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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARThe evaluation has confirmed the continuing importance of collaboration. In thequestionnaire surveys coordinators were asked what specifically they had been able to dowhich they would not have been able to do without pathfinder. The great majority mentionedcollaboration as a key pathfinder effect. Representative responses include:The accelerated development of Federations which provide the leadership andmanagement structure for the development of a wide and increasing range ofcollaborative provision.(We would not have) developed collaborative working as rapidly – at strategic andoperational levelsStrengthening of collaboration and action planning – pathfinder provides a focusThe strong commitment to partnership working has been assisted by the Pathfinderinitiative, which supported city-wide collaboration and helped to build capacity forfurther development. (14 – 19 Area Inspection Report; paragraph 3, page 4. OFSTED,2004).ongoing collaborative professional development for a significant number of staff,focusing on 14 – 19 issues50. The coordinators were asked to judge progress towards collaboration against theirown expectations. The results were as follows: 3More than expected As expected Less than expected Not applicable17 14 1 0These responses confirmed the pattern reported in our earlier surveys in April and September2003 (Higham et al., 2004). Interestingly the pathfinder where there was reported to be lessthan expected progress in collaboration was one of our case studies and our interpretation wasthat collaboration had proceeded well and it may therefore have been that the coordinatorheld particularly high expectations of what could be achieved.3 In this and subsequent tables figures refer to numbers of coordinators completing the item. Some did notanswer some questions or their answers were ambiguous and have been excluded.16