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Schools I Project

The first schools project was a joint project undertaken by the Public Sector Team and the then Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) in 2000. Its brief was to explore ways of reducing unnecessary paperwork in schools.

Identifying and Understanding the Issues
Schools were visited during mid 2000 to see and hear how administrative work can get in the way of raising standards in the classroom. This frontline research was supported by desk research to see how processes had evolved and discover the legislative basis behind them. A series of meetings then followed between the team and key stakeholders, such as Local Education Authorities (LEAs), the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the Teacher Training agency (TTA). During these meetings, possible steps to remove bureaucratic burdens were explored.

Initiating and obtaining commitments to address the issues raised
After analysing the views of front-line staff and other key stakeholders, the team identified those areas that would have the greatest impact on the largest number of people, and set out action that could be taken to reduce unnecessary paperwork. Many of the issues that arose were complex and involved a range of stakeholders. Potential solutions were brokered through negotiation with schools, policy-makers, administrators and other stakeholders to ensure that all parties were satisfied with the outcomes.

Making a Difference
Throughout the project the key aim was to achieve tangible results that would make a real difference to head teachers. In December 2000, the Making a Difference: Reducing School Paperwork (PDF 565KB) report was published. As a direct result of the outcomes of this project, it is estimated that a typical school could save over 200 hours per year, which amounts in total to around 4.5 million hours per year across the whole schools system.

In order to monitor the implementation of the outcomes outlined in the report, a survey was undertaken in 2001, with a sample of 51 schools. The objective of this was to establish whether schools had seen action at the front-line or were aware of a change in process, 12 months on since the publication of the report. The survey showed that out of the nine identified outcomes, staff had seen the following progress:

• six outcomes have been delivered on the ground.
• of three outcomes not yet delivered, two are currently being piloted.

The PST will continue to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation, and would appreciate any comments: psinfo@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk