An organisation which has been developed to establish national quality standards for education specialists who support schools, has been officially launched.
The Association of Education Advisers (AoEA), is the idea of Les Walton, CBE, who lives in Newcastle and who has advised numerous cross-party governments on education policy as well as working at the highest levels in the public sector as a headteacher, as a director of education, as a civil servant, as principal of a further education college and more recently as a founder of Schools NorthEast, Northern Education and one of the north’s largest multi academy trusts, Northern Education Trust.
There can be few who are better placed to call for greater scrutiny of the calibre of those providing services to the sector and to judge the quality of advice on offer.
AoEA addresses the need for quality and consistency of advice. It is a membership and accreditation organisation that intends to provide a gateway for school and college leaders who wish to be education advisers or develop their skills to a higher level. Those who are presently working as education advisers are also encouraged to participate.
On the day of the launch, high level speakers including Ian Mearns MP, who sits on the House of Commons Education Select Committee and Malcolm Trobe CBE, Deputy General Secretary for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) gave a view on the national picture, while Lesley Powell CEO of the North East Learning Trust, Graham Soles of the Consilium Learning Trust and Eric Halton of Hampshire Local Authority spoke about the need for quality advisers within their organisations.
A not for profit body limited by guarantee, AoEA has received widespread encouragement from national education leaders such as Sir David Carter, National Schools Commissioner, Peter Lauener, former Chief Executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency and Lord Agnew, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School System as well as professional representative organisations such as ASCL, FASNA, NAHT and NGA.
At a time when the education system is so diverse, there is clearly a need for an organisation that will assess the quality of the skills and depth of knowledge held by those providing advice which is the issue that AoEA will address, according to Mr Walton. He said:
“A modern education system requires advice and support that is independent and of a consistent quality, irrespective of changes in government policy. Education advisers also need to be able to demonstrate the impact of their advice. What the AoEA will do is to ensure a range of professional, credible and authoritative advisers by providing staged assessments firstly to review professional competency and personal capacity and this will lead to accreditation at Associate or Senior Associate level.”
Malcolm Trobe CBE, Deputy General Secretary of ACSL, said: “As a leader of a school or college, keeping all the plates spinning can be tricky and sometimes requires external support. Advisory support can help by looking at a problem from a different angle. This happens in business all the time, but not so often in education. I think the AoEA is an excellent idea and think it has a key role to play in ensuring educational institutions can access the highest quality advice.”
The core requirements of AoEA’s assessment programmes have been tested with more than 100 advisers including those who work with the DfE, multi academy trusts, teaching school alliances, local authorities and individual schools.
AoEA was established initially with five accreditation and development centres in the North East, Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, London and the South. A further five will be created during 2018-19 in Northern Ireland, Scotland, East Midlands, Birmingham and Wales and the South West.