AGENDA ITEM 7

BOROUGH OF POOLE

LEARNING OVERVIEW GROUP

30NOVEMBER 2004

WORKFORCE REMODELLING – PROGRESS

REPORT OF HEAD OF SCHOOL ADVICE AND SUPPORT SERVICES

1.PURPOSE

To inform the Learning Overview Group of progress in implementing the Government’s Workforce Remodelling initiative.

2.DECISION REQUIRED

To endorse the progress made in implementing the workforce remodelling initiative by the Workforce Remodelling Adviser.

3.BACKGROUND

“Remodelling is a great opportunity to support the professionalism of teachers and support staff. It is about ensuring that the time of all staff is focused on what will add most value to pupils.”

David Miliband

Minister for school standards

3.1Remodelling – an overview

Remodelling is about giving teachers more time to focus on teaching and learning and providing extra support and renewed leadership to reduce workload, increase job satisfaction and maximise the effectiveness of the whole school workforce in delivering improved standards. Remodelling is about culture change in schools; about using a broader range of adults in different roles.

3.2What is the aim?

  • To improve the work/life balance of staff
  • To raise standards

3.3How is this to be achieved?

  • To provide teachers with time for high quality planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) during their timetabled teaching time
  • To develop the role of support staff
  • To facilitate the use of new technologies
  • To optimise the use of resources to meet contractual changes
  • To share innovative and effective practices between schools
  • To allow schools to take control of and lead the change agenda appropriate to their own circumstances

The remodelling agenda is an opportunity for schools to review their current practice, policies and procedures and utilise the talents of all staff. Governors have a strategic role in school remodelling. Statutory changes to teachers’ contracts are taking place in three phases:

3.4The National Agreement

September 2003

  • A reduction of administrative and clerical work – the 24 tasks
  • Work/life balance
  • Leadership and management time

September 2004

  • Limit on the cover for absent teachers (initially 38 hours/year; decreasing in subsequent years)

September 2005

  • 10% guaranteed time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA)
  • Dedicated headship time
  • Exam invigilation

It is a school’s obligation to comply with the statutory requirements of the National Agreement. The danger is that the National Agreement and Remodelling becomes synonymous. Working with the headteacher, governing bodies should take this opportunity, not just to implement contractual change but to review the way the school is organised in order to maximise its capacity to deliver improved standards.

By now schools should have implemented the first and second phases of the contractual change, which came into force in September 2003 and September 2004. If the changes have not been implemented by the statutory date schools will be vulnerable to legal challenge, including employment tribunals and industrial action.

It is also critical that those changes which need to be implemented from September 2005 are built into school development and financial management planning. This needs to be done now as it will inevitably have implications for school budgets.

3.5What else should schools be doing?

Workforce reform is not merely about implementing the contractual changes but about fundamental reforms to the school workforce which, for example, provides opportunities for:

  • Career development and enhancement, particularly for support staff
  • Broadening the range and deployment of personnel in schools
  • Improving standards by developing an increasingly personalised curriculum
  • Monitoring and evaluating the remodelling process

3.6Further help, advice and information can be accessed from

3.7How we are responding in Poole:

Remodelling Adviser - Jacky Westmaas was appointed with effect from March 2004 to ‘champion’ the remodelling agenda in Poole.

Remodelling Facilitators - Ten colleagues in Poole are trained as remodelling facilitators. Their role is to support schools manage the remodelling process on a one-to-one basis.

The change management process - Locally all schools within Poole have been offered training in the National Remodelling Team’s (NRT) Change Management Process – so far over 90% of schools have accepted their places. Almost 57% will have completed the training by the end of November 2004.

Financial Management - One day workshops on 9th and 12th November for heads, chairs of governors, finance governors and finance officers to plan for the introduction of 10% PPA time in September 2005.

3.8Implementing the National Agreement – taken from feedback from assigned adviser meetings in the Summer Term 2004

  • Head teachers mainly welcome the remodelling agenda, many view it as a priority and generally acknowledging it as an example of good practice.
  • All schools have introduced measures to remove administrative burdens from teachers and refocusing their time on teaching and learning. Most have now addressed all the tasks but a few are still struggling.
  • Many primary phase schools do not see implementing phase 2 of the agreement, i.e. limiting cover to 38 per year, as a problem as most teachers were not routinely required to cover for absent colleagues.
  • All secondary schools surveyed reported that they have successfully implemented a cover strategy for teachers restricting cover to well below 38 hours per year. However, implementing the requirements for restricting teachers for exam invigilation is seen as an issue in secondary schools.

3.9Challenges

  • Funding, particularly in relation to implementing the 2005 contractual changes
  • Ensuring all staff has a shared view of the remodelling agenda.
  • Sustainability of changes that have so far been implemented or of future plans

3.10Work in progress

  • Some schools report increasingly creative ideas to remodelling the workforce and are seeing a shift in culture by involving the whole workforce in the decision making processes of school improvement and working with other local schools and agencies.
  • Most progress seems to have been made in those schools where the Governing Body has been actively involved in the remodelling agenda.
  • A range of changes has been made to optimise the use of personnel
  • Increasingly schools are developing the use of ICT to support such tasks as planning and assessment; administration; assessment and management of data and the writing and collation of reports.
  • Several schools have provided all teachers and some support staff and governors with laptops or access to laptops where funding is limited. One school reports that 100% of staff [teachers?] have laptops and interactive whiteboards. One school involved all staff and governors in writing the school improvement plan by working in teams in the ICT room on a training day.
  • Some schools are linking their remodelling agenda to other initiatives e.g. Investors in People; Healthy Schools Programme; Excellence and Enjoyment.
  • Schools are beginning to look to more long-term solutions to their challenges for example by extending the roles and responsibilities of support staff; developing links between schools e.g. to share various specialist staff; to support P.E.; employing football coaches.

3.11Monitoring processes to assess the impact of remodelling

Schools are using a number of different monitoring processes including:

  • staff feedback from performance management, audits or questionnaires e.g. job satisfaction, stress, efficiency, workload
  • measuring staff absence rates and morale;/monitoring pupil attendance
  • reviewing job descriptions;
  • evaluating the quality of teaching and learning and the effectiveness of leadership across the curriculum;
  • feedback from Investors in People panel;
  • evaluating performance against benchmarked schools;
  • assessing standards of achievement
  • assessment of Excellence and Enjoyment across all subjects;
  • reports from change team/reports to or from the Governing Body;
  • using remodelling tools e.g. The Five Whys
  • including a remodelling strand on the school improvement plan
  • monitoring supply budget/analysis of whole budget and staffing ratios

3.12Reported impacts

  • Lower staff absence rates/less short-term absences
  • Lower supply budget costs
  • Improved teamwork/wider consultation
  • Improved work life balance and more energy/less stress
  • Improved pupil achievement against benchmarked schools
  • Improved quality of teaching and learning
  • Better job satisfaction/higher morale reported from staff
  • Greater focus on teaching and learning/standards from the whole school
  • Improved planning and assessment procedures
  • Shorter/more focused/less meetings
  • Introduction of new support staff roles e.g. Higher Level Teaching Assistants
  • Focused professional development linked to performance management/appraisal
  • Improved ICT provision in the curriculum e.g. interactive whiteboards and for administrative tasks e.g. report writing; provision of laptops for staff/governors
  • Sharing good practice with other schools
  • Staff confidence in the remodelling process

JANE PORTMAN

HEAD OF SCHOOL ADVICE AND SUPPORT SERVICES

Contact:

Jackie Westmaas

Workforce Remodelling Adviser

Tel: 633551

Email:

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