Defining scale

Clarity of purpose will guide future decisions regarding location, key partnerships needed and both physical infrastructure and strategic decisions.  The available resources also impact the design and scale of the plan. 

Key considerations when developing the concept with partners.

Primary target group 

Define the primary beneficiaries early on, such as children and families, ensuring focus and clarity in decision-making. This guides partner selection and implementation priorities. Note that some purposes may not align with a school setting. It doesn’t mean you exclude others or set complex criteria for involvement, but it does mean that you are focussed on the impact for this group in the decisions you make.    It should be noted that there are some purposes that are not compatible to a school setting. 

Scale

Determine if the plan involves a single intervention or aims to establish community schools in multiple locations. Scale influences engagement levels, partnerships, and required authorization. Consider the level of commitment and authorization for implementation in multiple sites. For a single intervention, the partnerships and relationships will focus on the local area and organisations or departments that are mandated to support that area. For multiple sites such as in the Our Place example a higher level of authorisation was necessary

Location 

Decide whether the community school will be in a specific location or any community that meets a set criterion e.g., evidence of need, crucial stakeholders that are willing to engage and availability of base level infrastructure to build on. Also consider whether there are existing integrated models already operating nearby and being used by families and if your plan adds value to or complicates the local system. 

If you are committed to a specific school, consider the school’s readiness to  

• invest the time needed to participate in collaboration and joint planning. 
• adopt a different way of working with other parts of the services system.  
• opening up the school and engaging with families that are not enrolled in the school,  
• share its space with other organisations and community members.  

Consider also how the physical infrastructure lends itself to an integrated service delivery model and practical needs for space, storage and amenities. It is also important to assess the depth of commitment to the concept, ie would the concept be embraced were there to be a change in school leadership.

Available resources (time, infrastructure, funds) 

The availability of space, funds and time will determine the scale that is possible for establishing an integrated service delivery model in a school.  

Appropriate space is needed for the onsite delivery of services and activities.  A full community school model has required significant rebuild or been incorporated into the build of new schools, however on a smaller scale, some schools have been able to access grants or use their funds to finance the refurbishment of a space in their school for immediate engagement activities and develop longer term plans to grow the platform in partnership with others.

Time is needed for the people involved to drive and participate in the relationship development, the planning and later the implementation processes.  

When considering available funds, it is beneficial to be open to working in partnership with others who share the same purpose and target group and looking at way to pool resources and existing capacity.

Our Experience/Learning

Creating Schools as Community Platforms and opening the school to the community means that there will be families that engage with the services at the school site in the early years that don’t end up enrolling in the primary school.  This concept can create tension for schools where much of the resources that they are offering as in-kind support are derived from funds that are based on enrolment numbers.  Schools that have embraced the Community School model take the view that the benefits their students gain by being in a strong and supported community outweigh the irritation that not everyone transitions to their school.

In Victoria, the Our Place approach is being implemented in 10 sites to demonstrate a different way of working.  The selection of the sites was led by the government partner based on an agreed criterion.  This turned out to have benefits and challenges. The department of education was able to authorise the large-scale work needed but because the decision to develop the community school did not originate from the site itself, significant time was needed in building local relationships, understanding and trust in the approach once the sites were chosen.  

The Bryan Foundation had strong interest in a specific area and worked in partnership with the Department of Education to facilitate an Expression of Interest process. Schools who expressed an interest needed to demonstrate school community enthusiasm, engagement and readiness to partner.