The Children Act of 2004 sets down a new challenge for the professionals responsible for child welfare. Because the inter-professional collaboration between educationalists, social workers and health workers is perceived to have significant weaknesses, these professionals are now being required to undergo a process of role integration - the formation of a new cohesive team around the needs of the child. Nevertheless, the literature suggests that such change cannot be imposed by statutory regulation or managerial action but should be introduced by professionals themselves through a process of informed professional judgement. The professional acceptability of such organisational change is also dependent on the methods and techniques used to change professionality. Using collaborative inquiry as a tool, this study traces the work of a multidisciplinary group of professionals (a champion group) as it reviews current practices. This enables the group to recommend a new structure for an integrated service team to replace current separate agency accountability. It also identifies professional attitudes towards this new way of working. Finally, based on these findings, the study summarises a potential model for the introduction and implementation of an integrated service that may be of value in similar work settings.

This research aims to identify the extent of the influence of the Ofsted inspection regime on how headteachers lead their school. Data was gathered from questionnaires, interviews, school and Ofsted documents and the 28 participants were all headteachers at secondary schools. As a fellow serving secondary school headteacher and a part-time Ofsted inspector, this has given me a unique insight although the ethical challenges are carefully considered. The report concludes that the Ofsted inspection regime has shaped the way the headteachers think about how their schools are run, particularly through the lens of accountability. This has led to an almost unquestioning acceptance that the ideal model for teaching and learning comes from Ofsted. The inspection provider then assesses how well schools meet it, punishing them heavily for student outcomes that fall below national measures of success. Headteachers have stopped thinking about how it might be different in their context and are sleepwalking into a performativity culture so that their schools are seen as being successful at an Ofsted inspection. They have accepted the surveillance strategies used by Ofsted along with the disciplinary power wielded when the Ofsted model is not met. However, the most fundamental tension surrounds vocational qualifications: how they are used in the national performance tables and then by Ofsted in their inspections. Headteachers are doing what it takes to 'survive' and 'thrive' in the market approach to accountability that schools find themselves in. Although this report has implications for policy makers, headteachers and Ofsted, it concludes that this area is worthy of further investigation, particularly into how the ideal teaching standard is arrived at along with an exploration of appropriate measures of school performance used by Ofsted.

This thesis explores the rationale underpinning Beacon Schools Policy and the implications of school improvement research for its potential efficacy. It also provides an early evaluation ofthe operation of beacon schools in practice. The thesis is based on interviews with two elite respondents, an analysis of the individual web pages of all beacon schools in existence in summer 2001, a questionnaire survey of beacon headteachers and case studies offour beacon schools. Underpinning the policy is the belief that successful schools can act as catalytic agents to improve less successful ones through site-based improvement activities. To that extent, the policy is emblematic of the wider approach to school improvement adopted by the Labour Government. In common with other 'model', innovative' and 'lighthouse' schools, beacon schools embrace the idea that they can help to scale up reform across local, non-beacon schools and eventually to the school system as a whole. Yet, the lessons from these experiments is that it is unrealistic to expect such schools to have a major impact on school improvement in the short term. This thesis suggests that, although Beacon School Policy is popular with the schools and teachers it directly implicates, it is both under-resourced and insufficiently conceptualised to be able to bring about large scale improvement generally. Rather than viewing the policy altruistically, headteachers tend to see beacon status primarily as a means to improve their own schools. This belief in the potential of the policy for self-improvement is supported by evidence from the operation of individual beacon schools. It demonstrates an atomistic approach to policy making, where already successful schools can receive multiple funding for the same activities through participation in different sitebased initiatives. The policy may be seen as a useful and motivating backdrop for school improvement work, rather than as a direct means to bring about improvement.

Discipline problems in schools have-focussed attention on punishment methods used. This investigation aimed at ascertaining the effects of punishment in secondary schools. Seven hundred and sixty-three pupils from ten different secondary schools assisted in the study. Judgments of sixth-form pupils provided data on the deterrent values of twenty-six punishments and the relative frequencies of use of these punishments to obtain the best results. From a detailed analysis of pupils' replies the concept of the educational value of a punishment emerged. This novel concept describes the educational benefit the pupils derive from the punishment situation. A new questionnaire was devised to assess the judgments of educational values. The effects of punishments were then examined with this criterion in mind. The results showed that the educational value of a punishment taken together with its deterrent value provided a very good predictor of the effectiveness of a punishment. Punishment was perceived as needing much wider consideration than is implied by the simple mechanism of stopping the unwanted action. The investigation turned to a consideration of the emotional consequences of punishment. Questionnaires were devised to measure the positive and negative emotional consequences. It was found that punishment with high educational value was associated with positive emotional consequences while punishment with high deterrent value was associated with negative emotional consequences. The third stage of the investigation was concerned with identifying the determinants of the educational and deterrent values of punishments. Again appropriate questionnaires were designed and administered to sixth-form pupils. The analysis of the data showed the main determinants of deterrent value were duration of after-effect of punishment, inconvenience to the individual being punished and disturbing social effects resulting from the punishment. The educational value itself is determined by these same three factors plus a positive dimension which provides the opportunity for new endeavours. The next stage of the investigation dealt with the importance of matching the punishment to the circumstances surrounding the offence. The results stress the importance of choosing punishments in relation to the number of times the offence is committed and the age of the pupil. The last stage of the investigation concentrated on a comparison of current practice as perceived by headmasters and the suggestions derived from this investigation. A comparison was also made between the concepts of headmasters and pupils. In conclusion recommendations are made for the practical application of the findings of this research to the school setting.

