Academy guide April 2014

ACADEMY guide april 2014

A BEACON OF

SUCCESS An inspirational primary SBM embraces the challenges of academy conversion

CHOOSING THE RIGHT STRUCTURE FOR YOU We hear from a proponent of network governance

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AN EPIC TURNAROUND How one school went from being described as the worst in Norfolk to being awarded ‘outstanding’ status

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Welcome Impressive transformations Despite frequent criticism in the media, academy conversion can have a transformative effect on a school and its pupils. The senior leadership team of Ormiston Venture Academy in Norfolk can attest to this – they’ve been at the helm of some huge changes, which have enabled the school to raise attainment for its pupils and gain ‘outstanding’ Ofsted status. The watchdog’s stamp of approval is all the more impressive when you consider the fact that the school was once deemed the worst in Norfolk. On page 14, we speak to the school’s principal, executive principal and finance director to find out how they did it.

Academy conversion can also be challenging, particularly for business managers. Fiona Mason, school business manager at Hockley Heath Academy near Solihull, has first-hand experience of the hurdles that have to be overcome. When I met her last month she was cool, calm and supremely organised – and told me she relished the increased responsibilities pre- and postconversion. As a former finance manager, Mason’s used to working with multi-million pound contracts so was relatively unfazed by the finance and budgetary side of the role. However, she did learn some lessons along the way – turn to page 10 to find out more.

Elsewhere in this issue, we learn why network governance can be the best option for some academies (p8) and hear from an HR consultancy about how to get your staff on side before and during conversion (p18).

Have a great Easter and enjoy the issue!

UPDATE 04 NEWS The latest news and developments in the world of academies

08 PRIORITISING GOVERNANCE Andy Allen puts forward his argument for why network governance is the way forward

TRANSITION 10 A BEACON OF SUCCESS We speak to a primary SBM about how she has embraced her new responsibilities post-conversion

14 VENTURING TO OUTSTANDING How one academy has turned things around and gained ‘outstanding’ status, despite being once billed as the worst school in Norfolk on all measures

HR AND LEGAL 18 CHAMPIONING CHANGE We hear from an HR consultancy about how SBMs can ensure they have school staff on side from the word ‘go’

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news Academies are a ‘promising trend’, says OECD The most successful education systems combine local autonomy for schools with strong public accountability, the OECD’s education expert has told MPs. Andreas Schleicher, who is in charge of the international Pisa tests, faced questions from MPs about how he thought England’s academy system was working. He said the global evidence suggested local flexibility for schools was linked to higher results and described free-standing academies as a “promising trend”.

The flexibility of individual schools needed to be balanced by

a strong culture of transparency and accountability, he told MPs. Schleicher was asked about whether creating such chains to run groups of academies removed the benefits of autonomy.

He said that moving decision making away from individual schools would reduce the advantage of such local flexibility and risked reducing a school’s sense of “ownership”.

The House of Commons Education Select Committee was taking evidence from Mr Schleicher in its inquiry into academies and free schools in England.

GROWING NUMBER OF ACADEMIES ‘EXTENDING THE SCHOOL DAY’ Rising numbers of academies are introducing a longer day and cutting the traditional six-week summer holiday in an attempt to boost education standards, according to new research.

Figures show that almost one in five academies are using their independence to overhaul the timetable. Some 19% have lengthened or plan to extend the school day and a similar number is believed to be considering the move.

It was up from 17% in 2012. In many cases, schools said an earlier start and later finish enabled them to make enrichment and extra-curricular activities compulsory, while others used it make lessons “much longer”.

At the same time, just over one in 20 academies altered the structure or length of the academic year, including reducing the summer holiday to prevent children’s performance dipping over the six-week break. The disclosure is made in a survey of around 650 academies in England.

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Croydon primary academy celebrates after impressive turnaround A primary school that once posted the worst results in London is celebrating this week after being praised by Ofsted.

Just 34% of pupils at Ecclesbourne Primary School in Croydon passed their SATs in English and maths in 2010.

Since then results have significantly improved and its latest Ofsted report rated the school to be ‘good’.

