Intermediaries in local schooling landscapes: Partnership building and policy enactment during times of crisis

Despite the expansion of New Public Management reforms across the globe and complimentary trends of disintermediation, performance and privatisation, local government authorities in England continue to shape local schooling landscapes. In this paper, we document the role of a local government authority in England in an initiative called ‘Building On’, directed at supporting teachers in the first year of compulsory school to develop and transform their pedagogical practices in response to and following the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on evidence generated from interviews, observations and documentary analysis, we demonstrate that local government personnel performed two important and potentially decisive roles within this initiative: first, as interpreters and translators of policy; and second, as brokers of partnerships and collaborative exchanges. We then illustrate, using the analytic of policy enactment, the contextual dimensions underpinning the role performed by local government personnel within the initiative.