The Key
The Key (www.usethekey.org.uk) is an information service in pilot phase (website, email, phone channels) for school leaders funded by the TDA (Training and Development Agency for Schools), co-supported by the NCSL (National College for School Leadership), and delivered by TenUK, a private company that provides knowledge management for busy professionals. It was developed in response to school leader requests for support in dealing with the burden of information coming through to them, and growing concerns about recruitment of headteachers.
The knowledge base is solely comprised of responses to real questions from heads, deputies, bursars and other school leaders. The content is focused principally on school and staff development. Researchers and experts – former teachers and heads, academic and parliamentary researchers, educational consultants – produce articles (1.5 pages of A4 equivalent) with links to authoritative sources. Stakeholders include the main school-related agencies and professional associations. They support the service by providing information to researchers. Articles go through a two-stage quality assurance process and are updated termly, and in response to feedback.
Results show a great commonality in the questions that school leaders ask. It is relatively cost-intensive to generate the initial material for the knowledge base, but the unit cost of answering questions falls significantly as re-use of articles increases. The value of the answers also continuously increases the more the service is used. Initial material was created by 400 schools asking questions over a six-month period from June 07. The website went live to 1,500 schools in December 07. The total running costs so far are less than £2m. Costs of the rolled-out service to all 23,000 schools are projected to be £5m, premised on 95% of enquiries being answered through self-service on the website. Cost per enquiry is projected to fall to less than £10.
Main features:
• material requested on a just-in-time ‘pull’ basis by professionals themselves
• information produced by experts (ie not peers)
• school leaders avoid having to re-invent the wheel 23,000 times
• professional is supported in a highly focused way
• user, rather than provider, has dominant power
Independent research (FDS International) has shown that school leaders are saving an average of 3.5 hours per question asked. School leaders also cite other benefits.
• 91% reported: … makes me feel more supported
• 94% reported: … frees up my time for other high value tasks
• 95% reported: … increases ability to implement policies
• 87% reported: … substantial impact on strategy/decision making
• 92% reported: … improves school’s effectiveness
• 78% reported: … reduces job stress
The research also shows:
• 94% say they are will recommend The Key to colleagues
• 98% report that they are satisfied (71% very) with the speed at which they can find the information they need.
• The Key is the preferred source of information and guidance for 63% of members of the pilot (Local authority 6%, Teachernet 8%, internet search 6%)