Headteacher Paul Robins credited the school’s progress to its involvement with the Pegasus Academy Trust, set up by Whitehorse Manor infant and junior schools in Thornton Heath. Ecclesbourne had been working with the schools since 2009 but, following its record low results, was formally taken over by the trust and converted into an academy in September 2011.

Robins said: “This Ofsted report vindicates that decision.The support of the Whitehorse schools has been fundamental in improving the school.

We wouldn’t be in this position without them.”

Robins said the partnership had allowed

THEY SAID

the schools to share teaching expertise and focus on raising expectations.

Ofsted acknowledged the school’s leadership team had been “very successful” in improving the quality of teaching at Ecclesbourne, leading pupils to make “consistently good and sometimes faster” progress in reading and maths.

Robins, who joined Ecclesbourne in 2012, also said the school’s conversion to an academy had led to a “complete overhaul” in its staff.

N EW S IN BRIEF

‘Academies are a boost for pupils’ Aylesbury’s eight academy schools are able to do more for their pupils by bypassing council funding, according to one headteacher.

Although the schools, which include Aylesbury High School, John Colet and Waddesdon C of E, do not receive any extra money per pupil, the funding comes directly from the Government.

And Stephen Lehec, head of Aylesbury Grammar School – which took on academy status in July 2011 – claims that signing up to the government’s flagship scheme has benefitted pupils.

He said: “Being funded directly by central government has enabled us to spend our funding directly on the needs of the students here. One of the things that I think all of our students have in common is that they are gifted and talented in an area.

“Being an academy has enabled us to support them in these talents and we could not have done as much of that before.”

Some services are still bought in from Bucks County Council, such as admissions and appeal processes.

“The reason I support academies is that individual sponsors can give academies a unique flavour of education – be it scientific, technological or whatever. As long as they are well governed, have a good sponsor and a good head and teaching staff, then they can make huge strides forward.”

Councillor Peter Evans, West Sussex County Council’s cabinet member for children

tel: 01444 313100 email: development.team@marsh.com web: uk.marsh.com

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AV O I D S WA L L O W I N G T H E C O S T O F B R O K E N TA B L E T S Insurance is an important consideration for schools looking to invest in tablet technology. Here, Jon Taylor, head of education at insurance broker Marsh, offers his advice on what savvy SBMs should be looking out for

S

mart devices, such as iPads and tablets, are fast becoming commonplace in schools and academies. Research from the British Educational Suppliers Association suggests that, by the end of 2015, 22% of all pupil-facing computers in schools will be tablet devices*. However, buying, setting-up, and maintaining hundreds of tablets can be expensive, and eat up a significant portion of a school’s budget.

Due to the high costs of purchasing tablets, leasing schemes are becoming a popular option. Leasing schemes, which offer a monthly cost per iPad, can help spread the investment and often include set-up and management by an expert supplier. What’s more, many include basic warranties, plus insurance for breakages. All in all, leasing may be a good option, but when it comes to insurance it pays to look at the level of cover provided – in particular, exactly what exclusions any accidental damage cover is subject to.

TABLET DEVICE INSURANCE WHAT TO LOOK FOR     

Is glass/screen cover included?

What excess is payable if the device is damaged?

Is a repair/replacement service included in the cover?

Does it matter how old the device is?

Is the device covered in and out of school?

ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN Putting expensive gadgets in the hands of school children comes, of course, with a variety of risks, as some schools and academies have already discovered. When Honywood Community Science School in Essex invested in iPads for its 1,200 pupils, problems soon emerged. After just one year, half of the devices had been repaired or replaced**. The key problem, as it turned out, was with the devices’ protective covers. Once the covers were replaced with a more robust alternative, breakage rates fell significantly.

MAKE PROTECTION PART OF THE PACKAGE As the Honywood experience demonstrates, any investment in tablet devices must be properly protected – not only by appropriate covers, but also in the form of suitable insurance. If you decide to go down the leasing route, it’s vital that you thoroughly check any insurance provided as part of the package and, if necessary, shop around for more comprehensive cover. But insurance aside, there’s one thing every tablet purchaser should remember: not all protective cases are made equal!

For further information about Marsh, please visit: uk.marsh.com/tabletPC Sources: * www.besa.org.uk/news/press-release-besa-releases-futuretablets-and-apps-schools-research ** www.tabletsforschools.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ FKY-Honywood-Profile-and-Case-Study.pdf Marsh Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. © Copyright 2014 Marsh Ltd. All rights reserved.

