Summary - This section identifies the benefits of working as part of a partnership and how Education Improvement Partnerships (EIPs) provide a relatively straightforward way of reaping and building upon these rewards. 

Successful partnership working can take time and effort on the part of schools, colleges, and other providers, particularly in the early stages as the partnership becomes established. However, evidence from existing partnership working shows powerful gains where learning providers collaborate effectively. 

Collaboration strengthens leadership across a partnership. Teachers and their support staff are motivated and stimulated by opportunities to work with colleagues in other schools on common issues whether it is their subject specialism, issues around literacy or numeracy, or behaviour and attendance. Peer support is a powerful method of continuous professional development. Teachers also benefit from working with colleagues more widely on broader issues, such as transition into and beyond school or family support.

Information from the closest networks indicate that a much wider curricular choice being made available to students, with a more co-ordinated and focused approach to learning and teaching. This is enhanced by shared expertise in the use of assessment for learning, to create a more personalised offer.

In some parts of the country issues around childcare, child protection, and extended services for children, young people and their families are already achieving better outcomes through strong collaboration between schools and children's services working in partnership with local authorities. Schools and other children's services are being encouraged to look at the wider needs of the child and to collaborate in providing multi-agency support in order to deliver on the five Every Child Matters outcomes – being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being in life.

Existing programmes such as Excellence in Cities (EiC), the Leadership Incentive Grant (LIG), the Leading Edge Partnership Programme (LEPP), Network Learning Communities, Federations and the Specialist Schools Programme have established strong and effective partnerships. Rates of improvement in EiC schools, for example, are twice the national average.   It is clear that improvements have occurred both where extra funding has been in place and where it has not. The experience of many partnerships tells us that it is by establishing different, more collaborative ways of working that real and sustainable improvement is achieved.

Education Improvement Partnerships are not intended to replace or marginalise existing partnerships. Instead, they offer a way to streamline, and build upon these arrangements within the context of a New Relationship with Schools. There will be greater freedom to fashion what works locally rather than a requirement to collaborate on a range of separately defined models of national partnership. Schools already experienced in working together can further develop using the creation of an Education Improvement Partnership to extend into new areas and to involve other partners such as colleges and work-based training providers.  Other groups of schools seeking to work together for the first time will have a single model of good practice to help them. 

The DFES does not want partnerships to be caught up with unnecessarily bureaucratic support structures – the benefits of partnership might be lost if too much resource is spent on facilitation of the partnership. We want to work with colleagues in the field to develop model SLAs which will ensure effective delivery of service without burdensome monitoring regimes.

In due course, the School Improvement Partner (SIP) - an integral part of the New Relationship with Schools - will challenge each school about the effectiveness of its work. SIPs will consider the support a school draws from the partnerships of which it is a member, and what contribution the school makes to the local learning community.