Workforce Development: Needs Analysis

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: NEEDS ANALYSIS :

CASE STUDIES FROM LINCOLNSHIRE

There is already much good practice going on with regards workforce development in Lincolnshire. This Section takes four case studies – two primary schools, a special and a secondary school and examines their approaches to needs identification. All these schools have systems that go far beyond the needs identification processes with clear roles, impact measures and the like. This Section though focuses only on that dimension.

CAISTOR YARBOROUGH SCHOOL:

Caistor Yarborough is a secondary school in the north of Lincolnshire in the small market town of Caistor. It is a specialist school for arts with approximately 600 students and, in recent years, it has refined its workforce development systems with the intention of involving all staff more in the process. To this end, they have set up some systems including providing all staff with a questionnaire to complete at the end of the financial year.

The aim of this is to give staff an opportunity to reflect on their own as well as whole school professional development opportunities, consider the needs for the coming year and the impact of training on teaching and learning, moving the school forward and supporting needs and developments.

The result is a report responding to the aims of the school’s workforce development policy linking staff targets to the overall improvement plan, developing personal targets, supporting staff within subject and pastoral areas, enhancing student learning and implementing necessary national initiatives. Once the report is produced, staff have a right of reply and to become involved in considering future opportunities.

The main priorities recently included a beginning of year staff meeting, SEN briefing, new intake information, First Aid, New Relationships with Schools, Differentiation, the role of the Form tutor, quality assurance and the use of data, department meetings and development, assessment for learning, Aimhigher, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, ICT including the whiteboard, ethnic minorities, Ofsted, HLTA, PHSE.

The analysis of what emerges is a close one; for example, looking at patterns, determining whether a specific department has felt excluded, whether some feels needs have not been met sufficiently and whether there are potential problems with the priorities.

The original needs analysis was quite detailed but following the feedback from a working party, it has been slimmed down so that duplication is avoided and the user can complete more easily and quickly. Amongst the aspects covered are:

·  courses attended and their nature – ie. whether the need emerged from a national priority, department, individual or whole school;

·  other opportunities such as meetings, forums, external visits, cluster groups;

·  reflection – how the opportunities have changed or developed teaching and the role/career, the impact on student learning and the learning environment; the benefits of lesson observation processes, the way developmental opportunities have helped meet performance management, whole school, department or team targets;

·  likely training needs as an individual, department/team member and as a part of the school.

As with all systems, it needs constant review and there is a likelihood of some changes in the light of the new Performance Management arrangements.

With thanks to Annmarie Wilkin.

LINCOLN ST FRANCIS SPECIAL SCHOOL:

St Francis is a Special School, both day and residential, for young people between the ages of two and nineteen years. It is a ‘big, little school’ as it has on roll only 100 pupils but it has about the same number of staff to support those pupils. It is also unusual because only a small number of the staff are teachers, only 15 in total and the majority of staff are support staff. They range from teaching assistants, administrative staff, domestic staff, residential staff and technical staff.

As a result, staff development is a challenging task but the school sees it as essential viewing team work, enthusiasm and aspiration as vital to moving forward the school and ensuring the young people make the progress they can within a safe, stimulating environment. The school has its own policy adapted from that provided by the Lincolnshire School Improvement Service to reflect the particular needs of the school.

Apart from the statutory regulations regarding Teachers’ Performance Management arrangements and opportunities, every member of staff has at least one ‘Staff Review’ opportunity to take time with their line manager to reflect on their successes over the past year and to consider areas for development which may require some training or professional development.

Training needs are fed back via the reviewer to the workforce development (CPD) coordinator, the senior teaching assistant, principal head of care and a member of the administrative team who then meet together and draw up a programme. Essential training needs are highlighted but the aim is for every member of staff to receive at least one training and development opportunity within the year.

The school arrangements mean balancing the judicious use of resources with the range of aspirations and interests between the staff. Where an area is highlighted by a number of staff the result is likely to form a training day possibly for all the staff eg a day on Disability or Child Protection or Sensory Impairment or a twilight session for some staff eg for ICT. Other needs are met in a wide variety of ways in an effort to match preferred learning styles and to maximise the impact on teaching and learning within the school. Such approaches may include attendance at a course or conference, in school training using the expertise available within the school, use of an external consultant or adviser, visits to other schools, distance learning etc.

Staff have to apply for training. Any decisions regarding the allocations of workforce development opportunities are based on a number of criteria to achieve a balance of provision and they are rated more highly if it is proven on the application form they can meet the following :

·  meet individual, school or national development priorities;

·  help raise standards of pupils’ achievements;

·  are planned systematically except when dealing with emerging issues;

·  are based on relevant standards;

·  make effective use of resources and provide value for money

All applications are seen by the workforce development (CPD) coordinator and must be applied for on the relevant form, giving reasons for need and highlighting what are the aims and objectives. All staff returning from a course then meet the head teacher to discuss the outcomes, what has been gained, how changes or new ideas will be implemented and how information will be disseminated to other staff.

The end result is a majority of the staff who are fully engaged. The school has successfully obtained a second Investors in People Standard award and staff have demonstrated enthusiasm and a plentiful supply of ideas to maintain the momentum of school life and challenge and to keep the school moving forward.

With thanks to Ann Hoffmann.

