Building collaboration in schools

Partnerships are essential to succession planning. In addition to shared expertise and support, they offer future leaders the breadth of development and experience that they need to excel.

Common themes

Collaborations take different forms according to the local context. But although there is no single correct formula, there are some common themes underpinning strong collaborations. These include:

sufficient scale to provide enough leadership opportunities
a common underlying ethos or loyalty, such as faith
a common employer of status, such as the local authority or diocese
real geographical community with a shared labour market
a shared sense of urgency

Why formal collaboration?

Partnerships require investment and management: it is rare that effective collaboration between organisations occurs naturally. All parties may already be working together informally but shared processes and systems, for example, will go a long way towards cementing and sustaining the partnership so that it becomes something more powerful.

Establishing formal collaboration

If you have agreed with others locally that succession planning is a priority, then the next step is to put your collaboration on a formal footing. To do this, you need to discuss and agree certain elements. These include:

determining membership and setting membership criteria
identifying partnership goals and principles
agreeing management processes, such as timings and agendas, and policies and determining how resources will be allocated
listing stakeholders and planning communications – this is important for ironing out any conflicting interests or assumptions about succession planning that may clash

Implementation plan

The plan should set down what your first steps will be and what topics to focus on at your first few meetings. (See also ‘Key questions’, below.)

Further on, your plan may also include:

an assessment and action planning session, using data collected from schools in advance and analysing current practice
identifying subjects for working groups, such as the type of leadership development activity required

Key questions

In the early stages, you also need to establish your position as a group on some fundamental questions, such as:

Should we use a common platform for roles/identify a career structure for future leaders?
Which model of characteristics or leadership effectiveness will the collaboration draw on?
What development opportunities will we offer?
Should we have a fast-track scheme for people with the most potential and, if so, how will we define ‘high potential’?
How will we combine succession planning with other processes, such as performance management and school self-evaluation?

Progress review

To monitor progress, hold regular partnership review meetings to determine whether improvements are necessary and in which areas. You should also establish appropriate timings for formal evaluation.

Related publications and resources

Collaboration checklist – The National College has created a tool, providing schools with a detailed checklist of how to collaborate effectively and build lasting partnerships.
Staying on and leaving a legacy – For insights from a headteacher into how collaboration has helped to bring out fresh leadership talent

Further information

For further information, email the succession planning team at successionplanning@nationalcollege.org.uk.