VT Education and Skills (VTE&S) have been appointed as the London Borough of Waltham Forest’s School Innovation and Improvement partner.

VTE&S will work closely with the council to make considerable differences in education and ultimately improve the life chances and employment opportunities for children and young people in the Borough.

Last year the Borough identified their three outcomes most in need of improvement, as health, education and unemployment. Over the next few years targets have been set to achieve substantial improvements in these priority areas.

From the 1st April 2008, more than 100 staff will transfer from the current provider EduAction to VTE&S.

Simon Withey, VTE&S Managing Director, commented: “VT is delighted to enhance its proven capability in education services by being awarded this contract in Waltham Forest. We are committed to working closely with the Council and local schools to help pupils and to raise educational standards in the Borough.”

Cllr Chris Robbins, Waltham Forest Cabinet Member for Children and Young People emphasised the Council’s support of VTE&S managing the Borough’s schools.

“VTE&S were selected as the Council’s preferred bidder following a robust and thorough tender process and Waltham Forest Council is happy with this decision, “ he commented.

“VTE&S has a vast and proven history of providing the very highest quality services to young people and that is what our residents expect.”

The education sector is changing as it seeks to create world-class levels of achievement. Schools are now the centrepiece of social change, working with agendas such as ‘Every Child Matters’ and personalised learning, healthy living, social inclusion and community regeneration.  Responding to these changes, VT E&S are developing into the leading educational support service in the UK, recognised as a national player at the forefront of educational thought, developing innovative ideas in all aspects of education support.  

VT Education and Skills (VTE&S) has enhanced its position as a leading provider of support services to schools after being appointed preferred bidder to deliver a range of school improvement support services to schools in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Under the four-year contract, commencing in April 2008 and valued at around £28 million, VT will be responsible for the management and delivery of school admissions and grant services for pupils, students and parents.  

VTE&S will deliver the services through its specialist education services subsidiary, VT Four S, which already provides services to over 400 primary and secondary schools in Surrey, and works in partnership to deliver education and support services to many other Local Authorities including Greenwich, Lewisham and Reading. VTE&S also delivers careers guidance services in Waltham Forest.

VT Four S Managing Director Dr Marcus Watson commented: “We look forward to utilising our skills, experience and expertise to ensure that schools, children and young people in Waltham Forest receive the support they need to meet their full potential. Waltham Forest is a rapidly improving borough and we are enormously pleased and excited to have been given the chance to work there.”

Cllr Chris Robbins, Waltham Forest Borough Council Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, added: “I am confident that VT Education and Skills has the skills, experience and expertise to ensure that schools receive the support they need to accelerate their improvement.”

VTE&S will take over the services from EduAction and the pair will now work together throughout the handover process to ensure a smooth and successful transition with no disruption to education services. The appointment coincides with a successful year for Waltham Forest schools, including record levels of GCSE attainment and the announcement of approaching £300 million investment in the borough’s education facilities through the primary and secondary Building Schools for the Future programme.

VT Education and Skills in partnership with national learning charity ContinYou will deliver the National College for School Leadership’s Multi-Agency Team Development (MATD) programme after winning a contract for the London and South East Regions.

The tailored development programme to help multi-agency teams deliver better outcomes for children, young people and families will be rolled out locally in London and the South East from January 2008.

Over the next three years, VT Education and Skills and ContinYou will work with hundreds of multi-agency teams, helping to transform the lives of children and young people.

Nationally about 400 teams - made up of school leaders, teachers, health experts, social workers, police officers, children’s services professionals and voluntary sector workers - will benefit from the programme over the next three years.

The Multi Agency Team Development Programme (MATD) is one of the first of its kind and is designed to make a significant contribution to the government’s Every Child Matters (ECM) policy initiative. ECM is aimed at providing more joined up children’s services to ensure every child has the best possible start in life. It is challenging schools to remove barriers to learning and achievement by working collaboratively with the community and other agency partners.

Rosemary Goodwin, VT Education and Skills MATD Project Manager, said: "It is so important for multi-agency teams to enhance their development and improve their ways of working. Cultural and behavioural change will encourage new types of thinking and enable teams to operate as a seamless service for children and young people."  

The MATD roll out across nine government office regions from January 2008 follows the National College for School Leadership’s successful two year pilot involving 19 multi agency teams.

Maggie Farrar, NCSL’s Operational Director for ECM and Standards, said:
“This is an inspiring and challenging programme with the aim of delivering better outcomes for children, young people, families and those working with them by developing effective teamwork between schools and other agencies. The course is about helping teams to transcend organisational boundaries and work well together tackling real projects and issues.”

MATD is an option for multi agency teams at any stage of formation. Typically they will consist of about eight to 10 members and must include representatives from at least three statutory government agencies plus an extended school or a cluster of schools. Representatives from voluntary and community groups can also enrol.

The programme is over six months, comprising a 24-hour residential event and four one-day facilitator-led workshops.  Also included is a team personality assessment profile, work with actors, and an option of working closely with consultants in a team’s locality between events.

In one of the pilots, Joanna Eade and Elena Mauro, Joint Head of School at Loughborough Primary School and Children Centre in Lambeth, were part of a multi-agency team consisting of the Metropolitan Police, Lambeth Primary Care Trust, school governors and the voluntary sector working on a project to bring together a wide range of agencies to deliver services to families within the community from a single point - the Children Centre, which opened in November 2006.

Joanna said: “The course validated our feeling that we needed to look beyond the classroom into the community in order to meet the needs of the child within a family. It raised the profile of ECM within the national context. It was a powerful tool to help a variety of different agencies with different cultures to work together effectively.”

Members of multi agency teams who wish to find out more about the Multi Agency Team Development Programme can visit:  www.ncsl.org.uk/matd or for an informal discussion on how the programme would work for your team please call Rosemary Goodwin on 01372 834431 or email matd@vtplc.com.

Under an initial PFI contract, VT Education and Skills, working in a joint venture with the Costain Group as the Learning21 consortium, has formed a partnership with Lewisham Borough Council. Costain will build two new secondary schools and VT will provide associated Facilities Management (FM) and Information Communications Technology (ICT), as well as ICT to several other schools in the borough.