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PRIORITISING GOVERNANCE The freedoms bestowed upon academies are forcing academy school leaders to reassess their governance structures. Andy Allen, director of business and partnership development at the Voyager Academy, offers his viewpoint on why network governance is the way forward

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he nature of state education has changed dramatically. In 2010 there were 70 academies but today, more than half of all state secondary schools are academies, some 3,500 of them. Late in 2012, the National Audit Office (NAO) calculated that the rate of growth of academies was 1,037%; the scale of transformation is, unquestionably, astonishing.

I commented in EdExec in February 2013 that the scale and speed of transformation meant that business and management systems associated with the conversion of academies had not been one of the DfE’s top considerations. Systems seemed to be playing catch-up, with processes and instruments of accountability pushed out from the centre with little reference to dialogue or consultation with academies, often producing an overwhelming administrative and cost burden for business managers.

RIGHT PRIORITIES The DfE doesn’t promote any specific governance model but allows converter academies and multi-academy trusts to develop their own structures. I’m not convinced that governance structures should be entirely open to interpretation, invention or experimentation: these matters are just too fundamental to the success of an organisation.

After all, there’s no guarantee that trustees, governors or senior managers actually hold the experience or knowledge of organisational theory to build robust academy governance systems. Acknowledging that structures will evolve over time implies that interim arrangements can be ineffective and not fit for purpose. Professor Ron Glatter, who has written extensively on autonomy and accountability in education, is calling for urgent research into the impact academy chains have on governance, both locally and nationally.

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It’s comforting to read that the National College suggests that many academy chains have drawn on their corporate and commercial experience to rethink governance, but it’s clear that this isn’t as common as we’d like to think. The Academies Commission, for instance, suggests that the majority of converter academies retain their governing bodies and, as such, they remain largely unchanged. The Commission also suggests that now is an important time to explore the complications arising from the scale and speed of change. Similarly, the National Governors Association argues that governing bodies haven’t taken the opportunity to review and alter practice but have often continued as they were. Worryingly, the Public Accounts Committee informs us that new governance, compliance and oversight arrangements for academies remain vulnerable.

Failure to redesign governance structures upon conversion may not only lead to unnecessary and wasteful duplication but is likely to generate tensions and uncertainty.

The National College acknowledges that, in operating dual levels of governance, there’s the potential recipe for conflict and confusion but states that, in practice, this isn’t actually the case. This assertion seems strange and is arguably a ‘politically correct’ analysis;

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one would assume that such arrangements are compromised and require a degree of rationalisation. Just how can multiple power bases exist without tensions? Is it the case that many governing bodies will be operating in name only, realistically acting only as steering or advisory sub-committees, with the power, the influence and the accountability firmly resting elsewhere?

COLLABORATION IS KING Governance is often discussed as being hierarchical (relating to bureaucracies associated with government-delivered services deploying command and control systems), market (reflecting the ethos and operation of the private sector that came to the fore with the privatisation of stateowned services and utilities) or network (whereby multiple stakeholders coalesce to form structures that cross artificially-created boundaries, bridging the departmental ‘silos’ that can exist within hierarchical systems).

Network governance, embracing the synergy of community interaction, is more effective in tackling problems such as social deprivation and underachievement that successive governments have struggled to address. Arguably, any attempt to narrow gaps in achievement, one of the main drivers

of the Academies Programme, would need an effective network model in order to be successful. Crucially, it’s argued that such a collaborative network approach would involve those people that are being affected, suggesting that an inclusive and participative community approach would need to be adopted.

FAILURE TO REDESIGN GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES UPON CONVERSION… IS LIKELY TO GENERATE TENSIONS AND UNCERTAINTY The Co-operative College Trust model is an interesting example of network governance. This model has expanded considerably over the last couple of years and there are now more than 700 school Co-operative Trusts. One reason for this popularity may lie in the attempt to deepen local democracy, as it embraces the creation of stakeholder groups that in turn elect trustees. This model is highly democratic, which may well be in sharp contrast to many

academy chains currently operating.

