As the new Chair of engage in their future it’s been an interesting time to reflect back on my membership and association with engage in their future and the benefits that it has brought to me personally over the years.
My step into Headship coincided with the conception of engage in their future. I attended the inaugural conference in London in 1999.
As a new Headteacher in Norfolk, I ensured that we became a engage in their future member school from the outset and as a result formed some useful links with Heads in my region. It was invaluable to have a natural and easy route to conversations with colleagues who had been in Headship longer than me. In 2002 I was approached to consider being the Eastern Region Rep. I took up my place on the National Committee at a time when engage in their future’ influence was growing and its potential to influence policy at a national level was becoming apparent. The regular meetings and access to committee colleagues provided a powerful, consistent and steady flow of ‘fuel’ for my own strategic and innovative thinking. Apart from what I was gaining, there were equally times in this phase when I had the platform to suggest ideas and influence the thinking of colleagues and Government Policy Makers, which I found rewarding.
At National Committee level we had more than one meeting with the then Secretary of State, Charles Clarke and subsequent meetings with members of the Department and many other key officials. I found myself gaining insights into Government thinking and policy-making way in advance of my own ‘masters,’ the Local Authorities (LA) and Governors.
Colleagues will recognise that relationships between BESD heads and LAs can be variable. At its most positive, LA’s recognise and value the expertise and strategic thinking of BESD heads a) at their own school, b) in supporting the LA in their own strategic thinking of BESD and c) working in partnership when considering admissions. At its worst it becomes an adversarial battle with damaging sweeping policy decisions made at the whim of individual officers who would seek to place a range of inappropriate children. Unchecked this creates a scenario beyond even the most skilful BESD management and leadership teams.
Thankfully, most of my experience in the maintained sector was positive, on admissions at least. However, changes within the LA quickly occured and events outside of my particular school added more pressure, when Norfolk withdrew 40 children from a local independent school. To ensure the successful future of the school, my working life was becoming an increasingly intense, strategic and political operation well beyond the school boundary. I attribute much of the confidence I had to lead the school and support the LA, but at the same time not cave into the pressure to help beyond the resources of the school, to my involvement with engage in their future.
In 2004 I left the maintained sector and a colleague and I formed a Ltd company with the aim of setting up a school and children’s home for the highly complex, ‘looked after children’ end of the BESD Spectrum. This in itself was a risk and a huge undertaking. Again the knowledge and insight I was exposed to on my engage in their future journey was extremely useful and contributed to some of the exploratory thinking and planning. Most supportive of all, were the key contacts in engage in their future who were only too willing to offer advice and take an interest. One engage in their future colleague was extremely supportive on a number of levels in a way that was key to ensuring that we got off the ground successfully.
I continue to enjoy the contacts we have within the Eastern Region and the region runs a high quality annual regional conference, which I look forward to each year. On a National Level, engage in their future has continued to gather momentum and the National Committee has taken engage in their future a long way. This last year has been an exciting one with the decision to take that a stage further and appoint a Chief Executive Officer. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the recruitment process and equally fortunate to subsequently work closely alongside Lynn Richards, the successful candidate. It has been a privilege to observe the quality, pace and skill Lynn has applied to the role and, with the support of the committee, what has been achieved in a short space of time. In a personal sense, although I fully intend to be an effective contributor to engage in their future and its members, I feel that my involvement in engage in their future at this exciting time is the best possible continued, personal and professional development. It goes without saying that I would recommend the benefits of membership to all existing and prospective leaders in the field of BESD.
Jon Lees (Incoming Chair of engage in their future)