Delivery, efficiency and innovation

Establishing local partnership boards in East Sussex

‘The support that Isos Partnership provided to us in setting up the local partnership boards has been invaluable. They ensured that our local work was informed by a national perspective and by the experience of other local authority areas.’
— Elizabeth Funge, Head of Education Improvement

The brief

East Sussex schools and the local authority wanted to build on their success in developing the school-led improvement system. They recognised that important elements of a successful local school improvement system are strategic partnership boards: places where schools, the local authority, and other key players can come together to guide and lead the support for schools. East Sussex wanted Isos Partnership to act as an advisory organisation that could help them develop these structures and share our learning from experiences in other local areas.

What did we do?

We have been working with East Sussex over a number of years and we were able to build on our knowledge of the local system and also our previous support that had helped East Sussex to develop local Education Improvement Partnerships.

 At secondary level, we:

  • worked with schools and the LA to review the existing support for school improvement and look at how other local areas had developed their partnership arrangements;

  • worked closely with a steering group of headteachers and the local authority through a series of workshops to co-design how the new Secondary Improvement Board would work and develop the vision and ways of working for the new Board;

  • supported the establishment of three area groups across East Sussex as a way for secondaries to work more closely together at a local level and report to the Board;

  • presented the developing thinking to all secondary headteachers in East Sussex to get their feedback and refine the proposals; and

  • acted as the interim chairperson of the Secondary Board during the first year until a permanent appointment was made and helped to develop the data/reporting tools the board needed.

 At primary level, we:

  • co-ordinated and supported a steering group of primary school leaders and the local authority that was leading the work to develop the Primary Board; and

  • prepared materials and tools that helped the Board to be ready for its first meetings in autumn 2019.

 For both groups, we were able to bring our extensive knowledge of other local areas and the development of other local strategic partnerships.

What difference did we make?

The Secondary Improvement Board operated since the start of 2019 and is now well established with a permanent, independent chair. The LA feel that the new arrangements are now working well and feedback from secondary headteachers has been positive. The Primary Improvement Board is at an earlier stage of development and held its first meetings in autumn 2019 with engagement from school leaders, governors, multi-academy trusts, teaching school alliances and the LA.

We were able to share our learning from the development of other strategic partnerships and give confidence to colleagues in East Sussex that their approach built on and learned from practice elsewhere. Through the series of engagement and discussions with colleagues in East Sussex we helped to develop trust and a shared understanding of the ways forward.

What did the client say about the work?

‘The support that Isos Partnership provided to us in setting up the local partnership boards has been invaluable. They ensured that our local work was informed by a national perspective and by the experience of other local authority areas.  Isos worked alongside us to co-construct the partnerships with headteachers and create strong local boards that will drive forward school-led improvement across our county.’
— Elizabeth Funge, Head of Education Improvement