Essex County Council Vision for Education
The vision for education in Essex centres on the principle of a clearly understood learning entitlement which is delivered collaboratively through a shared responsibility for meeting all learner needs within each locality.   Key partners with schools and the Local Authority (LA) in this collaboration are the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the core agencies of the Children’s and Young People’s Strategic Partnership (CYPSP).

This Learning Entitlement Will:
- Raise standards of attainment and achievement to ensure all learners reach their potential;
- Ensure that all learners are included and engaged, whatever their ability and circumstances;
- Encourage social cohesion and responsibility through the extended school and offer a multi-agency approach to delivering children’s services.

Promote Personal Development and Growth
The learning entitlement in Essex places a personalised learning approach at the centre of provision. The curriculum offer must promote personal development and growth and equip learners with the core knowledge and skills to prepare them to be workers and citizens in a rapidly changing world. This will entail developing learners who acquire thinking skills and are equipped for life long learning. Provision at 14-19 must deliver a core entitlement with equality of access to a full range of options, including vocational, in each locality. The organisation of school places will have regard to how diversity of provision in each area can best meet needs and improve outcomes for learners. Strategies for tackling underachievement will be implemented through collaboration between schools and LA services, usually organised around a locality.

“learning anytime, anywhere" via ICT
Developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be harnessed to support the principle of “learning anytime, anywhere”, to empower learners to make curriculum decisions, to support teaching and assessment and to enable early intervention through shared systems across multi-disciplinary teams. The focus on learning and the learner will require a remodelled workforce and effective programmes of continuing professional development to provide the necessary quality of leadership, teaching and learning support.

Ensure That Learners With Severe & Complex Needs Have Equality of Access
The Extended Schools strategy is key to the delivery of the Every Child Matters agenda and will improve early intervention as well as improving opportunities for out-of-hours and lifelong learning. An inclusive approach will ensure that learners with severe and complex needs have equality of access within each locality to special provision and that Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in mainstream schools supports the principle of integration. A learning entitlement which is inclusive will ensure provision for the health, safety, care and welfare of each learner.  The implications for buildings and spaces reflect the needs arising from learning activities, workforce support, extended schooling and the Every Child matters agenda.