Happy New Year from Emma Knights
Happy New Year to all those of you governing and leading schools and trusts.
The new year is always a point of reflection and I hope optimism even in a year like this one with such uncertainty, both politically and economically. The additional school funding announced in the Government’s Autumn fiscal statement on 17 November was very welcome. It won’t solve everyone’s budgeting problems of course, but for most schools and trusts, it will prevent the doomsday scenarios which were beginning to be considered from becoming a reality. The majority of NGA’s staff govern themselves and so there was an immediate collective sigh of relief. But in all our conversations with governors, trustees and leaders over the remaining month of the autumn term, there was a very noticeable change of tone. The impending sense of panic about the possibility of not being able to balance without real damage to education subsided. Of course, no one will take their eye off the ball of making the best use of resources: NGA has much to help there. One place to begin for those who are new to this topic is our December webinar.
We are hearing now that the issue at the top of the list of boards’ concerns are staff – staff retention and staff welfare – and the stresses faced by families. This email is fairly typical:
Good morning Emma
The festive season is fast approaching and staff in schools cannot wait for the break.
I have been a governor since 1990 and currently sit on the board of 3 very different schools, 2 of which I chair. All 3 heads in my view are exceptional.
I just wanted to share a view. I have attended several meetings over the last couple of weeks and all 3 heads have shared that staff are “on their knees” and pastoral demands to support children and families have grown enormously with limited external support for many of these serious issues for vulnerable children and families.
This doesn’t surprise us given our continuous monitoring of the challenges of governing boards, for example, as recorded in the 2022 annual governance survey reported in September, and it does help inform our work with boards.
In November, we published a new toolkit on disadvantage. In true NGA fashion, we are determined for it to be as practical as possible and so we will be listening to governors and trustees in this term’s Governance Leadership Forums; please do come and tell us what you need to help your board engage meaningfully to tackle the barriers faced by children with a wide range of disadvantage. There is, without a doubt, a very important leadership challenge of our times, with the educational attainment gap and mental illness growing. We want to equip boards to do what they and their schools/trust can help mitigate the effect of disadvantages on their learning.
We have to be curious about what schools can do to solve any particular problem – but also realistic. I am certainly not suggesting schools are the answer to all society’s ills. The focus needs to be on what can be controlled and influenced. We are in the middle of a very challenging time for the workforce – perhaps the word crisis would be appropriate here. The country as a whole is in the throes of a workforce crisis, particularly for those roles which are not well paid. As employers of the school workforce, there is much we can do, but we cannot solve the shortage of candidates for posts single handed, or if we do manage to attract many, currently, it is very likely to be to the detriment of another school and their pupils.
The Department for Education needs to take the whole issue of teacher recruitment far more seriously – or is that unfair? – are they taking it seriously, but just not very successfully? We really do need this to be an absolute priority, a prime focus of the ministerial team with a sense of urgency, backed up by competence, knowledge, transparency and a spirit of true collaboration in order to tackle the systemic issues which go beyond the scope of a single school or even a MAT. We all need staff recruitment to improve, not least the children and young people being educated.
This term, NGA will be giving our evidence to the STRB – the Schools Teacher’s Review Body – considering pay and conditions of the profession, but limited by their remit on affordability. For many years NGA’s submission has been that an inflation linked pay rise should be the starting point for discussion. If that minimum cannot be honoured in any particular year because of the state of public finances, that needs to be acknowledged and rectified in future years. That may seem naïve to some, but it could have prevented some of what we are seeing today with missed targets for teacher recruitment. It is a very similar approach that the board of trustees take here at NGA with staff pay – very occasionally, our finances have not allowed an immediate cost of living increase, but that has always been rectified later in the year when they have. Clearly, income needs to come into the equation too – but STRB has its arms tied behind its back if it can only make recommendations which are affordable within current school funding parameters. Chickens and eggs come to mind. A more compelling model for reviewing pay would be for independent review boards to report to the government, having taken account of the need to recruit, retain and motivate the workforce, but leaving the government to decide what they can afford given the state of the economy and the public finances.
In a similar vein, there are union ballots currently about strikes for school staff, including leaders. We will engage in discussions with their General Secretaries. We know they share NGA’s concerns about the impact of any further disruption to pupils’ education after the pandemic and they intend that actions will be designed with this in mind. We will keep you posted.
In terms of the bread and butter of the board’s remit, these may well have been on your radar for many years:
- Ensure an inclusive culture
- Develop a People Strategy
- Consult staff – but in a way that is meaningful and doesn’t add to their workload
- Invest in staff development, even in these financially challenging times
- Have discussions about staff workload and wellbeing, and take action
And then there is that bedrock of good governance, one of our eight elements of effective governance: building trusting and respectful relationships. Asking the right questions in the right way is probably the most important skill of anyone governing. In NGA’s first Governing Chatters podcast of 2023, I am joined by Andy Buck, author of Leadership Matters and BASIC coaching, in a conversation about just that. I found it useful – and I hope you do too.
And then there is that bedrock of good governance, one of our eight elements of effective governance: building trusting and respectful relationships. Asking the right questions in the right way is probably the most important skill of anyone governing. In NGA’s first Governing Chatters podcast of 2023, I am joined by Andy Buck, author of Leadership Matters and BASIC coaching, in a conversation about just that. I found it useful – and I hope you do too.
Rosemary Hoyle on Twitter“Such a good conversation - a ‘must listen’ for all chairs and governors. Thank you. I really enjoyed this.”
Co-Chief Executive
As NGA’s Co-Chief Executive, Emma promotes the interests of the school governance community nationally with legislators, policy makers, education sector organisations and the media. Emma is an accomplished writer and speaker on a range of school governance policy and practice topics.