Speaker's Conference (on Parliamentary Representation) Contents


Submission from Parliamentary Education Service (SC-37)

SUBMITTER

  1.  Tom O'Leary is Head of Parliament's Education Service and has been in post since October 2007. He has a background in education and online provision in the public sector and is a qualified secondary teacher.

BACKGROUND

  2.  Parliament's bicameral Education Service has grown significantly in recent years as a result of increased interest in educational provision amongst Members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and in response to external developments such as the introduction of citizenship education to the National Curriculum.

  3.  The Education Service is part of the Public Information Directorate in the Department of Information Services. The Service works alongside the House of Commons Information Office, the Visitor Services team, the Web Centre, the new Parliamentary Outreach team and other colleagues in both Houses to deliver Parliament's public engagement strategy, as overseen by the Group on Information to the Public (GIP).[99] There are three main strands to the public engagement strategy:

    — Welcoming visitors to Parliament

    — Using the web

    — Reaching out

  The Education Service is active in all three areas.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Opportunity, Reach and Access

  4.  The impact of Parliament's Education Service, as it works with ever increasing numbers of school children from all backgrounds across the UK, has the potential (in combination with many other factors) to encourage greater diversity of Parliamentary representation in the longer term.

Education Service aims

  5.  The Education Service works with schools and Members of both Houses of Parliament to support young people in developing their understanding of Parliament and democracy. It aims to:

    — inform young people about the role, work and history of Parliament through educational visits, tours, publications and outreach

    — engage young people to understand the relevance of Parliament and democracy today through active learning

    — empower young people to get involved by equipping them with the knowledge and skills to take part

  6.  To achieve this, the Education Service offers resources and support for students and teachers including:

    — an exciting range of visit programmes catered to learning needs

    — an outreach programme, including teacher training and student workshops

    — online, print and DVD classroom resources on the work of Parliament

Education Service Impact

  7.  Opportunity Of all the groups regularly visiting and experiencing contact with Westminster, school children best reflect a cross-section of society, and thus represent a powerful opportunity to encourage broader engagement with Parliament. It is often the case that the only visit a person makes to Parliament during their life time is when they are at school. During lessons on Citizenship, it may also be the only time that the processes and structures of Parliament and government are explained. Therefore, by welcoming school visits to Westminster, providing high quality resources and creating regular contact with parliamentarians, there is the potential to increase greatly young people's sense of access to Parliament and its processes. It is possible that this sense of access and relevance will play a part, alongside a complex set of drivers and influences, in helping broaden diversity of political representation in the longer term.

  8.  Reach To realise the ambition to connect with as many young people as possible, Parliament is pursuing a rapid expansion of its education provision. For example visits to Parliament by school children have risen by over 200% in the last three years to around 37,000 in 2008-09. On average a maximum of 40 schools a week visit Parliament through the Education Service. An illustration of the demand occurred recently when nearly 400 visits slots (which are released in phases) were booked by schools in a single day. However, current numbers are not expected to rise much further because of accommodation constraints at present. To address this situation a dedicated education centre is planned for 2012-13 which will increase capacity to 100,000 a year. Whilst a visit to Parliament, with the opportunity to meet a Parliamentarian, is highly prized, it is not possible to make this available to every school, even with the planned extra capacity. Therefore, the importance of the Education Outreach programmes and the resource provision (online and in print) cannot be underestimated. A new online education channel (www.parliament.uk/education) was launched in 2008. The Education Outreach programme trains over 1,000 teachers a year and also connects with many thousands of students in areas remote from Westminster. Underpinning this work is a set of award-winning resources in print and film which are constantly reviewed and updated. The aim of the Education Service is to achieve a meaningful engagement with every school child in the UK as they progress through their education. The Education Service is also forging relationships with relevant partners who are working on political literacy initiatives across the country.

  9.  Equality of Access Ensuring equality of access for schools is a priority for Parliament as the current expansion takes place. In regard to physical visits, the current and planned increase in provision has significantly extended the availability of the visits programme. However, potential barriers still exist and work is underway to ensure that schools coming to Parliament reflect a genuine cross section of society. For instance, the location of Westminster represents a significant issue for some potential users in terms of travel costs. With this is mind, a recent instruction from the House of Commons Administration Committee to pilot a travel subsidy is underway and early indications are showing that it is having an impact on the geographical spread and balance of the schools visiting. With a view to encouraging greater diversity the Education Service is also obtaining better information about the background of the school children visiting Westminster. This information will enable targeted marketing and financial help to ensure that groups who do not make use of the Education Service are encouraged and enabled to do so. The service also actively welcomes visits from groups with special needs. Beyond the physical visits, the outreach and publications programmes mentioned above significantly increase access as they are available to all users on the same terms. In certain situations they are also more accessible for learners with particular needs.

