THE PARTNERSHIP FUND

The Partnership Fund is designed to help schools that have not been able — despite concerted efforts over the course of at least a year — to raise the sponsorship needed to apply for specialist school status.

Eligibility for Partnership Fund support

Any school eligible to apply to the Specialist Schools Programme is eligible to apply to the Partnership Fund if it can demonstrate that it has:

• Made concerted efforts to raise external sponsorship for at least a year
• Established links with local business and community groups relevant to the specialist project, even if these have not resulted in offers of eligible cash sponsorship
• Undertaken substantial fundraising activities in-house
• Made substantial efforts to raise awareness about its specialist plans.

In addition, schools must account for any school monies — eligible as sponsorship and which together exceed £3,000 in total — that are not being put towards the specialist bid.

Guide to eligibility criteria

External fundraising: Schools applying successfully to the Partnership Fund will have made systematic approaches to local businesses and community groups through a campaign of letter writing, telephone follow-up and business visits. Schools are likely to have presented their specialist plans to local businesses at events arranged at the school (for example, business breakfasts) and at local business and professional forums (for example, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club). Schools will usually also have approached larger regional or national firms operating in their intended specialist field as well as a targeted selection of grant-making trusts.

External networking: In the course of fundraising, and publicising the school’s specialist plans, it is likely that schools will have formed links with local businesses and community groups that support the specialist project in ways other than through cash sponsorship. Schools are encouraged, as part of their external outreach, to appoint sponsor/business governors with expertise in the school’s proposed specialist area.

Internal fundraising: In addition to any direct appeals to parents for financial support, schools are likely to have held a number of in-house fundraising events (for example, sponsored challenges, auctions, raffles, mufti days, school performances etc). Schools may also have made fundraising appeals to alumni and held reunion fundraising events.

Publicity: To promote and publicise the school’s specialist plans, and support approaches to businesses and trusts, schools will have produced printed brochures and/or fliers describing their specialist project and explaining the thinking behind the specialist schools programme. Schools will also have secured local newspaper coverage of the specialist project and fundraising campaign. The fundraising effort may sometimes have been reported in regional business and trade magazines. Schools may also have taken other steps to publicise their specialist plans, such as displays in the school foyer, distributing promotional materials through the local community and securing the active support of the local MP. It is taken for granted that schools will have kept their own parents, staff, governors and partner schools informed throughout.

Great care will be taken to adhere rigorously to the above criteria for Partnership Fund support. Schools that are offered Partnership Fund support will have had to demonstrate a strong commitment to their specialist plans.

Applying to the Partnership Fund

Schools should apply to the Partnership Fund for the whole of their sponsorship shortfall. Schools are expected to continue fundraising, however, up to the point of submitting their specialist school bid to the DfES. If sponsorship is raised between applying to the Partnership Fund and bid submission then any Partnership Fund grant offer will be reduced accordingly.

Partnership Fund grant offers will cover — resources permitting — the whole of a school’s sponsorship shortfall at the point of bidding for specialist school status up to the value of the request made to the Partnership Fund.

Schools must submit the completed Partnership Fund application form with corroborative evidence by July 31st 2007 for grants to support specialist school bids in October 2007.

The applications will be reviewed against the eligibility criteria by the fund manager, who will prepare a set of recommendations for an independent Partnership Fund panel drawn from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the Youth Sport Trust and the DfES. Schools will be notified of the panel’s decisions in September 2007.

A school that is offered Partnership Fund support, but which then defers bidding for specialist status or bids unsuccessfully, may carry forward the grant offer. The school would be expected to resume fundraising efforts in the interim. The Partnership Fund panel hopes to keep grant offers available for as long as a school actively pursues specialist status, although this will depend on available resources and the situation will be reviewed after each bidding round.

There is no right of appeal other than on grounds of procedural irregularity or maladministration.

Website: www.specialistschools.org.uk/schools/biddingsupport/thepartnershipfund.aspa