Local Management of Schools: Aims, Scope and Impact

Abstract

In this paper Rosalind Levačić offers an interim review and assessment of progress on the implementation of the Local Management of Schools (LMS) initiative. In doing so she draws upon recent data from LMS schemes and Section 42 statements, the existing literature and the first stages of an ESRC-funded study of the impact of formula funding in one LEA which is currently being undertaken at the Open University. The paper opens with a brief statement of the aims of LMS as seen by the government and then proceeds to examine what might be meant by LMS seen as an organisational form. A model for LMS as a coherent and comprehensive organisational form termed 'decentralised management' is advanced and applied critically in order to seek an understanding of aspects of the restructuring currently taking place within the British educational system.