Whilst the above illustrates a shift towards democracy and community empowerment, recent policy appears to be moving away from the larger community-based, empowered governance arrangements to smaller skills-based models. The DfE has reduced the stipulated number of governors from nine to seven, and announced that governing bodies should be run more like corporate boards. In addition, Ofsted announced last year that more professionalism is needed among governors and, contentiously, that a proportion of them should be paid. Conversely, the Academies Commission recognises that a lack of community representation is a key governance risk.

Governance is an ideological matter and it’s likely that emergent models will reflect the politics of key directors at Trust level.

As the Academies Programme continues to unfold, the development of transformational governance models and accountability frameworks remains a prerequisite to the success of state-funded education.

Andy Allen is researching aspects of democratic governance within the Academies Programme for his doctorate in business administration and would like to hear from academies that are developing governance models. He can be contacted at andy. allen@thevoyager.co.uk.

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A BEACON OF SUCCESS It’s a truth universally acknowledged that the school business manager’s role expands following academisation.

Fiona Mason, SBM at Hockley Heath Academy, has embraced her new responsibilities and is firing on all cylinders. Jess Pike meets up with her to find out how she’s done it

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F

iona Mason is one supremely organised lady. When she picks me up from Dorridge Station near Solihull, she’s holding a sign with my name on it – although she knows my face, she knew that I wouldn’t know hers. Hence the laminated sign.

As we drive through the largish village of Dorridge (well-to-do, pretty), Mason gives me the lowdown on the local area.

Dorridge’s demographic is relatively affluent, a fact that can be attributed to its proximity to Solihull, one of Birmingham’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. As a result, Hockley Heath Primary Academy – which has 230 pupils on roll – has a low percentage of free school meals quota; behaviour is good and attendance high.

Mason, who previously worked in the automotive industry as a finance manager, joined Hockley Heath eight years ago as a bursar, working part time. Since the school became an academy back in August 2012 she’s been promoted to school business manager, and now works full time.

The school’s journey to academy status is a positive one and was instigated by Mason and the school’s principal, Stephen Gowan. As a governor at a nearby secondary academy, Mason was familiar with the process and had seen the advantages it could bring. “For us, it was about wanting to make sure that more of the funding was coming to the pupils rather than doing anything drastic to the curriculum,” she explains. “We wanted to decide what we spent our money on rather than it being decided for us.”

When she and Gowan consulted the school’s stakeholders they were pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction they received; the parents in particular trusted that this was a good opportunity for the school.

Governors were more cautious – as was to be expected – but were reassured by the

smooth handling of the process by Mason and Gowan. “I think we were supported because the school’s doing quite well and parents respect what we do,” she explains. “There was no hidden agenda and we were upfront about why we wanted to do it and what we could get out of it.”

I’D BEEN MANAGING MULTI-MILLION POUND CONTRACTS SO THE NUMBERS DIDN’T SCARE ME AS MUCH AS THEY MIGHT OTHER PEOPLE CLIMBING THE LADDER Following conversion Mason was quickly promoted to school business manager and – as befits her growing responsibilities – is now a member of the senior leadership team. Her role has, she tells me, undoubtedly grown although, as a former finance manager, the increased financial accountability didn’t worry her. “I’d been managing multi-million pound contracts so the numbers didn’t scare me as much as they might other people.”

What was daunting was the amount of work she was suddenly faced with and, crucially, the fact that some of her colleagues weren’t fully aware of her increased workload.

“It was less about me understanding the needs of the role and more about other people’s perceptions of what you’re there to do,” she explains. “I don’t always want to be sucked into dealing with parents’ queries at reception, for example!”

Part of the reason why Mason perhaps hasn’t felt too overwhelmed has been that she has always diligently checked the Education Funding Agency and DfE websites for bulletins, making sure she’s aware of the latest funding policy or legislation. “I also speak a lot to colleagues in different schools to discuss problems, which is always beneficial.”

One of Mason’s first decisions following conversion was to employ a good set of auditors. The school conducted a tendering process and the auditors who won the bid are very supportive and “speak in normal English, not accounting jargon!” If she ever needs any technical accounting advice, these are the first people she calls.