RUSKINGTON WINCHELSEA PRIMARY SCHOOL:

Winchelsea Primary School is one of the TDA “Testbed Schools” working to develop innovative and inclusive practice in workforce development. The school, of approximately 200 pupils is situated in a large village near Sleaford. The school has established an ethos where workforce development is valued highly in all its guises by all staff and this is reflected in its vision. The stated aim is to make workforce development relevant, enhancing, focused, variable, flexible and imaginative. It is a school improvement plan priority in its own right and is woven through the plan as a whole.

The approach relies heavily on the East Midlands Continuing Professional Development Toolkit and the school has identified a CPD (Workforce Development) Leader to oversee things in their entirety, one for the school and another for the wider community. The last of these works to secure grants and bring together educational providers in the local community to share good practice and identify areas for development. The weekly staff meetings have been renamed as professional development meetings.

All in all then, workforce development has a very high profile which means that needs are being revisited regularly. The main channels for identifying needs are:

·  the School Improvement Plan;

·  Performance Management;

·  staff changes;

·  Support Staff Continued Professional Development Review;

·  planning meetings with other services such as the educational psychology and emotional and behavioural support services;

·  the implementation of intervention programmes.

Colleagues who have a responsibility for one or more specific areas of the school improvement plan negotiate and develop opportunities for relevant professional learning. Colleagues who have identified a particular personal need are encouraged to put these forward using an application form which requires them to detail its nature, cost, possible links to the school improvement plan and the anticipated positive impact on the colleague’s future practice. The school subscribes to the belief that individuals will gain more from training if they can identify the positive influence likely to be generated.

Feedback forms part of future needs identification. It is stored electronically on the school’s continued professional development Matrix. This Matrix creates a record of the nature of the development, who was involved, any link with Performance Management, links to the school improvement plan, the degree of usefulness and the basic cost in time and money. Interrogation gives a good “bird’s eye view” of the professional development across the school community.

With thanks to Hilary Gibb.

WITHAM ST HUGH’S COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL:

This is a new school opening alongside a former RAF Base in the west of Lincolnshire. It was established from September 2006 and thus allows the school to devise a workforce development strategy from new. The new head teacher was a strong advocate of workforce development and accreditation in his previous schools.

The strategy has been designed to focus staff development on school as well as individual priorities. The main tool is the Performance Management system but the system has been deliberately designed to be reactive to new opportunities. Things are also linked to the school’s monitoring system.

Staff are encouraged to link their needs to appropriate methods with a range expected and with research-based practice emphasised such as classroom observation, accredited training programmes and accessing professional publications. To help gain whole staff support, as much as possible is arranged in “real time” such as peer coaching or small-scale professional research relevant to the workplace. Links are being fostered with higher education institutions.

The school has produced a staff induction and development policy adapted from the Lincolnshire School Improvement Service model policy and updated in January 2007. With the school being a new one, part of the needs analysis is concerned with staff induction to the new institution with a guide to aspects such as outline of the school, aims and objectives and familiarity with the school handbook. It also covers aspects such as health and safety, developing the role, training and its objectives.

A key document for teaching staff is the needs identification against a “School Continuing Professional Development Entitlement”. This allows teacher colleagues to identify needs against a set of available opportunities. The Entitlement is offered at various stages:

·  induction;

·  years 2-3;

·  years 4-5 and subsequent years;

·  Advanced Skills Teacher;

·  developing the Leadership Role;

·  deputy/Assistant Role;

·  head teacher new in post;

·  experienced head teacher.

For each, there is a menu of opportunities for colleagues to examine and link to their own needs analysis. These comprise opportunities:

·  provided by the school such as observing lessons across the key stages, being observed, teaching in different contexts, receiving developmental feedback, attending meetings with a pedagogical focus, shadowing, accessing a bank of lesson plans, accessing a mentor, observing IEP implementation, taking responsibility such as taking the chair, being involved in recruitment and selection, the budget or pupil welfare cases;

·  provided through links with other schools such as observing ASTs or other high-quality practitioners, visiting linked partner primary or secondary schools, cluster group attendance, getting support from subject specialists, teaching in another school or setting, cross-school moderation and planning, outreach work, exchanges with a partner school;

·  available through the local authority or higher education such as meeting the SIP or an adviser/consultant, training related to National Standards and focused on generic aspects of teaching and learning, subject specific issues and team leadership skills, accessing a register of best practice, training on issues such as budgets, data and self-evaluation and subject leadership, assessment, special needs, coaching, management training, conferences, accredited courses;

·  available through national links such as placements and exchanges, NCSL programmes, websites, accredited skills such as SIPs, consultant leadership.

Those wishing to access the opportunities have to complete a form outlining the aims, the main learning outcomes, points for dissemination and a grading of value for money. These points are fed into the school’s needs analysis.

The school is equally concerned with all staff and not just teaching staff. For support staff, the school uses the “National Qualifications Framework” published by the TDA as a guiding document to inform professional learning. Examples of recent support staff development includes a cleaner accessing NVQ health and safety training to pursue career aspirations and strengthen school systems, the school administrator visiting other school offices to observe financial and administrative systems and giving teaching assistants as well as teachers access to Masters level units of study delivered on site by an external provider.

With thanks to Neil Spencelayh