The Northern Districts Education Centre (Sydney) Churchill Fellowship to transform and streamline strategic capabilities for school infrastructure planning

My Churchill Fellowship sought to investigate the data, processes and systems that help cities to make smart school and social infrastructure planning decisions that provide the greatest benefit to their citizens and future generations. I visited the US, Canada, Sweden, the UK, Spain and New Zealand, and connected with a variety of academia, government and industry professionals. 

School infrastructure planning involves compiling a suite of disparate datasets and pieces of information to inform decisions – specifically the where, when and how big of new / redeveloped school infrastructure. Consequently, understanding the different approaches to governance, team structures and decision-making processes across the world was an enlightening experience. It shifted my mindset from acceptance of existing process to critical inquiry about the possibilities of change. School infrastructure planning is typically a top-down process in Australia, with large state government bureaucracies (or Catholic and Independent school bureaucracies) making centralized decisions. Except for New Zealand, all the cities that I visited implement a bottom-up, community-led approach to school infrastructure planning. There are advantages (and disadvantages) to both approaches.

My Churchill Fellowship report draws out three themes and provides tangible recommendations for change. 

1. Impact School Infrastructure Planning. There is an opportunity to shift school infrastructure planning from an outputs-based exercise (e.g. number of new schools, number of new teaching spaces) into an outcomes-led approach (e.g. improvement in community amenity, activation of public space).
2. Equity in School Infrastructure Planning. There is an opportunity for school infrastructure agencies to establish an Equity Office to remove bias and ensure fair representation of all minority populations and places / neighbourhoods across the city / region.  
3. Smart approaches for School Infrastructure Planning. There is an opportunity to empower citizens more in the school infrastructure decision-making process.

I welcome reflections and feedback from all interested stakeholders as I begin the journey of implementing these opportunities in the Australian context.