ABSTRACT
The following two chapters consider funding issues. David Prior ‘bites the bullet’ of a delegated service and provides an account of how such a service was developed and why it thrived in his LEA. The concept of the school as customer has significant implications for the role and accountability of a service. In contrast, Peter Gray makes use of recent reviews of support services to raise issues of economies of scale at cluster, LEA, regional and national level. He reminds us that ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’, and that the suggested role of support services to challenge schools may sit uneasily with a customer service orientation. More so when the criteria used for the evaluation of services may not be measures of increased inclusion or pupil outcomes, but school satisfaction. Gray also considers how bodies of expertise might be protected to maintain services to schools. To some extent, Prior has the answer in the form of professional development bounties for service staff. Unlike non-delegated services, where expertise has to be unlocked by schools trying to qualify for a service, delegated services have to maintain the quality, attractiveness and relevance of their expertise because it is a product that has to be sold. Gray suggests that delegated services are most effective when responsibility for inclusion is also delegated and owned by schools.
