ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on at policy as an ongoing process and will suggest that it is helpful to see it as multifaceted, with interrelated policy arenas each containing the facets of intended policy, actual policy and policy-in-use. In the case of the Local Management of Schools (LMS), it begins by trying to clarify the Government's policy intentions, with regard to schools as institutions. The chapter explores the micro-political dimension, that is the way in which Government policy, in all its complexity, finds a presence within one school. The promotion of self-determination is intended to erode any sense of an educational 'system' and replace it with a market-driven, free-floating, diverse set of enterprises, charged with delivering products with a minimum quality specification. The management of change is to rest with the schools, diminishing any sense of dependency upon the State or 'the system' and heightening the need for entrepreneurialism.
