The PAG Newsletter: Issue 6
Introduction from Tom Legge
Hello.
October has been another busy month for us at PAG. The SEND Free School application deadline for Local Authorities and the expression of interest deadline for Alternative Provision both came and went with PAG supporting a number of LA’s for SEND and Lead Bidders for AP. In the meantime, the application deadline for Wave 15 of the Mainstream Free School Wave creeps ever closer. There is now less than a month to get your application finished and submitted by the November 30th deadline. If you need any bid writing support at all, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.
As well as being very much in the eye of the storm as far as free schools are concerned, October also saw Liz Truss become the shortest serving prime minister ever and Rishi Sunak take her place as the new PM. With this, came our fifth education secretary of 2022. You can read more about Gillian Keegan in this issue.
Finally, the DfE opened the next window of TCaF funding, with a deadline of 16th December. Another window is due to open in January 2023. You can find out more about this round of TCaF in our PAG Explains feature, written by our Associate Consultant Helena Senior who incidentally is also the subject of this issue’s PAG Profile!
All in all, it’s a pretty full issue and we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy.
Create: Schools News: Webinars – there is no zealot like the convert…
By Tom Legge
Let’s face it, we’re all in sales. Whether we’re selling visions, concepts, products, services or ideas – we’re all in sales. I’ve never been in sales. I hated the idea. I’m in the curiosity and problem-solving business. Considering my position in relation to sales, I’ve always had a natural suspicion of webinars. Having sat through more than I can remember checking emails and drifting in and out, I didn't see the benefit to PAG of delivering our own as I’d prefer to be engaging with people face to face and/or one to one.
I’ve changed my mind.
The recent webinars we have organised have taught me that I was being rather arrogant in thinking that I or indeed PAG and its partners could provide all the answers to our clients. While there are sometimes issues of competition and commerciality, where I feel webinars work best (since my Damascene conversion) is where groups of people come together to discuss common cause. While the Condition Improvement Fund, Trust Capacity Fund and Free school Applications can be seen as competitive between trusts, in reality a facilitated discussion between peers, should mean that all boats rise having benefited from shared experiences approaches shared. To me, this is much more useful (and enjoyable) than the ‘next slide please’ approaches I have endured over time.
With this in mind I have now decided to get into the webinar game myself. If you have an interest in how to write a successful free school application or how to maximise your chances of securing DfE funding via TCaF, you are welcome to join me and hopefully a good number of other interested parties to discuss strategies and tactics. I have to admit to being a little nervous about putting my popularity to the test but take comfort that I will be in a room full of people who know far more than me about it. I hope to see you there.
You can find out more about the free school webinars series, including webinars hosted by PAG and other Create: Schools partners, on the Create: Schools website.
Sector News: SNP look to raise school starting age
By Ernestina Alvarez Corona
SNP members have backed a motion to raise the school entry age for children to six years old. While advocating for a play-based kindergarten stage for three to six-year-olds, the new Scottish motion aims to implement a compulsory and universal care-centered provision.
?The UK is one of the few countries in Europe where the school-age starts between four and five. Compulsory schooling begins at the age of five in some UK countries (England, Wales, and Scotland), as well as in Malta and the Netherlands. Northern Ireland has the earliest required school start age in Europe, at four years old.?Countries like Denmark, Finland,?Poland, Romania, and Sweden have the latest school start at the age of seven.
?For many years, education specialists have argued for and against our early schooling policy. Today, the Scottish National Party seek to innovate early years provision in the UK.
?Why do children start school early in the UK?
?In 1870, the Education Act institutionalized the period after a child's fifth birthday?as the required school entry age. Back then, child protection— namely protection from exploitation at home and harmful conditions in the streets— was the main reason for establishing the school entry age at five.
?Additionally, there was a political incentive to promote early graduation so that young people could quickly enter the workforce. Thus, no developmental or educational factors were considered while determining the school's beginning age (Sharp, 2002).
?However, more recent education analyses of early schooling suggest that young compulsory school entry age has beneficial outcomes for cognitive and non-cognitive development in children. Cornelissen and Dustmann (2019) suggest that additional schooling from starting the first year of primary school earlier positively affected language and numeracy skills at ages 5 and 7 in cohorts born between 2000 and 2001 in the UK
?You can read the full article on the PAG website.
PAG Explains: TCaF
By Helena Senior
The DfE recently opened the next round of Trust Capacity Funding, which closes on the 16th of December. The Trust Capacity Fund is a competitive grant that is available for academy trusts with eligible growth projects and maintained schools forming academy trusts. Applicants can be awarded up to ￡300,000 in funding, depending on their circumstances, to develop their capacity for growth.
How will I know if I’m eligible for Trust Capacity Funding?
