Give teachers more professional control over decision-making

Ensuring that staff have a say and are actively involved in decision-making at a whole-school level can really improve morale and wellbeing. Consider these questions and the answers arising to implement this intention.

Review school policies that involve staff in decision-making:

• To what extent do they prescribe staff actions?
• To what extent do they allow for consultation?
• Do staff have an input when policies are reviewed?
• Can the overarching structure of school policies be modified to increase staff involvement?

Review formal processes of senior leadership responsibility for the staff as a whole:

• To what extent do leaders micromanage staff?
• Do staff have a two-way relationship with leaders?
• Is it clear what decisions need to be taken by leaders and those that should be consultative?

Review your programme and delivery of continuing professional development (CPD):

• Is there a balance between whole-staff, middle/subject leadership and individual professional development?
• To what extent is whole-staff professional development inclusive, for example, if there is a staff meeting involving CPD, are there staff who would not benefit from it?

Then consider the following actions:

• Set up a voluntary staff working group to make recommendations to SLT. Arrange for the group to meet during staff meetings to avoid additional time commitment for members.
• Include a standing item on all agendas: progress towards greater whole-staff professional control.
• Create a CPD entitlement structure: whole-staff CPD, team/department CPD, personal CPD.
• Invite staff at all levels to deliver CPD to the whole staff, including support, admin and ancillary staff.
• Include staff in reviewing whole-school policies in draft.

There are a number of strategies you can consider implementing to help increase staff involvement in decision-making at middle leadership level (for example, as leaders of academic/pastoral teams or lead teachers).

Reduce the frequency of accountability reporting by the team leader to their line manager (lead teacher is included in this role description). For example:

• Reduce the number of meetings where the team leader formally reports to their line manager.
• Reduce the number of times the team leader formally reports pupil progress data to their line manager.
• Reduce quantity and frequency of data entries and reporting.
• Remove the necessity for team leaders to report on the performance of members of their team.

Hold line management meetings to explore what support the team leader needs.

Discuss the extent to which the team leader is able to take unilateral decisions to represent their team’s interests.

Draw up whole-school guidelines to increase the responsibility of teams for making decisions on two levels:

1. decisions that impact individual members of staff in their team and on the team as a whole
2. decisions that impact the whole school.

Distribute the guidelines in draft form to the staff for their feedback. Revise the guidelines if necessary and circulate the final version.

Top tips

• Devolution of responsibility and a redistribution of power from middle leaders to staff might feel risky. The more your school has taken decisions at the centre or through the line management structure, the greater the perception of risk might be. To help with this, middle leaders will need to share their experiences and to support one another as their role changes.
• One way of informally assessing progress in this intention is for middle leaders to ask themselves: ‘If I was ill, how would the team function?’ The closer they are to the answer, ‘It would continue as normal’, the more successful the redistribution of leadership.

Poor communication can lead to staff feeling left out, not knowing what is happening and concluding that their involvement is not valued.

The less staff are involved in decision-making, the more likely it is that they will feel that actions are being ‘done to them’ rather than with their involvement and consent. Integral to involvement is clear communication of decision-making at both middle leader and whole-school level. This intention focuses on how decisions are communicated at both levels. By reviewing your schools’ decision-making trail, you can revise or establish better protocols about how decisions are made and communicated that will lead to better staff wellbeing.

Begin by considering decisions taken, as recorded in the minutes of meetings at both whole-school/SLT and middle leader levels. Work backward from the decisions to create a communication trail:

• When was the first discussion about this decision?
• Who was involved?
• Why was the decision taken?
• What impact did the decision have on staff?
• Did it affect their wellbeing?

Having identified the path the decision-taking process followed, determine whether the record of the decision in the minutes of the meeting was the first time staff were informed about it and consider:

• If so, was this inevitable or could there have been advance notice of the decision?
• Is it clear to staff why the decision was taken and the intended impact?
• Could the reason for considering the issue have been communicated earlier? If so, how?
• Could more staff have been informed about the reasons for considering the decision, why it was taken and the intended impact?

