In the current financial climate, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find ways to both create efficiencies and deliver a quality education provision.

Budgets are being slashed and along with it, our capability to provide the number and quality of staff we need to deliver in the classroom. Add to that the teacher recruitment crisis and we have a perfect storm of staffing misery.

Without a doubt, our greatest resource (and cost) is our people. Think for a moment about what they want from their job, what they want from us and perhaps why other people might want to come and work for us; especially in the current context of financial pressure and high stakes accountability. 

Essentially, they want what we all want in a job; reward & recognition, development, career progression, support, fair treatment, flexibility, autonomy and work/life balance. One of the key budget lines that enables some of these employee engagement drivers is CPD.

Staff training is essential to school improvement, reducing turnover and increasing retention. With unskilled staff, poor performance and high turnover, it does not take long for a school to slide into special measures. 

I know when you’re looking at your budget that CPD might appear to be a ‘luxury’ you can’t afford but it really doesn’t have to be that way. In the world of education, it’s easy to boil CPD down into qualifications and conferences; expensive, time consuming and not always the best value in terms of on-the-ground impact.

Whilst both qualifications and conferences can have some great benefits it’s unlikely that, on their own, they’ll provide your staff with all that they need to continuously develop. Thinking more widely about training and development opportunities can help you to get laser focused on improvement objectives (for both your staff and your school) and help you keep your training budget under control.

Factoring in learning and delivery styles, desired impact and ways in which the learning can be disseminated more widely across your organisation can also help you to make better decisions about what type of training to offer your staff. By thinking about CPD a little more creatively, we can identify training opportunities that deliver high impact at low cost.

Let’s look at some examples in more detail:

Mentoring and Coaching

Deploying some of your more experienced staff or linking up with a partner school can create coaching and mentoring opportunities with low to zero cost. Consider using your network to source some one-to-one coaching and/or mentoring for key school leaders such as Heads of Department and SLT. This type of CPD can reap huge benefits both in terms of development and support for staff that are struggling.

Workshops to develop specific skills i.e. public speaking, report writing, interpreting financial data etc.

Not every CPD need requires a full-day conference or qualification to acquire knowledge or develop a skillset. Breakfast sessions or lunchtime workshops providing in-depth training on a specific topic can be just as effective. Again, if you have expertise within your network, you can share this knowledge more widely and potentially at low cost.

Online Training

Many CPD providers offer online webinars digging into key training areas such as safeguarding, assessment, data, management, HR, finance etc. Some providers even deliver these flexibly. This will avoid creating cover issues within school and also, potentially be lower in cost than similar face-to-face options.

Local Networks

Working with local schools, groups of staff (Heads of Department, SLT, SBLs) etc. can also create valuable CPD and research opportunities. Accessing the knowledge of others means that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and also, have support available for staff who need it.

Secondments & Work Shadowing

Either shadowing someone internally or working on secondment at another school (perhaps as a part of an exchange) can offer a fresh perspective, on-the-job training and a potential route for succession planning. These opportunities allow staff to both acquire the knowledge that they need and build the capacity of the organisation.

Individually Driven CPD

Some people’s learning styles just don’t lend themselves to classroom based/teacher led learning. If your school can find a way to guide, record, measure and assess the impact of individual CPD activity then this can really work in your favour. Participating on social media, reading books, listening to podcasts, subscribing to relevant organisations and/or becoming members of professional bodies can also create impact at relatively low cost.

When it comes to identifying the CPD activities that will be most effective for each member of staff, the key is to really get to grips with your staff as individuals and what role each plays in the success of your organisation. You can do this by aligning your CPD plans more explicitly to your appraisal process and succession planning strategy. Doing this can provide you with a strong and cohesive staff and school development plan.

Consider dividing your CPD strategy into three strands:

• CPD for those who are experiencing difficulty or need to brush up/keep up 
• CPD to acquire new skills or further enhance existing skills in the roles people currently do 
• CPD for skills that need acquiring in preparation for the roles people aspire to or are planning to undertake in the future

Categorising and tailoring your CPD will not only make staff feel valued and costs more manageable, it will help deliver robust school improvement.

In addition to the above, I have put together a ‘CPD Menu’ for you with 25 CPD activities with guidance on budget, learning styles and benefits to help you design a bespoke CPD strategy.

