Question 19: Action Programmes
17/10/2008 a 16:51pm
Question 19 went up on the STEM advisory forum on 21 February 2008. The question was posted by Brian Follett and led by John Holman. It concerns the Coherence Project that is the process of organising the large number of STEM initiatives into Action Programmes.
The document below details the question that was put to forum members and a summary of the comments that we received. The official response to these comments came from the Department for Children, Schools and Families and John Holman, and this can be viewed below.
We would like to thank you all for participating in this discussion.
Response from the Department for Children, Schools and Families
In setting up the STEM Programme and, jointly with DIUS, the Higher Level Strategy Group we have already had a significant impact. We are pleased to see the healthy discussion about STEM Coherence on the STEM Advisory Forum and glad that the consensus is that there is plenty of scope for a large number of initiatives, provided they do not duplicate one another. We recognise the value of evaluation data and, within the strictures of the Data Protection Act, we are happy to share any data we have that would help in evaluating STEM initiatives.
Response from John Holman
The government's purpose in setting up the STEM programme was to bring coherence to a complex field with many players in it. I'm pleased to see the general support for the approach we have taken.
The key message for me is about quality criteria. In setting up the Action Programmes we always intended that some kind of quality threshold should be developed, so that teachers know the quality of initiatives within any one Action Programme. We are at a very early stage in developing these criteria, and at the moment they are light-touch and self-applied. The challenge for the coming phase of our work is to develop more robust criteria that serve to drive up the quality of initiatives and to reduce still further the complexity of the field.
Action Programmes - forum comments