Establishing Extended Schools

Meeting the Core Offer - Principles  

Many schools are already offering a plethora of extended services. The challenge now faced is to ensure that all schools:

• Actively listen and respond to children, young people, families, communities and local service providers and then plan collaboratively to provide services to meet local needs

• Demonstrate that extended services are being used as a vehicle for raising standards

• Place preventative services at the heart of Extended Services working towards better outcomes for children and young people

• Ensure those children, young people and families who would benefit most from extended services are able to access them  

• Are cost effective and support financial sustainability by re-prioritising resources including pooled budgets

• Are innovative, work in partnership and flexible at the point of delivery.

Meeting the Core Offer – An Overview

Countywide support

All schools are encouraged to work collectively with each other and a wide range of partner agencies through the development of community and school clusters

In terms of the extended services agenda, the primary function of the community and school clusters will be to meet the needs of local communities by ensuring they have access to a wide range of extended services.

Worcestershire County Council’s Extended Schools Team will support schools within their community and school cluster.  Every community and school cluster will be guided through a planning process consisting of three partnership planning workshops where schools and partners work together to develop a vision, prioritise need and approve an action plan.

Individual schools

Those schools that actively engage in the development of community and school clusters will benefit from the services of the Extended Schools Team.  These include:

• Brokering and facilitating partnerships to help achieve the core offer
• Action planning
• Assessing need and mapping local provision
• Start up funding.

Schools can also embed the principles outlined previously into all elements of school life. Practically this could include:

1. Whole school involvement in planning extended services
2. Actively engaging school councils in the planning, developing and delivering of services
3. Governors playing an active part in developing extended services
4. Involving the Extended Services Co-ordinator in appropriate meetings
5. Actively working in partnership with other agencies to provide access to the core offer
6. Ensuring the ethos of extended services is reflected in other school policies
7. Ensuring the practicalities of extended services is addressed in other school policies (e.g. safeguarding).

Find out more on how the Extended Schools Team can help you to deliver the core offer of services.