Burnley schools collaborate to commission extended services

Case study

Schools on the Burnley campus sought the most effective means of providing accessible and attractive services for a deprived community.

Key learning

Advance planning, well supported by the leadership and energy of Burnley Local Authority was well worth the time and effort.
Operating on a large scale with a single commissioning body enables the schools to buy services at more economical rates, for example in the provision of school meals and high-quality, shared continuing professional development (CPD).
Employing a campus manager helps develop a coherent overview of provision in key areas such as extended services, Every Child Matters (ECM) and the management of private finance initiative (PFI) contracts and allows for a robust approach to key issues such as safeguarding - the current manager has applied a consistent, integrated and robust approach across the campus.
Staff also benefit from improved services, for example in accessing the gym and sports facilities at reduced rates.
The collective approach offers added value to children and pupils in the form of activities and opportunities, such as a work with under fives and work experience and mentoring opportunities for sixth formers.
Collaboration leads to more effective use of resources, for example the special school’s hydrotherapy pool is used by the local diving club in the evenings.

Background

Burnley Local Authority used a Building Schools for the Future (BSF) PFI initiative alongside its housing renewal and library regeneration programmes to open a school sixth form and support the development of a range of new facilities on the Burnley campus. The campus encompasses a nursery school and children’s centre, a primary school, special school and school sixth form as well as a public library, community cafe, faith centre and indoor and outdoor sports facilities. The campus is in the centre of Burnley in a largely working-class area inhabited mostly by families of Asian origin.

The City of Burnley scores highly on a number of indices of deprivation and is polarised along ethnic lines. Its context is one of high morbidity, obesity and poverty.

Key challenges

Getting the structure right

The authority needed to identify an organisational model that would preserve the autonomy of each school while encouraging collaboration and the development of shared purposes and objectives.

Conquering discontinuity

Transition and continuity pose problems as secondary age students are not catered for in the campus schools.

Changing staff attitudes to school boundaries

Initially, staff within schools, particularly in the sixth form, found it difficult to accept that campus facilities are open to all students and staff, not just those from their own school.

Solutions

Social enterprise model

The social enterprise model offers independence from local authority restrictions while allowing considerable flexibility. The not for profit ethos means that service charges are designed to cover costs and can be kept low, making provision more accessible to local people. The availability of cheap refreshments in the cafe is an added local attraction.

Campus manager

The appointment of a campus manager gave access to valuable commercial experience and introduced management diversity into directors’ meetings (the current manager is from a non-teaching, commercial background).

Encouraging students to stay on

Locating the new sixth form on this site is a deliberate incentive to secondary school students to stay on in education.

Next steps

Burnley campus opened in the autumn of 2009. Plans for the future include development of means of measuring impact on children’s lives. Meanwhile, the social enterprise plans the provision of a foundation degree for the children’s workforce in partnership with Bolton University.

Further information

For further information contact Burnley campus by email at j.brennan@thomaswhithamsixthform.lancs.sch.uk.