Despite the huge amount of time and effort that goes into designing and setting up an intervention in schools, new programmes are often not sustained beyond initial funding, pupil outcomes being achieved, when key staff leave, and/or when an associated research study ends.
A message from both research and the implementation guidance report is that sustainability is not something to be left to the end, but planning for sustainability runs throughout effective implementation. See EEF Guidance Report pages 44-46. There is relatively little focused research in education or implementation strategies about sustainability, incorporating concepts of capacity building, change and adaptation over time. Hence there is a gap for information about sustainability, as well as tools for schools to use.
IMPLEMENTATION SUSTAINABILITY EXPLAINER
Watch the following video to hear a definition and examples of what we mean by sustainability as a process and how sustained might be seen at the individual pupil level, school level, community level.
Holding space for the one further resource.
Sustainability planning checklist
Review the following template with questions organised by themes on implementation planning, behaviours and contexts relevant to preparing for sustainability and therefore thinking about sustaining a new approach over the long term.
Template
Select the following case studies to learn how a school used this template to identify areas to address.
Case studies
Sustainability outcome measure tool
In drawing on components of sustainable implementation, the measurement items are often about effective implementation, response to contexts and behaviours, and implementation climate. The difference is that those affected by implementation are responding here to give a measure of how prepared for sustainability things are in the moment. This is about ongoing implementation.
The following tool can be downloaded and printed,
Tool
Link this to strategies resources somehow.
Could there be a scoring tool if several people complete it? To mean it leads to action.
Example of how it was used by a school would again help show it in action and difference to other measures proposed.
Note EEF might be producing a review/do we sustain tool, so this is different.