In recent years schools in England and Wales have been subject to Central Government's reform agenda characterised by national strategies to raise standards and measure performance. The introduction of Inspection in 1993 by Ofsted represents the sharp focus placed on performance and accountability as schools could be inspected and named as 'failing.' The Education Act 1997 introduced the concept of Schools Causing Concern (SCC) and set out the powers of LEAs to take action where schools would not or could not address their weaknesses adequately. This study looks at the actions of one LEA (2002-3) to support the improvement of six secondary SCC by partnering them with six 'effective' schools. The case studies of these partnerships underline the importance of leadership, belief in partnership and the building of relationships which support learning. The research questions the capacity of SCC to benefit from partnership within a short time period and opens up a debate around transferability of systems and practices. This study asks if 'partnership' is an 'inside-out' capacity building strategy or another 'outside- in' solution. It centres on the relationship between the headteachers as the key to building effective partnerships. It challenges the ability of the LEA to broker effective partnerships between schools and reflects on the introduction of School Improvement Partners (DfES, 2005) and the current emphasis on partnership and collaboration. The study argues that while 'partnership' holds the possibility of supporting SCC, it is subject to the vagaries of human relationships, likes and dislikes and dependant upon the capacity of schools to learn from each other. Partnership requires time to develop and impact and as such represents an unreliable and flawed strategy for securing improvement in SCC short term.

No description available.

No description available.

The prominence of ICT in English Secondary schools has increased enormously in the last fifteen years under the New Labour administration. As a background to this, schools have historically been justified either in terms of vocational or non-vocational objectives, captured in Oakeshott's contesting metaphors of schools as markets or as monasteries. ICT became a high profile and very expensive part of a general educational reform policy engaged with these contested objectives. The thesis surveys and critiques government ICT policy in English Secondary schools between 1995-2010, through situated case studies of policy processes, asking what ideas are driving the reforms and how these frame the purpose of schools. The central contribution of this thesis is to reveal how ICT educational policy in this sector has been constructed and positioned through the application of critical discourse analysis (CDA). An original feature of this CDA is the use of Daniel Bell's theory of tripartite Axial Realms to identify neglected discourses. The main findings are that there is a dominant techno-economic discourse and that axial principles from the cultural and political realms are largely invisible. This research places the construction of educational ICT policy reform discourse at the centre of important contemporary questions about the purpose of Secondary schools, in particular, debates about market and visions of schooling. I use Bell to reconceptualise the educational purpose of ICT, showing that it can be reconstructed in terms of Bell's three realms, the techno-economic, the political and the cultural, rather than assuming that only the techno-economic is needed to explain it. The implications of this are that vocational justifications alone need not and should not drive ICT educational reform, nor educational reform generally, and that reintroducing political and cultural principles alongside techno-economic ones would benefit ICT policy.

State sector education policy in England aims to deliver raised standards of attainment and equality of educational opportunity through offering fair access to schools for all pupils from any background. Two initiatives of 'school choice' and `school improvement' have been specifically introduced for this purpose. Choice policies came about in the late 1980s. They propose to provide equal access through breaking the historical geographical link between the home and the school attended. Pupils can apply for admission to any preferred school from their current home location. An equal distribution of better standards in education is thought to be achieved through the scheme's creation of school competition for pupils. Improvement strategies took off in the early 2000s under the Academies Programme. The initiative targets the re-emergence of low-performing schools as viable competitors for pupils through a process of institutional reform. It aspires to raise standards and equality by providing more opportunities for all pupils to have access to better-quality schools. The National Pupil Database is an administrative annual census of state school pupils that allows enrolment-related activity in schools to be tracked. It is used here to address whether fairness is an outcome of the two education policies. Evaluation considers (i) if pupils of differing backgrounds gain access to popular primary schools without moving home under the choice system and; (ii) if failing secondary schools that convert into Academies remain accessible to all pupils. Evidence indicates that the connection between the school attended and home location persists partly because entry rules by popular schools reinstate school-home proximity as an admissions criteria. Meanwhile, there is exclusivity in entry to Academies, with proportionally fewer underprivileged, low-ability pupils featuring in the renewed schools. These outcomes suggest that education policy has a long way to go if fair access to schools is to be achieved.

The subject of how to finance Higher Education (HE) has been on the agenda of successive UK governments since the 1960s. The UK has moved from a situation where the taxpayer footed the entire bill for HE, to a system where students themselves must contribute part of the cost of their education. This so-called `cost-sharing' has always been a subject of controversy, with fears that it would lower participation, particularly among poorer students. This thesis is a quantitative analysis of the UK's system of HE finance (defined here as maintenance grants and upfront fees) and its impact on individual university participation decisions and Higher Education Institution funding levels. The thesis comprises two main strands. The first is an econometric analysis of the causal relationship between HE finance and university participation. I use individual-level Labour Force Survey data over the period of 1992-2005, during which many major changes in HE finance policy took place, to estimate the impact of upfront fees and maintenance grants on individual participation decisions. I use a variety of econometric techniques exploiting variation in policy by income-group, over time, and by UK constituent country arising from Scottish devolution. I find a positive impact of maintenance grants on participation, and a negative impact of up-front fees. In the second strand of the thesis, I draw on Scotland as a comparison group with the rest of the UK. I use HESA data on university funding and volumes of students, and Higher Education Funding Council of England / Scottish Funding Council funding formulae to analyze the impact of tuition fees in terms of relative funding per FTE in Scottish and English universities. I find English universities to have caught up with Scotland in terms of funding per head as a result of the increased income from fees.