At its meeting of 29 January 2008, the ADES Children’s Services Committee unanimously welcomed an EMIE proposal to work together to undertake a small research project related to Integrated Children’s Services.
The plan is that the review will examine the idea of locality working and will provide some information about the impact of Integrated Services at various levels such as structures, practice, or outcomes.
E3Net has been commissioned to undertake the review and has appointed Malcolm Payton and John Cassidy to carry out the interviews and analysis. Malcolm and John have been members of ADES for many years and will be known to many ADES colleagues.
In welcoming this proposal, the Children’s Services Committee were keen that all Local Authorities were informed of the project and were given the opportunity to express interest. This initial review is however a very small scale project and it will not be possible to include more than four local authorities at this stage.
If the report is seen to be useful, there may be the opportunity to further develop the work in due course. In the meantime, we would be keen to involve a range of local areas which includes dispersed and concentrated populations. E3Net will therefore be approaching a number of local authorities to confirm interest and local support for undertaking the review. If any local authority wishes to express particular interest in the review, either at this stage or in anticipation of a broader review in due course, they should contact Malcolm or John directly.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Yvonne McCraken, ADES representative with EMIE, and John Christie of the Virtual Staff College, for their support in developing this proposal. Contact details for those involved and some further details about EMIE, E3Net and the proposal are included overleaf.
Like my colleagues on the Children’s Service Committee, I believe this is an important area of work and look forward to hearing some valuable insights at the annual ADES conference.
Appendix – Additional Information
Background
The review has been commissioned by EMIE and the Children’s Services Committee of ADES.
EMIE is part of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). EMIE works in partnership with Local Authorities to carry out a range of research and gather reference material useful to Education Authorities throughout the UK. It has recently commissioned some research about integrated Services in England, and now wishes to gather information about developments in Scotland.
EMIE are very clear that the purpose of this work will be to provide something useful to Education Services in Scotland and have commissioned E3Net Limited to undertake the review. E3Net is a network of over forty senior educational consultants who are almost all from Scotland. The network includes Directors of Education, Chief Executives, HM Inspectors and Chief Inspectors and other figures who have worked at a national level.
The consultants involved in this review are Malcolm Payton who was Head of Education in Shetland for a number of years prior to working for the Scottish Government and an international education company and John Cassidy who was until recently Head of Service in South Lanarkshire Council.
The principal ADES contact is Yvonne McKracken of Scottish Borders Council who is the ADES link person for EMIE and a member of the Children’s Services Committee.
Aims
The review will explore the idea of locality working and will examine the impact of Integrated Services at various levels such as structures, practice, or outcomes. It will provide evidence of progress in taking forward integrated working and identify activities that have led to more efficient or effective service delivery.
As well as being available as a written report, outcomes of the review will be presented at the Virtual Staff College Summer School and at the ADES conference.
Contact details
Malcolm Payton
Malcolm@E3Net.org.uk
01368-862276
John Cassidy
John.Cassidy@E3Net.org.uk
0141-583-5031
Yvonne McCraken
YMcCracken@scotborders.gov.uk
01835 824000
John Christie jchristie@tinyworld.co.uk 0777 551 5664
Websites
EMIE
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/emie/
E3Net
www.E3Net.org.uk
Other News...