In order to be eligible for the current round of the Trust Capacity Fund, you need to have a growth project approved at the advisory board between 1st July 2022 and 16th December 2022. For trusts, this needs to include taking at least one school into your trust by March 2024, through sponsorship or academy conversion. If the school in question is rated either Inadequate or Requires Improvement, or if the school is located in an Education Investment Area (EIA) or Priority Education Investment Area (PEIA), then you will be eligible for a higher strand of funding.
Maintained schools can also apply for Trust Capacity Funding, but in this case the school will need to convert to academy status and take on at least two new schools by March 2024.
You can read the full article on the PAG website.
Sector News: Meet Gillian Keegan
By Ernestina Alvarez Corona
Gillian Keegan, former apprentice turned businesswoman and Conservative politician, has been appointed education secretary by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during last week’s institutional reshuffle. After replacing Kit Malthouse, Keegan has become the fifth person to hold the position in four months.
The Lancashire-born MP was elected to Parliament in 2017 for the West Sussex seat of Chichester. She served as a junior minister for apprenticeships and skills from 2020 to 2021, and then as a minister of state in the health department from 2021 up until September 2022.
During her time in office as skills minister, Keegan supervised the launch of the white paper and skills bill, as well as the delivery of T Levels and skills certification programs.?
Now, as a leading member of the DfE, speculations predict a potential retreat of the school bill project, which caused controversy in the public sphere with provision relating to academy trust standards and powers of intervention. Undoubtedly Keegan will also face significant challenges with the pressures of teachers unions, and the soaring energy costs that affect all educational institutions across the UK.?
Throughout her political career, Keegan has publicly expressed her concern about the current state of education in our nation, particularly regarding the fragile state of mental health assistance for pupils and the lack of funding for special provisions.?
Sector News: RM6103 to be discontinued
By Gabriel Senior
Since the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools scheme was launched in December 2004, ICT has become an integral feature of education across the UK. It has not only transformed the way we learn, but it has also been placed at the heart of school curriculums, enabling learners to learn in new, innovative ways.
This emphasis on utilising technology in our learning has made the procurement of ICT a major consideration for free school proposers. Those opening new schools must find the most cost-effective way of ensuring their new school has appropriate hardware and software in place to support an education where ICT is utilised daily. There is a plethora of options for proposers to procure ICT, however, choosing the best procurement route can present a major challenge.
Since the inception of the free schools programme, the Department for Education (DfE) has guided schools and trusts towards the RM6103 Crown Commercial Services procurement framework. While this framework has helped guide proposers’ procurement in the past, it is being discontinued early in 2023, leaving many options to choose from, but very few that can be adapted to meet the schools’ specific needs.
Moxton Education, who are the largest consultant led procurement company for ICT in education and ICT partners of Create: Schools have said:
“Framework contacts for ICT work well for those that can commoditise their requirements, but for those that have more complex needs, they are not. Therefore, the discontinuation of the Framework will present major challenges for the industry in the future.”
It remains unclear whether the DfE will provide an alternative when RM6103 ends, but there is a clear need. If you would like support with ICT procurement for your education setting, you can contact Moxton via their website. Last year, they secured ￡44m of ICT focused procurement for their clients.?
PAG Profile: Helena Senior
Helena Senior joined PAG in 2021 via the Kickstart scheme and initially supported our Kickstart efforts as a recruitment assistant, before moving to her current role as an associate consultant in the growth team. She has a BA in English Literature from Edge Hill University and an MA in English from the University of York, and, following her studies, briefly worked as a Secondary School English Teacher.
Helena is autistic and proudly advocates for the community often sharing her experience and expertise with colleagues at PAG. She is also known for organising monthly quizzes to challenge PAG’s trivia skills and sharing her love of all things Eurovision with the team!
What kind of projects do you work on at PAG? Just list a few examples that give a flavour for what you do.
So, I work in the growth team at PAG, and my focus in particular is on business generation. This mean engaging with both new and old clients to find out how PAG can support them with anything from trust growth to funding applications.
A big part of my role involves liaising with all of the other teams at PAG to make sure that everything is running smoothly and to participate in strategic planning to make sure that our processes are as efficient as possible. It’s an ever-changing environment so I’m always looking for ways to improve things and make life easier for both myself and my colleagues!
I also get involved with some marketing and copywriting which I love; I particularly enjoy writing for the website as I get to flex my creative muscles here!
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
I don’t know if it counts as advice, but my mum always says that ‘weird is just a side affect of awesome’ and I feel like that’s a pretty good principle to live by!
Do you have any other fun/interesting stories from your time at PAG that you would like to include?
I think my favourite PAG story is from last Christmas; It was my first PAG meetup, so I didn’t know people very well yet and I was a bit nervous. I was also one of the only people staying in London overnight. I was really hungry and one of my colleagues ordered Mexican food to the hotel for me! It was really lovely and absolutely made my night!
You can read Helena’s full profile on the PAG Website.?
Live Bids
For more information on current opportunities, you can check out the?live bids?page on our website.?
Senior Finance Associate at Hamilton Barnes ??
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