Setting up collaborativearrangements for service provision;

a discussion paper

Background

Schools in xxxxxxxxxx have been working together in the xxxxxxxxxxxx consortium. It has become apparent that underpinning the consortium with a framework which allows a legal foundation for joint decision making would move the developing partnership to the next level. This paper outlines as the basis for discussion the provisions of The Collaboration Arrangements (MaintainedSchools and Further Education Bodies) (England) Regulations 2007 and suggests way in which they may enhance partnership working and joint decision making.

The Collaboration Arrangements (Maintained Schools and Further Education Bodies) (England) Regulations 2007

The following extracts from the above regulations provide the legal basis for joint decision making for school and colleges.

3.-(1) Two or more governing bodies ("collaborating governing bodies") may arrange for any of their functions to be discharged jointly, subject to regulations 16 to 18 of the Procedures Regulations. (Note; reg. 16 sets restrictions on delegation requiring things like changes to school category, school discipline, and constitution issues to be decided by the full GB. Reg 18 requires reporting to whole GB on decisions taken by any committee or individual with delegated powers)
(2) Where collaborating governing bodies make arrangements in accordance with paragraph (1) in respect of any of their functions relating to individual members of the school staff, the School Staffing (England) Regulations 2003as amended apply to the discharge of such functions. (Note; these are the regs which set out how GBs must manage appointments, dismissal, etc. Most GBs adopt the HCC Personnel manual which reflects this legislation)

(3) Where collaborating governing bodies make arrangements in accordance with paragraph (1), they may also delegate the discharge of any of their functions that may be delegated to a committee under regulation 16 of the Procedure Regulations, to a joint committee established by them.

Establishment of joint committees
4.-(1) The collaborating governing bodies must determine, and review annually, the constitution, terms of reference and (subject to regulation 6) membership of any joint committee they decide to establish.(Note; Regulation 6 is about Associate members and the limitations of their role. Later in the regs it’s made clear that headteachers of collaborating bodies can attend meetings even if they aren’t included in the membership but they wouldn’t in that case have a vote)
(2) A joint committee must determine the quorum for any of its meetings which must not be fewer than three persons, each of whom is a member of any of the collaborating governing bodies.
(3) A joint committee must appoint a chair annually and may remove its chair from office at any time.
Clerks to joint committees
5.-(1) A joint committee must appoint a clerk (who must not be one of the head teachers) and may remove the clerk from office at any time.(Note; a headteacher can’t be the clerk but a governor can)

The regulations allow a joint committee to have people from outside organisations as associate members. They can be appointed for a minimum of one year, maximum of four and can be given a vote although they can’t use it for discipline or budget decisions. This might be a useful way of bringing about liaison with other agencies acting as providers of services, certainly in the longer term.

The advantage of using the collaboration regulations to allow collective decision making is that it’s easy to do, requiring only the formal consent of all the individual governing bodies. It’s also easy to change the constitution of the committee or decide it should cease to operate if it doesn’t work. The governing bodies are collectively responsible for the actions taken by the joint committee rather than an individual school taking all the risk or being seen as having undue influence over how pooled and collective funds, including those awarded to the consortium as a whole, are used.

How it might work.

Thecollaborating schools decide and review annually the constitution, terms of reference and membership of the committee. The constitutioncould for example consist of one or two representatives from each school and college (headteacher/principal plus one governor) although it’s not legally necessary to have members from all the schools. It would also be likely to include any xxxxxxxxx service co-ordinator . If you want to have the flexibility to involve other agencies within the year you may want to decide on more associate member places which would remain vacant unless the committee wished to use them. When decisions are taken there must always be more governors than associate members voting. The collaborating bodies decide whether associate members will have a vote or not. Giving other agencies a vote on such a committee would give a clear message that this was a genuine partnership where everyone’s contribution was expected and valued.

In deciding who is nominated from the individual schools and colleges as governor representatives on the committee you may want to think about obtaining as wide a representation as possible ie. a mix of types of governors.

The regulations require the joint committee to appoint a chairannually and also to appoint aclerk. A headteacher cannot be the clerk and it’s not good practice to have a member of the committee acting as clerk. The clerk of one of the collaborating GBs might be prepared to work additional hours. You would need to be clear about who was responsible for staffing issues (eg. pay and performance) in this case.

The joint committee directs the clerk to convene meetings(in line with regulations covering agenda, notice etc) and decides on the quorum with a minimum of three governors required.

In setting terms of reference for the joint committee, you will need to consider what things you want this group to be able to decide on your behalf. The following bullet points are some first thoughts about the kind of things you might want to say:

  • To agree and oversee consultation and research arrangements for the development of the areas 14-19 services business plan for the roll-out and delivery of diplomas and other consortium-wide qualifications.
  • To agree and oversee the implementation of the 14-19business plan orTo draft the 14 -19 business plan for approval by the collaborating governing bodies
  • To monitor and evaluate the agreed business plan, revising as appropriate or To monitor and evaluate the agreed business plan submitting proposals for revision to the collaborating governing bodies
  • To monitor expenditure against the budget plan and to ensure Best Value
  • To agree virement of resources within the 14 – 19 services budget up to a limit of INSERT AMOUNT.
  • To exercise personnel powers in relation tostaff designated within the 14 – 19 business plan in line with HCC’s Manual of Personnel Practice, staffing and governance legislation
  • To be responsible for drawing up and monitoring agreements with third party providers delivering 14-19 services on behalf of the collaborating bodies
  • To consider formal complaints about the operation or quality of 14 -19 services offered jointly by the collaborating bodies
  • To report back to the collaborating bodies through the minutes of meetings and in a summary report once in every school year.
  • To foster positive relationships between the collaborating bodies, the local community and the local authority on 14 -19 services issues
  • To ensure equality of access and opportunity for students of all participating institutions
  • To seek opportunities for joining-up services and activities for young people who access education or training through one or more of the consortium providers

Although the pooled budget may be modest to start with and the co-ordinator may be the only member of staff for whom the group is initially responsible, it seemed sense to provide some words which would work for a longer timescale. The general terms above will work provided that the business plan sets out the budget and the staffing agreed to deliver it, but this would need to be checked . The bit about virement needs definition. For example if money for buying a mini-bus is put into the 14 -19 services business plan budget and one is purchased cheaper than anticipated will the joint committee be authorised to agree to spend the remaining money on some other purpose identified within the plan. The provisions for third party providers gives a way of sorting out arrangements, for example, with training providers and others who are prepared to provide services. The joint committee would also seem to be capable of playing a key part in communicating with the local authority and ensuring that 14–19 decisions taken for the area are reached in a joined up way.

Links are represented in diagrammatic form below. Arrow = delegated authority, line = consultative link.

The Way Forward

If the governing bodies of the schools involved decide they would like to explore this idea further it would be useful for them to identify one or two people to work with Local Authority officers. We would need to draw upon personnel, finance and legal expertise to make sure the arrangements eventually set up were legitimate and robust. The working group would probably need to consult more widely with all the collaborating schools as they developed the proposals but by setting up a smaller group we would have a chance of minimising workload and speeding up the outcome. Having established a working model on a pilot basis it would be possible for the Local Authority to role out the model to other consortia across the county.

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