

The ECM agenda asks schools to consider the needs of children in a context beyond their classroom experience. ECM challenges you, as a school leader, to ensure that those in the school and the wider community are committed to this agenda. This means that you need to demonstrate a broader range of skills than ever before.

To do this, you will need to:

  • develop greater leadership capacity within the school, possibly identifying a specific individual to lead on this challenge
  • support the distribution of leadership more broadly outside the school, extending to the local community and other agencies
  • be aware that the ‘political’ dimension of leadership is often more marked in extended schools and decisions will need to be seen to have the full weight of your approval
  • identify the needs of the local community and take a collaborative approach to meeting those needs

For further information see:

Developing effective extended services

You have a key role to play in ensuring that the extended services your school provides are effective. Research shows that schools with successful extended provision have leaders with:

  • a belief in a holistic child, parent and community-centred approach
  • an aspirational vision focused on pushing the boundaries of what an extended school should be, combined with a practical focus on what the benefits of the services should be
  • a willingness to find new ways of encouraging staff to buy into this vision, including identifying non-teaching staff who are receptive to change and interested in seeking opportunities for professional development
  • an ability to delegate responsibility across a number of staff members

Successful schools also:

  • consult the community and adopt a customer-led approach
  • involve students in the consultation process and continue to give learner voice initiatives a high priority

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Engaging schools in sustainable Every Child Matters and Extended Services

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and the National College have produced a practical resource pack to help local authorities and school leaders develop sustainable extended services (ES) and meet the goals of Every Child Matters (ECM) for children and young people.

Research by the University of Warwick, commissioned by the TDA and the College as part of a two-year partnership project, revealed that the schools making less progress in implementing ES and ECM agenda had varied reasons for not moving forward, including being unclear of the link between ECM, ES and standards.

As a result of this project, many schools have reported an increased level of understanding of extended services provision as part of their vision for ECM.

"It has made us feel less of a rural school and brought us into the national arena. ECM is at the heart of the school, however, ES has always been on the periphery. This project and these resources enabled the school leader’s enthusiasm for the school to be broadcast to a wider audience and brought him towards working with other schools." - School leader

You can download the individual documents from the resource pack here:

The school improvement planning framework

The school improvement planning framework was produced in 2008 by the National College and the TDA. It is a suite of tools and techniques designed to:

  • improve Every Child Matters outcomes
  • raise standards of achievement for all
  • maximise and demonstrate potential

The framework gives school leaders a new way to focus on improving learning by rooting the planning process in the fundamentals – the learning needs of pupils. At the heart of the framework is a needs analysis process that, in a series of practical steps, helps schools deliberately design provision and services to deliver maximum impact.

It is aimed at headteachers, middle leaders and aspiring headteachers and school business managers.

To read more and download a copy please visit the TDA website.

There is also a publication available, featuring six case studies which looks at the impact of the framework on leadership.

Related publications and resources