Gaining commitment

Authorisation may be iterative in establishing Schools as Community Platforms.  Early authorisation or in principle agreements to proceed provide a basis for discussions with a broader group of stakeholders and the investment of resources needs to undertake appropriate scoping and feasibility works. Permission to keep exploring but not commitment to implement.  

If the proposal requires policy shifts or local practice changes, it is important to engage with decision-makers who can authorize and champion the project within their sphere of control. This involves engaging relevant departments, organizations providing early years, children's health, and family services, as well as the Department of Education and specific schools if applicable.

The progression from idea to action will rely on a willingness of senior staff in the key partner organisations to be prepared to invest their time and intellect to help the project germinate and to champion the initiative in a way that motivates others to commit their time and available resources to enable the concept to be realised. It is important to encourage senior decision makers to champion the project to those that they delegated to work on it and empower them to remove any roadblocks or barriers that may hinder the progress within their own systems.  

Authorisation is different to funding the work.  Authorisation could include an organisation, permitting, encouraging or directing staff to allocate time and intellect to collaborate on progressing the idea.  It may include provision of space or use of buildings or information resources. 

During the pre-establishment phase agreements should be as formal as needed by the parties involved to be assured that the work they are doing is endorsed by the other parties and that there is an alignment in purpose and intent of the work.  There is an element of trust in play as for some organisations, the complexity of entering into formal agreements is so high that it would prevent collaboration if an MOU was needed every time.

Our Experience/Learnings

The scale determines the level of engagement or partnership that is needed to be able to proceed and the level of authorisation needed. For a single intervention, the preparation and creation of an authorising environment is simpler than if you are seeking to establish this approach in multiple locations. 

The work of Our Place in 10 schools is seeking to demonstrate a changed way of working in and with schools. It was reliant on variations to the specifications for usual school builds and on sub leasing arrangements to government and non-profit organisations for community spaces and early learning services. The scale and complexity of the work was outside of previous practice and had no precedent so needed a partnership at the highest level to authorise and navigate the work over time. 

Both Colman Education Foundation and The Bryan Foundation gained traction for the concept of creating the Schools as Community Platform model because, their vision was consistent with existing evidence of what works to address barriers to education success and the proposal was championed by people who have credibility and reputation with the key players in the system. The two governments – Qld and Victoria were also interested the concept of integration but had not had the opportunity to progress to implementation¹.  Additionally, both CEF and TBF were able to contribute the starting resources needed to proceed.

The steps in generating an enabling environment in the implementation phase included:

• Working to a shared vision 
• Enrolling senior stakeholders from the start 
• Taking the time to build relationships and trust 
• Unleashing the boundary spanners (enabling ideation, communication and information exchange between different sectors, groups, or communities.
• Support at the highest level.

This is explained in detail in Exploring the Our Place Partnership – Creating the Enabling Conditions