Staff Wellbeing Improvement that Aligns with the Ofsted Leadership and Management Judgement

Ofsted’s Leadership and Management Judgement sets out that:

• Leaders engage with their staff and are aware and take account of the main pressures on them. They are realistic and constructive in the way that they manage staff, including their workload
• Leaders protect their staff from bullying and harassment

These are two topics that stand out, thought there are other areas with a real impact on staff wellbeing covered, including having a clear and ambitious vision, achieved through things such as shared values, and how the subject knowledge and pedagogy of staff is developed.

As part of their commitment to reduce the burden on staff and improve wellbeing, Ofsted have set out what they do not expect when they inspect a school, within the new DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter.

Ofsted Commitments

Ofsted recognises that we have a dual role to play in protecting and enhancing the wellbeing of staff. First, we are committed to making sure our requirements of schools and colleges on wellbeing are clear. Second, we recognise that staff can feel that inspections are a source of stress.

1. We will ensure that inspectors take staff wellbeing into account in coming to their judgements and monitorthis through quality assurance and evaluation.
2. We will review whether the framework is having inadvertent impacts onstaff wellbeing (for example, creating unnecessary workload) and take steps to alleviate any issues.
3. We will continue to clarify that we do not expect providers to create documentation for inspection, to try to reduce administrative workload. We will also be clear that:

• we do not grade individual lessons or people.
• we do not require evidence from any lesson visit that could be used in capability/disciplinary proceedings or for the purposes of performance management.
• we do not require lessons to be planned in a certain way or for lessons plans to be provided to inspectors.
• we do not require schools or colleges to prepare for inspections.
• we do not require schools or colleges to provide information in any specific format.

It is important to hold them to these commitments, though a challenge for staff to believe them! Accountability remains one of the main challenges to staff wellbeing. 

Meeting the Leadership and Management Judgement

Rather than remaining in the dark or guessing about how you might meet the Leadership and Management Judgement, you can use the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards to assess the pressures on staff, including their workload and where their pressures are coming from.

The HSE indicator tool will allow you to obtain staff feedback and provide the evidence you need – this is something you can do internally. 

As well as using a recognised standard from a Government body, the tool has also undergone independent evaluation and is recognised by the DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, It also asks specific questions on bullying and harassment and aligns with the Ofsted Judgement.

The HSE Management Standards cover six major risk factors.

• The demands staff face (workload, work patterns and working environment).
• Control (how much say staff have in what they do and the way in which they do their work).
• The support staff receive (the encouragement from leaders and colleagues and the resources to which they have access).
• Staff relationships at work (the extent to which positive working practices and behaviours are encouraged and problems dealt with).
• The role (whether staff clearly understand what is expected of them, and how this fits with their department / area and the vision of the Trust or school).
• Change (how it’s managed and communicated to staff).

In reality it is how staff respond and are able to manage these, how the values of staff members fit those of the MAT or school culture and how supported staff feel by leaders, systems and processes. You can see more detailed information about each of the six management standards and how they are likely to impact staff here.

Our on-line platform and reporting, uses the HSE Indicator tool to provide scores and feedback on what is happening at your Trust and across each of your schools. Recognised standards and through the DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, benchmarks and filters provide absolute confidence in your current position and allow you to effectively track progress and the impact of any actions you take. It also highlights staff groups and areas for celebration and sharing of practice.

Invitation management, analysis and reporting is done for you, and most importantly you will be provided with a set of suggested actions, based on your scores, as well as identifying those staff where the the actions are aimed. In addition you can respond to comments, while maintaining staff anonymity, meaning you can further engage staff, and there are things like heatmaps, analytics (graphs to track progress for every filter) and a downloadable and editable PowerPoint to make sharing results quick and easy.

While our measurement aligns with the Ofsted Judgement and is recognised by the DfE Charter, it is what happens afterwards that is most important, and that is our focus, to make it as easy as possible to improve the wellbeing of your staff, to realise the evidence proven benefits of higher retention, lower absences, better financial performance and further raising student attainment and outcomes. 

“Welbee provides an amazing foundation to our wellbeing strategy. It’s cost-effective, easy to use and provides excellent support, making the complex job of managing multiple pieces of data from 1300 employees, easy. Welbee is a highly effective staff wellbeing evaluation and improvement tool, making staff wellbeing simply part of what happens every day.”

Debbie Duggan

Operational Resources Director

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The DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter – to sign or not?If staff wellbeing is important to you, this video briefing will help break down everything you need to know about the DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter and whether you should sign it.

Click here to return to our video page ‘Is Welbee the best fit for you‘.

Also view our complete series of free content that will help transform your staff wellbeing.

It’s OK if you are still not sure and would like more information first – just email support@welbee.co.uk and we will share the features and benefits of Welbee and how these help deliver the evidence proven benefits of higher staff retention, lower staff absences, better financial performance and further raise student outcomes. All starting with DfE Staff Wellbeing Charter recognised measurement.