1 INNOVATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EDUCATION REFORM EFFORT IN ENGLAND Valerie Hannon Director, The Innovation Unit

2 The reform programme…. Pedagogy Curriculum Leadership Structural change School failure Learning environments Early years ed/care expansion …this is centre-led innovation

3 Some initiating questions … 1.How is good practice to be spread systematically across the system? 2.How do you get bottom-up systemic change: practitioner-led innovation? 3.How do you move from ‘good/best practice’ – sharing current knowledge – to ‘next practice’ – orchestrating new ways of working?

4 “There is a lot of research focused on best practice, but I focus on Next Practice. Next Practice by definition has three problems: firstly it is future-oriented; secondly, no single institution or company is an exemplar of everything that you think will happen; and third, next practice is about amplifying weak signals, connecting the dots. Next Practice is disciplined imagination.” CK Prahalad, University of Michigan 2004

5 Why Next Practice? Good / best practice asks: what is working? Next Practice asks what could work – more powerfully? Addresses pressing national issues

6 Next Practice - what’s that? Next practice is keenly aware of conventional good practice Understands the strengths and limitations of current practice Aspires to move to a new level And this new level may: 1. disrupt, 2. evolve, or 3. revolutionise current practice At its boldest it is a fundamental reconceptualisation of what went before.

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Access to a wider ideas pool Access to practice of interest Creative space (to incubate ideas) Safer space (to legitimate experimentation) Obstacle removal (e.g. Power to Innovate) Social capital and connection (between schools and beyond) Resourcing to support the change and development process Co-design of evaluation Gateway to DfES Teams Confidence and moral support Our Offer Our offer to selected Field Trials

14 Next Practitioners:  Able and informed  Learners seeking to build on the best  Know what ‘good’ is: its strengths and limitations and have the will to take this to a new level  Direct thinking and action on addressing serious, contemporary problems  Want to take risks in partnership with others to achieve breakthrough

15 The criteria for Field Trials Embody ideas that are radically different from current practice Address a pressing local and national need Are likely significantly to enhance outcomes for young people Are driven by practitioners already working at the edge of current practice Have key stakeholders prepared for the scale of change involved with capacity both to implement this and to handle its consequences Are willing to co-design enquiry and evaluation arrangements, and contribute to the learning of the wider system

System Leadership (17 field trials commenced) Innovative use of resources for personalisation (16 field trial sites recently selected) Beyond workforce reform – using the whole Community (creative events just completed) Parental / carer engagement (emerging project) The ’06-’08 Next Practice Programme

17 The role of the IU  identifies practitioners poised to make more than incremental improvement  makes assessments of potential for the creation of public value: in this instance, specifically, the achievement of the 5 outcomes for more children including the raising of standards  acts to remove, where possible, inhibitors  creates the conditions to enable faster “bringing of ideas to market”;  legitimates experimentation  shares risk  brokers external facilitation and change management skills  engages in partnership with other key agencies for whom the particular content area is core business, to ensure maximum knowledge flow