Improvement Practicums

Aims and Strategy for Delivery

Introduction

The Education Practicum will be launched in October 2018 and will run until June 2019. Following evaluation and review of the service priorities for 2017-18, the Education Team have identified gaps in attainment and achievement that lead to poor outcomes for children and young people in the Scottish Borders. The purpose of the Practicum will be to work effectively in collaboration to improve outcomes for learners.

 Aims

The Education Team have identified 3 priorities they believe will improve outcomes for children and young people. The Practicum will set aims for each priority, agree actions needed to meet them and identify the measures which will inform progress and achievement of the aims.

The overarching aim for the Practicum is to apply improvement methods and tools to effectively implement or improve outcomes for children and young people.  The Practicum requires collaborative learning through working together to implement improvement with a practical approach to achieving results at scale.

Measurable aims for the collaborative:

  • 66% of the 6 teams will reach their project aim by date specified in individual aims Each team has set a specific aim for their priority.
  • 100% of the 6 teams will reach a project score of 3.5 or more by June 2019.There is an expectation that teams will demonstrate improvement in outcomes and process measures without necessarily meeting their project aim. This second aim ensures that this progress is captured.
  • Definition of a 3.5: ‘Improvement – some improvement in outcome measures, process measures continuing to improve, PDSA test cycles on all components of the change package, changes implemented for many components of the change package.

Strategy for delivery

Project Support

The project will begin with an initial 2 day event in October and will culminate in an opportunity to share learning and progress in June 2019. Progress will be monitored in monthly meetings as part of Central Team Development Days. This will be supported by the Improvement Advisor who will guide the teams on the use of Improvement Methodology. Support meetings through Lync will also be available for teams who require this.

 

Monitoring and Evaluation

To ensure that improvement work in practice is aligned to expectations of Scottish Borders Council, progress reports will be provided quarterly by Priority Team Leads to the Quality Improvement Manager. Ongoing evaluation will be conducted by Attainment Officers using process measures previously identified