Local education authorities (LEAs)

LEAs usually plan local provision for gifted and talented pupils and students through education development plans (including development projects with clusters of schools) and EiC plans (where applicable). Effective plans use an audit to establish a baseline of:

the nature, extent and quality of existing provision;

the needs of gifted and talented young people in the area.

A framework for carrying out this type of audit is included as in a case study in the EiC guidance.

As the LEA is aware of a wide range of gifted and talented learners, it can help schools and colleges to find and use expertise and support. Local circumstances will influence the form that opportunities should take; for example target-setting within the LEA or as a result of an area inspection action plan may help schools and colleges focus on high expectations for the gifted and talented, as well as encourage a broad view of the range of identifiable gifts and talents. LEAs also provide advice and guidance to parents and carers. EiC experience has demonstrated the strength of neighbouring schools and colleges collaborating in locally organised clusters, supported by the LEA, and of developing a wider network of community partners (linked to the cluster), which can support the education of gifted and talented young people in a variety of ways.

It can be helpful for a named adviser to coordinate an LEA's work on gifted and talented issues with sufficient time to do justice to the role. If the work is left to subject or aspect advisers alone, it can easily become fragmented. Within the context of the LEA, the coordinator will need to liaise closely with those colleagues leading on the strands of the various national strategies. The coordinators' group (including the EiC coordinators, where appropriate) and the advisory service as a whole should therefore work together to provide a unified service to schools. This should include a programme of training and professional development in gifted and talented provision, including support for newly qualified teachers. Some LEAs also provide extensive enrichment activities and programmes for students themselves. Westminster Institute of Education at Oxford Brookes University and Brunel Able Children's Education (BACE) centre at Brunel University support professional development and in-service training for LEAs and schools. Organisations like the Villiers Park Trust run courses for post-16 students and their teachers.

It is important that the measures taken to support the learning and progress of gifted and talented young people are seen holistically. In this way, everyone will benefit from making the most of the flexibility offered by the curriculum, creative thinking about pupil grouping, and opportunities to enrich, extend and accelerate learning. It is equally important that local and regional providers are able to pool resources and expertise in order to offer a quality service both within the mainstream curriculum and through extra curriculum provision.

In the context of 14 to 19, LEAs are increasingly working with local partners:

to establish integrated provision across the authority for the 14 to 19 phase;

to create a gifted and talented focus within the integrated provision.

The Knowsley LEA Partnership challenged staff to reconsider their approach when teaching able youngsters. The LEA's Excellence in Cities Coordinator was well placed to facilitate the development of the initiative, which used the talents of locally based staff. See Case study 6: A local authority programme.

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Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs)

LSCs are responsible for funding and planning education and training for over 16-year-olds in England. The key tasks of LSCs include raising participation and achievement by young people, and improving the quality of education, training and user satisfaction.

The role of LSCs is to:

liaise with the Connexions Service to ensure that gifted and talented students receive appropriate advice, guidance and support, and that barriers to participation and achievement are removed;

work with LEAs and Learning Partnerships to follow up area 16 to 19 inspections to secure local breadth and quality for gifted and talented learners, and to achieve better collaboration between providers;

deliver a strong vocational ladder from age 14 to degree level, including implementing plans to strengthen Modern Apprenticeships to ensure the broad range of provision for all;

encourage and support education-business link organisations to provide access to business people and suitable work-related activities for gifted and talented learners;

implement a coherent funding system across all sectors of 16 to 19 education that meets the needs of gifted and talented students and encourages higher standards;

bring on-stream new providers and new types of provision, (better) able to address the needs of gifted and talented learners;

support the development of innovative approaches by sixth forms and FE colleges to meet the needs of gifted and talented learners;

ensure that money is made available (via Local Initiative Funds) to support gifted and talented learners.

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Checklist: reviewing progress locally

The checklist below is designed for use by LEA support services, LSCs, regional partnerships and others.

Does the school/college have access to:

awareness-raising programmes for senior managers and governors, including training and development on the role of the gifted and talented coordinator?

conferences to enable staff to explore recent research, literature, effective practice and pupils'/students' work?

advisory support and professional development for clusters, individual schools, colleges and partnerships?

training by subject advisers on subject-specific provision?

workshops for gifted and talented coordinators and for gifted and talented learners?

opportunities to share successful practice across the authority and more widely?

governor training on gifted and talented issues?

resources for loan (eg software, historical artefacts, themed book collections)?

links with other agencies?

publications?

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