Education Service activities

  10.  The work of the Education Service broadly divides into three areas which are described in some more detail here:

  11.  Education Visits A programme of hour-long workshops plus an 75 minute tour of Parliament is offered to UK schools, for children aged seven to 18. All of the workshops introduce students to how Parliament works focusing in particular (though not exclusively) on the part played by both Houses in scrutiny and the passing of legislation. The visits include a question and answer session with the school's MP subject to their availability. The sessions are tailored to meet the requirements of the national curriculum (citizenship and politics) and differentiated by age and ability. A programme of technology integration is underway and many workshops make use of interactive white boards and hand held voting pods. Whilst other opportunities to work with young people coming into Parliament are also being pursued, the core workshop programme is now at capacity as mentioned above.

  12.  For clarification it is important to note that school children currently visiting Parliament via Member-sponsored tours are booked in through the Central Tours Office (CTO) and do not participate in Education Service programmes. It is estimated this may amount to over 40,000 young people a year. Options are currently being investigated to ensure these visitors receive some input from the Education Service during their time at Parliament. Once the Education Centre is in place structured engagement with these groups will be possible.

  13.  Resources The Education Service produces materials which support teaching and learning about Parliament in print, film and on the Internet. Young people are consuming information in very different ways from their predecessors and the opportunities this represents are being exploited. The new website www.parliament.uk/education, was launched in October 2008 and marks the beginning of an ambitious programme to create exciting and engaging online content including games that teach about political literacy for use by students and their teachers. It is already receiving 15,000 visits a month which is expected to grow considerably. The website is currently commissioning a range of resources from downloadable worksheets for teachers and students to a game which will explore the work of an MP. Alongside this the service has made a series of films, including the award winning You've got the Power, which has been ordered by over 1700 schools in the last six months. For the first time a series of cut down versions of this film are about to be posted online to make them more widely available. Finally, there are a number of very popular printed publications which are distributed free of charge and a new updated set is planned for 2009.

  14.  Education Outreach The Education Outreach Team trains teachers to increase their knowledge and understanding of Parliament to enable them to teach about political literacy and parliamentary democracy with increased confidence and with greater effectiveness. At a time when reports about the teaching of citizenship in schools continue to highlight a weakness in covering political literacy, this work is of increasing importance. The annual Teacher Institute run by the Education Service provides trainee citizenship teachers with the opportunity to spend a week at Westminster, learning about Parliamentary processes across both Houses and engaging first hand with the work and role of Parliament. This year alone, the team has worked with 1,000 teachers. The team also works directly with students in schools, concentrating in particular on schools from areas where travel to Westminster is a significant barrier. Recent and planned visits include Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands.

Vision for the Education Centre

  15.  A dedicated education facility in the heart of Westminster[100] The realisation of the proposed five classroom facility will significantly increase the capacity of the Education Service to deliver its programmes for visiting school groups and to improve further its services for Members of both Houses. The learning spaces will be far better suited to teaching than is currently the case and will include cutting edge ICT facilities. Reserved lunch facilities and dedicated children's toilets will greatly improve the experience of visiting schools as they do not have these at present. The current number of 37,000 school children taking part in workshops will rise to a potential 100,000 and this figure is likely to include many of the children on Member-sponsored CTO tours mentioned above. It is anticipated that the core programme of visits, the content of which covers the work of both Houses, will form the main part of this increased capacity. Members of both Houses will continue to have the opportunity to meet visiting school groups on a range of programmes, and the increased room capacity will also allow more special events, including teacher training, to take place on site.

Working for both Houses of Parliament

  16.  A bicameral service The Education Service is funded 70:30 (Commons:Lords) for running costs and 60:40 (Commons:Lords) for capital costs. All of the content delivered by the service actively covers the role of both Houses which can be observed in the workshop programme. For example, students are encouraged to propose bills and follow their progress between the two chambers and at committee stage(s), proposing and voting on amendments. The Education Service works closely with other parliamentary education initiatives such as the Lord Speaker's Outreach programme.








99   GIP is a bicameral meeting of senior officials which sets Parliament's public engagement strategy. Back

100   Decision to build an education centre
During 2006 the House of Commons Administration Sub-Committee worked with the House of Lords Information Committee conducting a concurrent inquiry into visitor facilities and a proposed visitor centre for Parliament. This was in line with the recommendations of the 2004 Report of the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons, Connecting Parliament with the Public (HC 368).
On 27 March 2007 the Administration Committee published its report Improving Facilities for Educational Visitors to Parliament (HC 434). This did not recommend proposals to build a visitor centre. However, it did recommend "that a dedicated space for school visitors of approximately 1,000m2 (consisting of flexible accommodation of five classrooms with ancillary space for storage, toilet facilities, a lunch area and locker space) should be sought either on or off the existing Estate-the exact space depending on what becomes available and at what cost." The House of Commons approved this on 12 June 2007.
On 11 June 2007 the House of Lords Information Committee published its own report on Improving Facilities for Educational Visitors to Parliament. This report recognised that there were strong arguments in favour of a full visitor centre but that enhancing education facilities is an important first step to improving facilities for visitors. It recommended that the House endorse the recommendation from the Administration Committee, subject to the final design, the location and the cost being approved by the appropriate authorities. 
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