Collaborative Approaches to 14-19 Provision - Communities and ...

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARLocal responsiveness and national steering551. The 14-19 Pathfinder initiative combined national steering with local responsivenessby laying down broad directions and aims through the pathfinder prospectuses while allowingsubstantial room for local interpretations in terms of the scale and scope of the partnershipswhich were formed, their leadership and their focus. The pathfinders were required to set aseries of targets relating to participation, provision and achievement. They were also asked toreport termly and annually to the DfES, but other than through these accountabilitymechanisms the initiative was steered with a light touch from the centre. The 14-19Pathfinder has also been evaluated flexibly in ways which have sought to understand localcontexts and have not tried to artificially separate the pathfinder from other cognateinitiatives, such as the IF programme.552. The strength of this policy approach has been that it has allowed pathfinders to take aaccount of the range of local contextual factors described in the model of collaboration inSection Three. Individual pathfinders have also been able to be shaped by local diagnoses ofweaknesses and strengths in the 14-19 phase. This approach has produced a wide range ofdifferent approaches – although not too wide in our judgement. It has promoted a good dealof collaboration, curriculum and staff development and some exciting and innovative work.It has helped individuals to develop as hybrid professionals with networking skills (Atkinson,Wilkin, Stott, Doherty & Kinder, 2002).553. A possible weakness of the approach to policy development embodied by the 14-19Pathfinders initiative is that the developments it has promoted will potentially flower brieflyin the 39 areas where pathfinders have been located then wither without leaving a significantlegacy either in those areas or on the national system. The development with which the 14-19 Pathfinder was quite often compared during our case study visits was the Technical andVocational Education Initiative (TVEI) of the 1980s. This combined a similar balance ofcentral steering, local responsiveness, breadth of vision and scope for innovation. Manyrespondents however were critical (a little unfairly in our view) of what they saw as the veryweak legacy of TVEI. It is beyond the scope of this report to develop this comparison but itdoes emphasise the importance of sustaining, embedding and disseminating the developments164