Headteachers pioneer new providers' marketplace in response to white paper
A cluster of primary schools in Devon has formed a community interest company in order to launch a trailblazing ethical marketplace called 'Heads’ Space'.
The marketplace was developed in response to a Government white paper, published late last year, which outlined plans to devolve responsibility away from local authorities and is intended to give schools more decision making power.
The move has raised concern amongst head teachers that it could create a “school improvement market” dominated by private for-profit enterprises, expensive consultants and large commercially minded organisations, all seeking schools' budgets to satisfy shareholders.
"Rather than opening up the scope for schools' to source and contract what they are looking for, this free market notion laid out by the Government could lead to exploitation,” said Pete Nash from the Plymouth Association of Primary Headteachers, the group behind Heads’ Space.
“Many schools are frustrated by a model that seeks to make schools merely consumers buying ready-made solutions.”
Heads’ Space will be an online platform where providers are profiled in a clear, unbiased way so heads can make procurement decisions based on the organisation's skills, capabilities and ethical standpoint.
Heads’ Space will also be a place for schools to connect up with each other, form working groups, share resources, address issues and discuss approaches.
“The Government are eager to promote radical school reform but this can't happen without radical changes to the way schools support each other and source and procure services too, opening up a more socially entrepreneurial way of working and running their schools,” explained Matt Little, founder of RIO, one of the companies helping to develop the scheme.
“We hope that this new ethical marketplace will be the first step in achieving that goal," added Little.