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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR31. These variations in scope and scale and the consequences for collaboration will beexplored in some detail in section three.Lead Partners32. The 14-19 Pathfinder prospectuses did not specify which type of partnerships wereexpected to submit proposals and therefore it was left to local groups, institutions and leadersto decide how to respond to the call for proposals.33. More than half of the pathfinders are led by LEAs, with a further ten led by learningpartnerships, in many of which LEAs took a leading role. Other lead bodies included localLSCs, colleges and schools. There are also two pathfinders led by private sectororganisations.Existing collaboration and links to other programmes34. The 2002/3 14-19 Pathfinder prospectus stated "we anticipate that pathfinders will bein areas where relevant collaborative working is already well-established; where there arestrong partnership arrangements already in place; and where there is evidence of the outcomefrom existing collaborative work". Many proposers sought to show evidence of priorcollaboration through involvement in a range of other programmes. In most pathfinder areasthere were colleges and schools participating in the IFP and these partnerships were oftenplanning to use the pathfinder to build on IFP developments in order to develop the whole ofthe 14-19 curriculum. There were often strong links with other programmes such as EiC, E2Eand Aim Higher.Summarising the proposals35. The developmental character of the pathfinder initiative and its responsiveness tolocal circumstances and imperatives clearly implied the establishment of a diverse set ofpathfinders. The pathfinder application process produced a geographically dispersed set ofpathfinders, operating in a wide variety of socio-economic and educational settings. Thepathfinders also varied considerably in scale and scope. As discussed above, there was arange of lead partners and the overall diversity evident in the funded proposals has proved ofconsiderable value in testing out new ways of working and thus advancing the 14-19 reformagenda, as will be shown in the following sections.10