Increase opportunities for staff feedback and build this into the decision-making process by asking the question, ‘How will this affect the wellbeing and mental health of the staff?’, particularly when considering decisions that impact groups of staff or the staff as a whole. Ensure this question becomes routine in meetings, rather than an afterthought and is integrated into the discussion from the start.

Top tips

• Think about the following: where decisions are confidential, is there a clear reason for this?
• Confidential decisions usually relate to the personal circumstances of a child or a member of staff. Legitimate reasons for confidentiality include personal physical and mental health, safeguarding, professional conduct and competency. Confidentiality should not be used to avoid communicating issues and decisions that should be a matter of public record and/or involve or impact staff.

Teaching and learning are the core of a teacher’s professional life. The more control and professional judgement a teacher possesses, the greater their job satisfaction is likely to be. Micromanagement of what is taught and how it is taught can lead to teachers feeling deskilled and that they are not trusted to do the job they trained for. This can lead to a lack of satisfaction and poor mental health.

Achieving this intention depends on your school relaxing formal processes of teacher reporting to enable staff to become agents of change. If you have a tightly controlled system of line management accountability in your school, the ‘handing over’ of power to staff will feel risky. Trusting staff to do the right thing is essential. Without trust, this intention will not be achieved.

Here are some strategies for implementing the intention.

Reduce or remove formally implemented and reported accountability measures in order to increase teacher agency. This will increase trust and give staff more control. For example:

• Replace lesson observations with Lesson Study, where two or three teachers work in partnership to identify good practice and challenges in their own teaching. They invite each other to join their lessons and give feedback. They are trusted to make appropriate adjustments to their practice where necessary. The process and outcomes of their partnership are not reported to SLT. Consider video recording lessons for self-analysis and to share with their partner(s). Regard the recordings as data and ensure safe storage to avoid leakage and unauthorised sharing.
• Replace book scrutinies by SLT with a process similar to Lesson Study, where two or three teachers review one another’s pupils’ work. The aim is to acknowledge success in teaching and learning and to explore ways of improving pupils’ engagement and understanding.
• Replace formal appraisal/performance management by line managers with self-appraisal. Teachers request a meeting with line managers if they need guidance.
• Reduce quantity and frequency of data entries and reporting. For example, teachers record pupil progress against a target with a simple traffic light system rather than a grade or score. So:
  • green = performing above target
  • amber = performing at target
  • red = performing below target.
• Teachers report once each term for most pupils and once each half-term for exam/test year groups.
• Consider whether policies, processes and strategies can be delegated to teams, rather than decisions being taken centrally. Beyond the classroom, can teams of people be created to solve a problem that the headteacher or leadership formerly controlled?
• Enable individual members of staff to share good practice. For example:
  • by saving documents in a shared area on your school’s network
  • by giving a presentation at a team meeting or whole-staff PD
  • by sharing a video of their lesson with staff.
• Collaborate with other schools. For example:
  • pair up or create/join a local network
  • visit one another’s schools or share videos
  • share teaching and learning strategies and act on examples of good practice
  • be open about challenges
  • celebrate one another’s successes.

Top tips

• After a half-term of devolved decision-making, celebrate success by asking staff to share how the changes have positively impacted staff wellbeing and improved staff to staff and staff to pupil relationships.
• Identify where more progress could be made.

Further resources

• Read Chapter 7, p.51 (Three Bridges Primary School: There is Another Way) (in Waters, S. (ed.) (2021) Cultures of Staff Wellbeing and Mental Health in Schools.
• Watch Steve Waters (Teach Well Toolkit, formerly Teach Well Alliance) interview Jeremy Hannay, headteacher at Three Bridges Primary School.

‘Leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders’ (Tom Peters).