The ride hasn’t been completely easy; back in September, when Mason was working on the end of year accounts for the first

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time with the auditors, she was simultaneously trying to embed a new accounting system which she’d never used before and overseeing various major building works that were taking place over the school site. Busy doesn’t quite cover it.

A MANY-STRINGED BOW After converting, reassessing classroom size was a top priority for Mason and Gowan.

Three of the school’s classrooms were grossly undersized and they decided to invest in new buildings – two new classrooms and a before/ after school club space. Having approached a local contractor she soon realised that they would have to put together the funding bid before December 2012, which didn’t give them long. Following the welcome news in April 2013 that their bid had been successful, they then had only 12 months to spend the money. “It was a frantic time,” she admits, “and it was hard going – particularly when they knocked down a couple of portacabins and we were having to lug machines into various classrooms during the holidays. The weather was also terrible, and that didn’t help.”

Mason’s success – the site is scheduled for completion in the summer – was due, she believes, to good communication with the builders, the architects and the project manager, who was the bridge between herself and the workmen.

Good communication seems to

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be vital in such a busy role: another challenge that Mason highlights has been scheduling and selecting the furniture for the new classrooms. “It’s been ridiculously complicated,” she says, laughing. “I’m keen to make sure everyone gets what they want, which of course makes the process a lot longer. But it’s about talking to teachers about what furniture they want, what storage, the colour schemes, and then arranging for it to be delivered at the right time.”

Of course, at the back of her mind, Mason is focused on cutting costs and ensuring value for money with every purchase.

Eighty five per cent of the school’s costs go on staffing and she does try to eke these out where possible. “We’ve also brought music tuition in house and have been creative about the way we cover classes,” she says.

“We saved £5,000 this year by changing accounting software.”

Looking to the future, eagle-eyed Mason has her eye on utilities bills, which she’s certain she can reduce. She urges other SBMs facing conversion to speak to those who have experienced it and to have a good handle on the finances. “Understand your budgets clearly, understand what your staffing costs are going to be for the next 12 months and make sure your controls and processes are watertight – and don’t change everything at once!” Excellent advice from a lady who definitely knows what she’s talking about.

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VENTURING TO O U T S TA N D I N G

Three years ago, Oriel High School in Gorleston-on-Sea was in the bottom 10% in the country in terms of performance and was billed as the worst school in Norfolk on all measures. Since converting to an academy – renamed Ormiston Venture Academy – it has been rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

Nikki Withers speaks to three members of the SLT to hear how the school has turned itself around 1 4 AC ADE MY G U I D E

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ocated just outside Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast, Ormiston Venture Academy (Venture) is a school with a vision. “Our singular purpose is that we provide students and the community with a resource for an amazing education,” says Simon Gilbert-Barnham, the school’s principal. “We want all staff, parents, carers and stakeholders to work together to make sure that it’s an outstanding experience in every way for the students and the community.” And after receiving ‘outstanding’ from Ofsted in May 2013 they’re clearly well on their way to achieving this vision.

However, it hasn’t always been sunshine and roses for Venture. Before it converted the predecessor school, Oriel High, was in the bottom 10% of schools in the country in terms of performance and was put on a fast track to academy status at the end of 2009.“This was a place where standards and expectations weren’t high,” explains Nicole McCartney, Venture’s executive principal. “There’d been a succession of 12 headteachers in 10 years here; there had been a lot of broken promises.”

an £850,000 deficit and although we didn’t take that financial deficit forward we did take our hit in terms of resources. It meant, for example, that modern foreign languages had just one text book,” says McCartney. “The grounds and the buildings were a disaster.

The children had no uniforms and the furniture was horrendous.”

SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS A LICK OF PAINT AND A NEW UNIFORM CAN REALLY GET YOU SOME QUICK WINS

meant that we were in the fortunate position when we opened as an academy of having a surplus budget and being able to utilise those funds to furnish the building. We then had to do things like request for tenders, and so were doing things that we’d not necessarily done before.” It was at times like these that Thomson was grateful to be part of such a large group of schools. “Within the Ormiston Academies Trust you can contact people at other academies and say: ‘We’re looking at bringing this in house, can you help?’.”

