The Research: Background

1. The Research: Background  Public Sector Capital Investments in ICT Building Schools for the Future (£45bn ICT and buildings) and Every Child Matters Programmes (£500m ICT) Project & Programme Management Technical Specification & Procurement Training (Professional Practice & Kit) Business / People / Organisational Change …and Leadership’s place within that   ?

2. The Research: Key Issue Considered as a business issue for managers in terms of business / people / organisational change requirements… What interventions from government, management or other leaders may be valuable?

3. The Research: A Stab at Some Questions What leadership should head teachers and social care managers show in response to the new technologies? How? How can change bestimulated at the strategic (national) and operational (school or children’s centre) level? What is the place for best practice and guidance? How should this be created, disseminated, embedded? How to help staff plan, lead, manage, coach, administer, budget differently, including in the myriad support and back-office functions of the school business, and in relationships that are no longer hierarchical/paymaster-based, but partnership/commercially based? Should managers appoint a “Business Change Manager” (OGC best practice) from within the organisation, or could this be better done at an aggregated level e.g. local authority/federation? What is the place for change agents? What does a good change agent look like – the bright young (ICT-literate) thing, or the sceptical but experienced and respected elder statesman? Should change be organic, bottom-up? What pace of change will be most effective/sustainable? What is happening so far?

4. The Research: Example References & Commentary The above extract distils the issue clearly, and alludes to the current gaps in knowledge and capacity In my opinion, Becta’s and LA’s own capabilities to drive this forward will benefit from some assistance National College for School Leadership & Reading University: Leadership Development Evidence & Beliefs (2004) NCSL: What we know about school leadership NCSL: Seven Claims to Success These references present a review of literature and selected research - all of which predates and does not consider the recent and ongoing technology-driven revolution in management Becta / ADCS ICT Update Spring 2007: “This prompts an immediate question: do all local authorities have the capacity to do this? Does your Local Authority have the capability to enable these developments to become reality? How is strategic leadership and professional support for ICT being organised?” www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk www.future-learning.net These provide research and guidance on the generic issues viewed from the traditional perspective, but focus on pedagogy and professional practice, programme management, technical specifications and commercial/contractual aspects www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/changemanagement/models Contains three example change management models – Kotter, NHS Improvement Foundation (PDSA), School Remodelling Behind this there are various tailored resources, some of which are being presented to the wider community currently. The Times: Safety fears over new register of all children (27/08/07) Widespread concerns from academics, managers and practitioners. Security is a function of technology but also people’s understanding, behaviours and attitudes. These need to be addressed over coming years, but how?

5. The Research: Benefits Ministers/officials will benefit from this type of research and analysis to enhance their own efforts to inform policy, strategy, funding Operational managers in schools and local authorities will gain insights to inform decisions, behaviours and attitudes at local level Industry partners will benefit as it will help them develop more compelling offerings I, my company and all of the above will benefit from exploring this issue in a focused manner Achieving a collated and contextualised understanding of recent history Applying experience from elsewhere Applying management theory to the practical problem And, hopefully, from creating hypotheses on one or more optimal ways forward

6. The Research: A Stab at Method Mix of qualitative and quantitative content One-to-one structured interviews, say 10-30 (?) Questionnaires – paper/online, say min. 100 Focus groups/workshops – could do single issues in-depth with peers, and/or cross-learning by including participants from different areas (e.g. headteacher and social work manager); also interesting to use dual-facilitation with someone from the learning set with different experience Conferences – plenary/break-out groups at national conferences SEI CMM-style maturity model to collate and analyse findings might be interesting (just a thought) As well as academic thesis, write-up could include case studies, good practice guidance and exemplars, toolkits As well as support from my company, I may secure very useful access to people, material, fora, and credibility from relevant public sector organisations