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Written for: Teach Secondary Magazine (@teachsecondary)

If your staff are determined to leave, there’s ultimately little that any headteacher can do to stop them. You can, however, take steps to reduce the likelihood of staff wanting to move on due to professional misgivings. Here’s how to go about identifying staff concerns ahead of time and assemble a robust retention strategy.

When it comes to recruitment and retention, it’s easy to get lost in short-term activities instead of focusing on long-term strategy. The truth is, there are many touch-points and milestones that can create ‘deal-breakers’ for your employees resulting in resignation. Some are beyond your control but many are within it. Before we look at what you can do to create a robust retention strategy, let’s first look to our employees and what they want from us as employers. These factors, as a whole, constitute what is known as the ‘psychological contract’.

The psychological contract is the ‘silent partner’ of the employment contract but it is different in that it is unwritten and subjective. For the employee, the psychological contract is focused around their expectations of the employer and how they hold up their end of the ‘employment deal’. These expectations relate to areas such as:

• Reward
• Recognition
• Development and progression
• Security
• Management support
• Flexibility and work/life balance
• Autonomy
• Fair treatment
• Trust

The management of the psychological contract is key to positive employment relationships and the facilitation of employee choice in order to improve both recruitment and retention.

Though the psychological contract may be intangible, it is similar to the employment contract in that it can be ‘breached’. From the employee perspective, the most serious form of breach is through organisational and management behaviours which compromise one or more of the above areas. Examples include: over promising and underdelivering, a ‘do as I say not as I do’ culture, a lack of follow through, not meeting deadlines, mismatched processes and practice and moving the goalposts.

For an employee these types of breach, if unresolved, often result in disengagement. This might start out with feelings of dissatisfaction, progressing to working to rule and doing as little as they can. If this continues for a period of time, it could impact their wellbeing and even result in prolonged periods of absence or resignation.

As employers, what we have to wrestle with and be alert for are instances where the employee perceives that there has been a breach. This could be due to a lack of communication or information or simply staffs’ own interpretation of management behaviour. Real or perceived, these breaches can be avoided and addressed – thus mitigating the impact on turnover and staff engagement.

Whatever the truth or reality is, how your staff perceive you as an employer will impact their psychological contract with the organisation. From the moment that staff join your organisation, they are constantly yet often unconsciously assessing whether leaders do what they say they will, honour the promises they make, lead by example and apply policy fairly and consistently.

When you start looking at the employment relationship through the lens of the psychological contract, the levers you can pull to maintain a healthy psychological contract with your staff become much clearer.

From your perspective as an employer, the psychological contract lives in what we know more commonly as ‘how things are done around here’. In relation to the list of what our employees want from us, these ‘things’ include:

• The creation and management of staffing structures and restructures
• Recruitment processes
• Leadership and line manager behaviour
• Policies and implementation
• Appraisal and Performance Management
• CPD, career progression and succession planning

All of these things will currently exist and/or take place within your organisation but how well your organisation does these things has a significant impact on how staff view you as an employer and whether they want to continue working for you. In essence, employer behaviour in these areas determines whether an employee feels supported, treated fairly, valued, recognised, developed, allowed autonomy and trusted.

Here are some areas to focus on that will help you to both shape and maintain a healthy organisational psychological contract and improve retention:

1. Job Design & Recruitment

Turnover can create the perfect opportunity to affect organisational change with minimal disruption. If you have your finger on the pulse and your eye on the future, you can reduce the likelihood of wholesale restructures down the road. Also, take the chance to really think about not only the vacancy that needs to be filled but what type of person the role would suit. Make it an attractive role and be clear what it will be like to do this job on a daily basis; for all its quirks, make sure you highlight its perks. If you’ve nailed job design, then attracting the right candidate for your role shouldn’t be an issue. However, the ‘psychological contract’ starts here – everything that is written, spoken and communicated from the start to the end of the recruitment process sets the tone for the future working relationship. Be consistent, don’t make promises you can’t keep and deliver on everything you say you will. This rolls right through into induction and probation periods. Don’t leave them adrift, wandering around your corridors. Take charge, set expectations and set your stall out in terms of what your staff can expect to receive from you as a member of your team.

2. Line Management and Workload

How your line managers look after their staff is a critical part of maintaining the psychological contract. How managers treat people has a direct impact on how staff feel about coming to work in the morning. They are the ‘face’ of the organisation and the decisions that are made so how they communicate to staff matters. The value that you place on the quality of line management directly indicates how much you value your staff.

