The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 provides a framework for improvement planning that requires education authorities to set out and report on improvement objectives related to national priorities and associated measures of performance. Continuous improvement in education services is central to the work of education authorities. There is a clear expectation by Scottish Ministers that national priorities will be addressed through agreed local educational improvement objectives and related targets. To achieve these goals, it is essential for authorities, educational psychology services, community services and establishments to work together to achieve these objectives and to raise standards of attainment and achievement within an innovative culture of support and challenge.
The process of self-evaluation should, as a matter of course, generate key management information which results in an evaluation of overall quality and improvement. This evaluation can then be used to create a set of agreed, targeted action points which, in turn, drive further improvement.
The process of self-evaluation is central to the maintenance of quality and the pursuit of excellence. It has become firmly established as the basis on which improvement planning and public reporting on standards and quality are founded. Self-evaluation is complementary to external inspection. Indeed the latter now builds on the results and evidence of self-evaluation across the organisation. Self-evaluation, to be fully effective, is not designed to be a single or periodic event, but rather is an ongoing process which permeates the culture of the council as it strives to maintain and enhance the quality of provision. It is a well-focused means to an end rather than an end in itself.
The concept of self-evaluation is now well embedded across the Scottish educational landscape. In the best examples, it leads to the identification of main strengths and areas in which performance needs to be improved in the pursuit of excellence. The evaluations derived through the self-evaluation process should enable the educational psychology service to establish how it is performing against its improvement objectives, and to plan the next steps in development, in order to maintain quality, secure continuous improvement and aspire to excellence.
There are four main sources of evidence, from which evaluations can be made. These are:
These sources of evidence are complementary. No single source can meaningfully provide sufficient evidence on its own to enable a reliable or robust evaluation to be made.
The process also involves key stakeholders in full and meaningful discussion of the issues.
Each educational psychology service aims to develop a clear picture of its main stakeholders and a protocol for engaging them in ongoing, focused discussion regarding its performance in Key Areas.
Evidence shows that there is a strong link between effective leadership and management, robust self-evaluation, and development of the capacity for further improvement. To be effective, self-evaluation will:
The framework has been developed in accordance with the principles of the EFQM and can be used in conjunction with other quality models, for example, liP, Charter Mark and ISO 9000. The approach is also consistent with the principles of Best Value, the statutory framework, which is provided in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003.