Regional Improvement Collaboratives have been established in Scotland since 2018, but what impact have they had on education?
RICs bring several local authorities together with the aim of improving collaboration in education between schools and councils. Today (Thursday 16 December) a new report published by the Scottish government looks at what impact the RICs have had, Henry Hepburn reports.
It points to evidence that RICs are having an impact on “the skills of school staff, delivery of lessons, skills and consistency around assessment and moderation, leadership and improvement planning skills, collaboration between local authorities, and online learning opportunities for pupils”.
But with major reform of the Scottish education system underway, the report also reflects calls for “clarity on the future role of RICs” - as well as a longer-term funding commitment to allow them to take “a more strategic and ambitious approach”.
Here are some of the key findings:
- There has been “real progress since RICs were established”, and there is now “a high level of confidence in RICs...and they have become established within the education system”.
- School staff are “feeling under extreme pressure” at work, which can limit their awareness of what RICs do.
- Most school staff who were involved in the report “felt that they had learned new things and developed their skills through the RIC”.
- Covid has “put intense pressure on schools”, but “most found that they were able to collaborate, share, learn and develop skills through [their] RIC”.
- Through RICs, senior school staff “developed skills around management, strategic change, recovery and supporting staff, and some particularly valued networks of senior staff during the pandemic”.
- The RICs “helped to provide opportunities for school leaders to collaborate and support one another through extremely difficult times, with headteachers and other senior leaders highly valuing the opportunity to work with one another through strong, supportive partnerships”.
- Many school staff found that as their work shifted online during the pandemic, they “learned new things and developed their skills” thanks to RICs.
- During Covid, RICs have helped school staff “become more inquiring, reflective and drive forward improvement in their classroom”, while senior school leaders have “developed skills around management, change, recovery and supporting staff”.
- RICs “played a key role in contributing to Education Scotland’s national e-learning offer”, through “platforms such as e-Sgoil and the West Partnership Online School (West OS), and the contribution of both live and recorded lessons.
- RICs continue to “explore how online learning opportunities could be best used in the future”, for example, by offering Advanced Highers online to provide more subject choice for senior-phase students.
- Relatively few school staff felt that their RIC helped them share data between schools, and some said there was “more to be done to build the confidence of school staff to deal with data, analysis and research generally”.
- RICs have “strengthened their collaboration” during the Covid pandemic.
- Since an interim review of RICs in 2018, “there has been a real shift in awareness of RICs among schools”, and staff at different levels - not just headteachers and other senior school leaders - “had often been involved in RIC activities”.
- RICs, in work with Education Scotland, “helped to provide a coordinated regional approach” during the pandemic, “particularly around online and blended learning and the SQA [Scottish Qualifications Authority] alternative certification model.
- Some involved in the report’s research wanted “more clarity about the role of Education Scotland within RICs and there remained some issues around effective joint working”.
- Funding for RICs was “felt to be broadly appropriate, but there was a clear demand for a longer-term funding commitment to allow RICs to take a more strategic and ambitious approach, and manage staff resources more effectively”.
- Many wanted “clarity on the future role of RICs, including confirmation of how RICs fit into the education system in Scotland as broad changes are being made”.
Today’s report is based partly on 53 interviews with staff from 50 schools, but also involved RIC leads, RIC teams, Education Scotland senior regional advisors and others.
It states: “Qualitative research can provide an in-depth understanding of experiences, feelings and behaviours but findings cannot be extrapolated to the whole school population.”
The report on Regional Improvement Collaboratives can be read here.