How well you listen to you staff is also crucial in maintaining the psychological contract; workload being a good example of this. If a task is seen as ‘worth it’, staff will be more likely to engage with it in a positive way. If they see it as a ‘waste of time’, this will affect their view of their role and how they feel about working for you. As I said before, their perception of what’s worth it and what’s not may be skewed but the sooner you address these discrepancies, the better.

3. Performance Management, CPD & Succession Planning

If job design and recruitment form the beginning of the psychological contract and line management establishes it, performance management, CPD and succession planning cement it. These processes are about identifying those who need support, supporting those who are ambitious and ready to progress, identifying specific organisational and individually beneficial CPD and having a meaningful dialogue with staff. They alone embody and facilitate several of those employee ‘wants’ we covered: reward, recognition, development, progression, support, fair treatment, autonomy and trust so it’s essential that you get them right.

How you do business defines both your culture and your identity and how you do something is just as important as what you do. Polices and processes must be designed and actively managed with your people in mind; not only to hold them accountable or to measure them but to recognise them, reward them, bring out the best in them, engage them and value them. By doing this, the right people will not only want to work for you, they will stay working for you.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)

When it comes to the topic of performance management and target setting, it’s easy to tie ourselves up in policies, templates, tick boxes and deadlines.

What is often forgotten is that performance is an all year round topic and an ongoing and meaningful dialogue between leaders and teams should be engaged in throughout the year.

Staff shouldn’t have to wait until the annual cycle comes full circle in September to find out that their performance is sub-standard and that they are not receiving an increment. 

What the formal process does do is allow you to support your views of staff performance or disabuse yourself of potential biases objectively. 

Performance management is the gateway to personal development, professional progression and succession planning. It’s to identify those who need support, to support those who are ambitious and ready to progress and to identify specific and individually beneficial CPD.

The outcomes of this process are focused on staff pay; whether it is an increment or accelerated progression through the pay scale. It is here where the process can become controversial.

To understand how you can improve both clarity and objectivity in both target setting and the measurement of success, let me share with you the terminology I use when discussing staff performance.

• Appraisal: Appraising the job that is being done, the one outlined in the job description and person specification; the one that they are paid to do. 
• Performance Management: For those who have consistently exceeded performance expectation and outperformed any targets set by a pre-determined margin. 

To allow both fair appraisal and to incorporate performance management for those who have excelled, a holistic performance assessment approach should be used. 

This means that the achievement of arbitrary targets should not become the sole driver of pay decisions. Instead, overall performance discussions should incorporate a number of factors and not be weighted to one in particular. 

For example, teacher standards, career-stage, book scrutiny, data, line management and department meetings etc. Essentially, anything reviewed as a matter of course as part of the line management process. 

Targets should support the appraisal process but not determine it. With the right policy, a teacher can still receive their annual increment even if targets haven’t been met as long as it can be evidenced that they have met the requirements of their role. 

The evaluation process should allow room for exceptional performance to be recognised and valued either through accelerated pay or through CPD and/ succession planning strategies. People who outperform in their role consistently, working above and beyond and demonstrating exceptional value, deserve recognition. 

Exceptional performance should be defined and certainly should not be ‘easy’ to achieve but it should not be impossible either. This is where targets serve a real purpose. Exceptional performance, through targets, can be defined for each individual. Therefore, it hinges not only on meeting standards, but exceeding them consistently as well as exceeding set targets. 

The truth is, some organisations are good at appraisal and performance management but too many are not. The ones I’ve come across that aren’t are usually linked to either poor policy or poor management training and delivery.  To improve your staff performance discussions, think about what language you and your leaders use and how you articulate the policy. If leaders aren’t on board with the process or fail to execute it properly, it really is a wasted opportunity to serve your staff.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)

Your staff likely have plenty of important things to say, but are you doing enough to ensure their voices are heard? How do you collect staff feedback?

Giving staff the ability to make their views known can help leaders make better decisions, and facilitate the process of taking the overall ‘temperature’ of an organisation. It also promotes employee engagement, making staff feel more valued. In times of change, turbulence or concern, staff input can serve to both inform and guide.

But what are the most effective ways of giving staff a voice, and what are the pros and cons of each? 

1. Meetings

Incorporating time in meetings for the sharing of staff feedback can provide leaders with up-to-the-minute information on how people feel about what’s going on, what’s working and what isn’t. Setting aside this time will demonstrate that such feedback isn’t just welcomed but actively encouraged. 

