WIREDGOV

Changes to school funding, including cluster level management of budgets and a national formula for the distribution of money to schools, are recommended in a report published last week.

Education expert David Cameron's report makes clear that changes to allow groups of schools - such as primary and secondary schools which share a catchment area - to manage their budgets together can help schools make the most of the opportunities Curriculum for Excellence offers.

The report suggests:

• The current guidance on devolved school management should be revised to set out the roles and responsibilities of schools, local authorities and national government
• The guidance should then make sure that schools have more consistent autonomy to manage the budgets that are central to fulfilling their role
• Schools should not have to deal with budgets over which they cannot exercise control
• School budgets should be expressed as a cash sum
• Schools should receive three year budgets aligned to school improvement plans
• Schools should move towards budgets that are shared at a cluster level
• Clusters should also be able to determine their own management structure
• A national formula should be created to capture the most effective practice in distributing money to schools

Education Secretary Michael Russell said:

"Curriculum for Excellence offers schools the opportunity to work much more closely together to offer new and improved learning experiences for their pupils.

"Teachers can work outside traditional school-level barriers to offer pupils broader and deeper learning - for example a research project that involves pupils in late primary working with those in early secondary to source information and develop team working and presentation skills.

"I asked David Cameron to look at the level and way of budgets being devolved to school level to ensure there are no barriers to more flexible ways of working, and I'd like to thank him for this thoughtful and helpful report.

"I am pleased to see a number of suggestions to help schools and learning communities manage their budgets more flexibly, in line with Curriculum for Excellence, and to provide more information about best practice in determining school funding. We will now consider these recommendations and respond fully in due course."

David Cameron said:

"I am delighted to have had this opportunity to review devolved management arrangements. We have very good practice in a number of our local authorities to build on and a great deal of consensus about the direction that we need to move in. There is a great opportunity to make a real difference through Curriculum for Excellence and we need to make sure that all schools are enabled to take advantage of that. I hope that this review will make a contribution to that."

Background

The Education Secretary asked David Cameron, former Director of Education and President of ADES, to review the guidance on Devolved School Management in November 2010.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/11/26095844. David has also co-written the Building the Curriculum summary and developing professional practice guides for practitioners.

Engage for Education is the Scottish Government's innovative website that provides a direct channel of communication between Ministers and the Education community. www.engageforeducation.com.