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Turning Schools Inside Out
What is an Extended Services Coordinator?
The primary role of the Extended Services Coordinator (ESCO) is to work in partnership with the children, their families, the cluster schools and many other agencies and stakeholders to develop, implement and evaluate a local strategy for the Cams Hill and Portchester schools' cluster group and the wider community in which they function. The CAPP Area Action Plan can be viewed on the secure area of this web site.
It is our vision to make Fareham a place where children and young people, including those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, have the best possible start in life, fully supported by the whole community to achieve beyond their potential.
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However, it would be an impossible task for one fairly small person to research, plan, develop, implement and then evaluate every extended service across East Fareham. Therefore the Extended Services Coordinator provides A Common Point of Access, A Clear Communication Network and brokerage Service for all of our partners. Susie will also be busy researching what is already available in our community for children, young people and their families over the coming months, and also offering support and guidance (and sometimes hands-on practical help) to establish services in areas that are found lacking. Another important role will be to keep you all updated on the rapidly changing governmental policies, local strategic changes and funding streams that may have an impact upon our shared vision and area plan.
As you can probably imagine, distributing all this information is a very time-consuming business; therefore the very first step was to develop this website to help the process of working in partnership and sharing information across our cluster groups.
"The success of extended services depended on settings knowing what they wanted to achieve from the provision for their whole community and how they might support its development and sustainability. Experienced settings recognised that sustainability was not just about grants, but about maintaining interest, encouraging involvement, and anticipating and adapting to change. Good settings understood and developed ways to include extended activities in their overall work. Excellent continuing communication ensured that participants had a say in developments and a well defined and respected role. Children, parents and other adults developed a sense of ownership of the services provided and wanted more". (Ofsted 2006)
Extended Services in Schools and Children's Centres. July 2006
(click the link above to read this report)
It goes without saying that the input and co-operation from all of our stakeholders is vital if we are prepare for the government's target date for all of schools in East Fareham to be working together in partnership to deliver the 'full core offer' by 2010. However, no single school or organisation involved in extended services capacity-building needs to work in isolation.
For instance, there are exciting developments with our new Children's Centres. These centres are now established in Portchester, Lee-On-The-Solent (Stublee Hill), Neville Lovett School (Merryfields) & Wickham and it goes without saying that Oak Meadow Children's Centre continues to be a driving force in the north and west of the town with its twin centre Strawberry Meadows. Plans are also underway for locating a Phase III 'virtual' Children's Centre in the Western Wards located at Brookfield School. There is also more support being made available throughout Hampshire for supporting parents, families and carers with practical parenting advice; and from September 2008 there will be more opportunities (and necessary resources) for children and young people to access extra-curricular sporting activities, extra support for children and young people with special educational needs and even an online 'virtual school gate' for parents of teenagers.
The extended services agenda is constantly changing and adapting to meet local needs, so please keep checking back to our news page and resources page to stay updated with the latest press releases and documents. In addition, please feel free to contribute your own success stories to be included on our partnership site.
If you have any further ideas of what you would like to see included here or creative ideas for extended services in and around our cluster schools, then please feel free to e-mail your suggestions to Susie using the link below, or just pick up the phone for an informal chat.
Susie (shown here with her Goddaughter 'Summer')
Community Action Fareham
163 West Street, Fareham, Hants, PO16 0EF
Telephone: (01329) 231899