Now, under the lead of Thomson, Venture is bringing more functions in house. “Where we’ve had contractors in the past, doing grounds maintenance for example, we’re now doing it ourselves. We’ve got a grounds maintenance engineer and we’re even doing grounds maintenance for a neighbouring school.” It’s projects like these, where the school is becoming more like a service centre for some of the primary schools in the local area, that really excites Thomson. “That’s pretty much the way we see ourselves moving forward,” she says. “We’re thinking more like a business.”

BUILDING PROJECT JOINING FORCES Following successful conversion, Ormiston Venture Academy opened its doors to students in 2010 in the existing buildings of the predecessor school. Sponsored by Ormiston Academy Trust, Venture has been adopted into a family of 30 other academies across the UK. “Being part of a group of 30 schools means that you can contact your colleagues at other academies and ask them for advice,” enthuses Sam Thomson, the school’s finance director. “We share advice, share knowledge and support each other so that nobody feels isolated.”

Although the academy conversion went relatively smoothly, the biggest challenge for Gilbert-Barnham, McCartney and Thomson was coming into an organisation that had been under-resourced for so long. “There was

When the school received a funding allocation of £8.08m it was Thomson’s role to oversee how the money was spent. “It was a case of looking at what needed to be achieved and trying to ensure we got as much as we could out of the money,” she says.

It was decided that the academy would be remodelled and refurbished with a new two-storey block containing classrooms and facilities. “We’ve managed to achieve about 60% new build which is extensive. The parts we kept were the school hall and the sports hall and about 20% of the classrooms. So we invested primarily in new classrooms and it was very much about the educational and teaching spaces.”

Thomson notes that they chose to invest a large proportion of the budget they’d been given by the EFA in the school site. “This

SMALL CHANGES, BIG OUTCOMES Prior to achieving its outstanding status, Venture faced a number of challenges before it could move forward. “Forty per cent of our teaching staff were unqualified and we were very understaffed at the start,” says McCartney, who adds that all of the teaching staff were extremely supportive during the conversion. “At one point we were teaching English lessons in the hall with the whole of year 11. We had one teacher and a number of teaching assistants and we just wanted to ensure that all of the students got the very best provision we could offer rather than supply staff.”

Another challenge was exorcising the institution’s horrendous reputation. “The predecessor school was so bad that there was a newspaper article that ran on April

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Fool’s day saying that the Beckhams were moving to Great Yarmouth and sending their children to Oriel,” says McCartney with a laugh. “I doubt people believed that!”

Gilbert-Barnham and McCartney knew that if they made small changes to the school’s environment the students would have a greater sense of pride in the place they came back to and this would improve its reputation. “Something as simple as a lick of paint and a new uniform can really get you some quick wins,” says Gilbert-Barnham.

“We wanted students and staff to feel that pride from day one.”

Although there were some initial concerns from parents about the school’s new policies, such as no jewellery, they’ve now come around and are “...the most supportive group of parents that we could ever hope for. When we first came in and said, ‘No jewellery, no mobile phones, no piercings, no purple hair, tuck your shirt in, wear school shoes’, I think there were some nerves. But they’ve absolutely come around,” says McCartney.

TAPPING IN And so how did they go from being a school in special measures to one that’s performing so well? Gilbert-Barnham and McCartney both believe that having a sponsor that has a good track record has helped them achieve their outstanding status. “We’re able to tap into the resources that the trust has and use the network for improvement services, which are second to none,” says McCartney. “And, being in the area that we’re in (Venture has a very high number of SEN and free school meal children) the Ormiston Trust, which started 30 years ago to serve the kind of families and children that we deal with on a daily basis, has an ever-present drive and is very helpful.”

Looking forward, Thomson hopes to continue the work she’s been doing with other schools in the Ormiston network. “It’s important to know that there’s someone there to help when you take that first step from becoming a local authority school, where you have a huge network, to becoming an academy,” she says. “But being part of this group means we still have a huge support network. At Venture we invite people in, we’ve regularly got people coming here to have a look around and ask questions. We share our information with other schools. We just try and make life easy for other people.”