Opportunities for leadership should exist outside the hierarchical framework of role responsibilities. Teachers have a range of skills and tapping into them can increase their self-worth and status. Both feed into wellbeing and mental health. Increased opportunities for leadership can improve staff retention because teachers feel acknowledged for the knowledge or skills they can offer your school, especially if they are not defined within the formal leadership structures of SLT, middle leaders, year coordinators and other responsibility posts.

Developing informal opportunities to lead for every member of staff (including support, ancillary and admin staff) requires exploring opportunities beyond the formal hierarchical structure that sets roles and defines relationships. Devolving leadership might include informal leadership, where someone becomes responsible for an aspect of school life that is not formally defined. For example, the music teacher who chooses a track to fit in with the theme of an assembly, or music to play during lunch.

Here are some strategies to help develop leadership in others:

• Find out what skills and abilities teachers have that are not part of their role.
• Conduct line management discussions with staff to determine their capacity for informal leadership.
• Think about informal leadership roles that could exist in your school that staff would enjoy carrying out. For example:
  • coaching a pupil or another member of staff, for instance, in a sport or an aspect of teaching and learning
  • mentoring a member of staff by modelling, for instance, how to deliver an effective assembly
  • running a specialist club for staff or pupils, for instance, an exercise class or a music club
  • being a partner in a pair or trio of staff who support one another’s teaching by visiting each other’s classes to see good practice or solve a challenge or discuss successes and challenges
  • teaching a skill to parents, pupils or staff, for instance, first aid – how to give CPR; first aid for mental health – how to assist someone who is suffering from stress or anxiety
  • coordinating an initiative, for example, a 20-minute whole-school ‘drop everything and read’ private reading session, including staff; organising a school trip, for example, to the theatre or to a farm.

Begin with small steps, such as inviting staff to share interests with line managers who have not been apparent or recognised in the course of their work. A teacher’s leaving speech is not the time to find out, for instance, that they were a top gymnast when at school!

The ease with which you are able to develop leadership in all staff depends on the extent to which your school has a leadership structure that is tightly controlled and operates through a strong accountability model. The greater the accountability, the more challenging it will be to devolve leadership throughout your school.

Top tips

• Ensure that leadership opportunities can be demonstrated during your school day and/or directed time. Adding to work overload by expecting teachers to deliver sessions or guidance in addition to their current workload will be counterproductive.
• Ensure that staff know that this is a voluntary activity. Some staff, especially those with young children, might not have the time or energy to become involved.

The less staff are involved in decision-making, the more likely it is that they will feel that actions are being ‘done to them’, rather than with their involvement and consent. Integral to involvement is clear communication of decision-making at both middle leader and whole-school level. This intention focuses on how decisions are communicated at both levels.

Reviewing decision-making trails could lead to your school revising the protocols about how decisions are made and communicated:

• Begin by considering decisions taken, as recorded in the minutes of meetings at both whole-school/SLT and middle leader levels.

Work backward from the decisions to create a communication trail:

• When was the first discussion about this decision?
• Who was involved?
• Why was the decision taken?
• What impact does the decision have on staff?
• Does it affect their wellbeing?

Having identified the path the decision-taking process followed, determine whether the record of the decision in the minutes of the meeting was the first time staff were informed about it. If so, was this inevitable or could there have been advance notice of the decision?

Is it clear to staff why the decision was taken and the intended impact? Could the reason for considering the issue have been communicated earlier? If so, how?

Could more staff have been informed about the reasons for considering the decision, why it was taken and the intended impact?

Where decisions are confidential, is there a clear reason for this? Confidential decisions usually relate to the personal circumstances of a child or a member of staff. Legitimate reasons for confidentiality include personal physical and mental health, safeguarding, professional conduct and competency. Confidentiality should not be used to avoid communicating issues and decisions that should be a matter of public record and/or involve or impact on staff.

Further resources

• Find out more about building collegiate relationships in schools.