Social services staff are going back to school to help deliver the government's ambitious plans to provide community services in 240 extended schools over the next three years, writes Anabel Unity Sale.

Baroness Cathy Ashton, minister for Sure Start, unveiled the government's plans to fund at least one extended school in every English local education authority (LEA) by 2006. A total of £52.2 million is being targeted at schools in the most disadvantaged areas before the initiative is rolled out throughout the country.

Some, including social services professionals, are sceptical about extending schools' role into wider community services and raise questions about the viability of education and care staff working together.

Changes to the Education Act 2002 have enabled schools to directly provide child care, family learning, health and social care, lifelong learning opportunities, study support, sports and arts facilities.

Government guidance on extended schools suggests social services could be utilised to help schools reduce poverty and social exclusion by orienting projects towards specific clients, such as children with special educational needs or foster children.

Association of Directors of Social Services co-chairperson of children and families committee Penny Thompson says the ADSS strongly supports the government's drive to extend schools' role and give social workers a key part to play in this.

She adds: "This is in line with all the work social services departments have been doing on the future development of children's services."

Local Government Association senior project officer Ian Elliott agrees and says the government's move links into the work the LGA has been doing with seven pathfinder authorities since 2001 to promote schools as a community resource.

He says: "Schools are the hub of the community and using school premises to deliver a range of activities will benefit all the community, not just those attending the school during the normal school day."

Social workers are well used to reaching out to children and adults at risk of social exclusion, experience that will be just as useful in a school setting. "Having professional support to cater for children on school premises will be a vital gateway and in some cases a welcome relief for school staff," Elliott says.

Bringing the different professionals dealing with children together into one locality is necessary, argues Association of Chief Education Officers' lead on children's services, Christine Davies.

She says: "On a day-to-day basis there is not a close relationship between teachers, social workers, speech therapists and community and mental health personnel."

Davies cites the Victoria Climbi' case as a wake-up call for professionals working with children to communicate, meet and share information on clients. She sees extended schools one way of addressing this deficiency.

Funding for extended schools has been broken down into £7.6 million for 2003-4, rising to £13m for 2004-5 and £31.6m in 2005-6.

The government has allocated £200,000 each to 25 LEA pathfinder projects currently testing different models of extended schools up until this autumn.

Resources have also been given to LEAs to appoint co-ordinators to draw up strategic plans for extended schools and local managers to work with clusters of schools to create and manage their extended services. The funding for 2003-4 is £4.8m, £10.6m for 2004-5 and £65.6m for 2005-6.

With such large sums of money at stake, some are concerned social care professionals could be sidelined and have little input into how it is allocated. But Davies says this is "no time for territorial preciousness", and that all agencies involved in providing services in extended schools need to talk together about their plans.

She says: "Agencies ought to be doing that in children's services, but if they are not the extended schools model could act as a catalyst for this." She warns that sustained government investment is needed if the work of the services in extended schools is going to have any impact. "It is no good putting in money for three years and then saying there is no more at the end of it."

The financial challenge councils now face, Elliott believes, is how to link health, community, police and social services so that a wider range of funding can be accessed to benefit the whole community.

How extended schools are managed needs to be addressed if it is not to become an obstacle, says David Tuck, National Association of Head Teachers' national council member for Luton, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. "When working in a school there has to be clear and effective single-line management through the head teacher," he says.

Tuck speaks from personal experience as head teacher of Dallow primary school in Luton, which he says has "aspired" to offer extended services to its local community for the past two years.

He also advocates extended schools having systems in place for information sharing and the same policies regarding areas such as child protection. "Each profession can't have different child protection policies and you can't have staff saying 'this is just between my client and I'."

The fabric of the buildings used as extended schools can be a logistical obstacle to their success, argues Elliott: "Most schools are designed to deliver education rather than to run a range of services."

Davies says if necessary this can be overcome by having extended services based in a neighbourhood rather than an individual school if it lacks the room to accommodate the new services.

Clearly, there is plenty of support for the government's aim to place schools at the hub of a community. But it must make sure that while it empowers professionals to work in a new way the physical environment can meet the challenge too.

How extended schools will be rolled out

Year 1: 2003-04

By 16 June 2003 deadline:

- 34 LEAs involved in the Behaviour Improvement Programme to improve school attendance will nominate one school each to become an extended school.

- 27 LEAs involved in the Excellence in Cities Partnership to raise standards and increase specialist provision to nominate one school each.

- All successful schools to have some extended services in place by September and to have all services available within a year.

Year 2: 2004-5

- 25 LEAs involved in Excellence in Cities Partnerships to nominate a school.

- 20 further LEAs to nominate a school from the most disadvantaged areas.

Year 3: 2005-6

- Rolled out to include all other LEAs that have not yet nominated.

Sheffield local education authority

Karen Worrall is head of access and inclusion at Sheffield local education authority. She received notification from the department for education and skills three weeks ago that one school in her area could apply for funding to become an extended school. She has until 16 June to make an application.

Her LEA is involved in the department's behaviour improvement programme to improve the attendance and behaviour of pupils in four of the city's secondary schools and their associated primary schools.

Worrall says: "This is a very exciting opportunity. It is about making schools a vibrant part of the community and those sorts of communities have higher levels of attainment."

Worrall says the LEA is in the process of drawing up the criteria its schools will have to match in order to be considered for extended school funding.

"We want to make it as open and transparent as possible," she says. The criteria will include evidence of existing community work, partnerships with other agencies and parental involvement.