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BEING PART OF THIS GROUP MEANS WE STILL HAVE A HUGE SUPPORT NETWORK

HR & LEGAL

Championing

change T When it comes to people management, academy conversion can be a tricky business. Peta Fry from Monahans HR Consultancy offers her advice on how to ensure you have school staff on side from the word ‘go’

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here has been much comment about schools moving to academy status, both positive and negative. What I’ll discuss is how to proceed once the decision to convert has been made and how, as a school business manager, you can support staff through the process.

As a business manager it’s likely that you’ll need to put a lot of effort into setting up new systems, negotiating with suppliers and bedding-in new arrangements, but what about the impact on employees? Any change, no matter how small, has the ability to impact on an individual and may generate conflict between existing values and beliefs and anticipated new ones. With the change to academy status there are likely to be concerns around pay and conditions and increased workloads for back office staff. That said, we all deal with change in our personal lives so why does organisational change seem so difficult? Isn’t it easier if we understand the process and are able to play an active role in the implementation, thereby creating ownership and familiarity?

As managers we have to deal with the prospect of change ourselves before we can help our teams through the process.

It’s important that we buy into the rationale behind the decisions that are being made, or at least understand and agree to them. How can we support others through the transition if we haven’t committed to the change ourselves? After all, managers’ attitudes

and actions can be reflected in their teams’ behaviour.

PLANNING AHEAD Having understood what needs to happen there are practical steps that the management team should be involved in.

Firstly, have a project plan that maps out the change process; this should include an action timeline and communication strategy so you can present a complete and consistent plan to employees. Discuss and agree specific areas that will affect individuals during the change so you can be prepared for questions and suggestions.

Agree the message. It’s important that managers are consistent in what they say and how they get the message across. Any concerns should be kept behind closed doors. Make sure that the changes are communicated to the team directly and that they don’t hear about it ‘through the grapevine’ or from external sources.

We all know our teams well, so work together to identify employees who will be ‘change champions’ and those who will be detractors. Every organisation has people who can be relied upon to help keep morale high as well as a few who can be counted on to complain. So, develop a plan for each group.

Understand how to keep people positive about the change, listen to your team but also look for excessive gossip or negativity so that it can be nipped in the bud quickly.

HR & LEGAL

In the early stages, plan for success and celebrate the agreed milestones so that the process is kept on track and is viewed in a positive light. Recognition should be used to reinforce the change within the organisation.

KNOWING YOUR MANAGERS

EVERY ORGANISATION HAS A FEW PEOPLE WHO CAN BE RELIED UPON TO HELP KEEP MORALE HIGH AS WELL AS A FEW WHO CAN BE COUNTED ON TO COMPLAIN

During the change process managers need to take on different roles; it’s important to understand what these are and that they have the skills and knowledge to be able to take these roles on. Based on research, managers are: Communicators: They need to be able to communicate the change effectively in a variety of different ways, dependent upon the needs of the individual and the message being given. Managers are known to be the preferred channels of communication with their team(s) and are best placed to listen to and understand concerns. Communication is, of course, best when it’s two-way.

Advocates: If the manager opposes the change, chances are that the team will as well. If they believe in, and are able to understand, the change and the reasons behind it the transition will be easier.

Coaches: The manager’s role is to support and help employees through the transition, understanding that individuals will go through this process at different speeds and may slip back at times. Managers need to be able to provide education, information and support to ensure employees emerge relatively unscathed on the other side of the process.

Liaison officers: The manager is often a conduit between employees, the change project team and the senior leadership team.

They take direction, provide feedback and ensure that all parties have the required information with which to move forward. This can also involve on-going progress reporting, highlighting what has been achieved and what needs to happen next.

Resistance managers: This is an absolutely key role which encompasses all the activities outlined above. Research shows that the best intervention to mitigate resistance comes from the employee’s immediate manager. This may involve the manager in ensuring that employees are involved in the change - it isn’t just something that’s done to them; they have a real voice and are able to actively participate in the changes that are taking place.

Change may be difficult, but it is manageable if planned properly and believed in by those involved. Communication, consultation, participation and involvement are not just words and, if actively utilised in the change process, will support a successful outcome.

The final stage in the process should always be review. Stand back and consider the whole process, evaluate successes and what didn’t go so well; identify process changes for the next project. Change is an on-going part of organisational life and, as such, the better we get at it, the more effective we become.

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