Benefits: Instant feedback that can be discussed and acted upon as appropriate, as well as opportunities to resolve issues that might otherwise be left to fester.

Caution: This relies on leaders and managers dealing with the feedback they receive in a professional way. If they aren’t equipped to do this, the process can become counter-productive.

2. Staff surveys

These are great for gaining insight into the mindset of your staff, but it’s important to set your objectives before designing a survey and ensure that you ask the right questions. Do you want an insight into your school’s culture, staff input regarding past or future changes, or are you seeking ideas for more general improvements?

Benefits: The anonymity afforded by surveys can provide a useful whole-school snapshot of staff attitudes, which can then be benchmarked against future surveys.

Caution: If you don’t publish the results of a survey or respond to its findings, staff will feel they aren’t being listened and come to see the activity as a pointless exercise.

3. Suggestion box

Placing a suggestion box in the staff room can help generate feedback and ideas throughout the year. It maintains the anonymity of a survey, while enabling staff who feel more self-conscious about speaking up feel more able to contribute.

Benefits: Can provide a confidential feedback route concerning any and all organisational issues.

Caution: Put the box somewhere that’s accessible to all staff but also discreet. Where appropriate, create a process for responding to suggestions, perhaps via regular staff bulletins or INSET days.

4. Wellbeing group

It doesn’t have to be called this, but if you have a group of colleagues who are keen on promoting staff voice, forums of this type can provide valuable insights into your staff’s thinking and the issues they’re facing.

Benefits: Staff champions can facilitate powerful staff voice exercises that will provide you with quality feedback. Forums are also more informal than meetings or surveys, allowing staff to engage with broader discussions in a free and constructive way.

Caution: These groups ought to be independent, but efforts should be made to ensure that they represent as broad a cross-section of staff as possible.

5. Exit interviews

Sometimes, no matter what you do, staff won’t be willing to put their head above the parapet until they have one foot out of the door.

Benefits: When staff leave, ask about their views of the organisation but also their specific role – what worked, what didn’t, what the organisation could do to improve things for their successor – to aid your recruitment and retention process.

Caution: See that the people undertaking your exit interviews are as neutral as possible. Ideally, you’ll want one regular person to conduct them, such as an SBM. Where this isn’t appropriate, select a colleague that the departing member of staff will feel comfortable talking to.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)

The management of Occupational Health referrals can be a complex and sensitive task. Having worked closely with a number of providers both good and bad, I have found that the below tips generally get me as close as I need to be to move forward with an absence management process.

1. Be discerning

Do not undertake referrals as ‘standard’ especially in cases of short-term absence. Discuss with your employee whether a referral will be of real benefit. If the employee is not indicating that there is an underlying problem and says that their absence record is simply a matter of unfortunate timing or circumstance and that they believe they can improve, then there really is very little point in referring at the first opportunity. You can always reconsider a referral at the next stage.

2. Be precise

On the referral form, stick with factual statements to ensure that you have not written anything that could be construed as discriminatory. Use of subjective language may change the tone of the referral and unwittingly undermine what is intended to be a supportive process. Provide as much information as you can in relation to the role that the employee undertakes along with a copy of the current job description. This context will be essential for Occupational Health to provide you with the best advice that they can.

3. Ask additional questions

Most services have template referral forms but there is usually a box to add any further questions you would like to be addressed. Unless covered elsewhere on the form, you may consider asking:

• What is the likelihood of a return to work?
• If a return to work is likely, what would be the timeframe for this factoring in agreed interventions/support?
• What should the return to work look like in terms of possible duties and facilitation?
• What reasonable adjustments, if any, should the employer be considering both pre and post return to work? 
• Is the condition likely to affect future attendance or performance?
• How likely is a full recovery?
• Is a further assessment needed/recommended?

4. Be realistic

As an employer, you are obliged to act reasonably but you also have a duty to weigh the balance of what is right for the employee with what is right for the organisation. Often, the recommendations from a report become a starting point for discussion and negotiation. Whilst you are not obliged to follow the advice of Occupational Health, if you choose not to you must be clear as to reasons why. Ensure you consider both local policy and precedent, as you will be expected to justify your decision to the employee, their representative and quite possibly a tribunal. 

5. Occupational Health is not the ‘Hall of Prophecies’

Whilst Occupational Health can provide you with an informed medical opinion, they cannot predict the future with any more certainty than you. What you need from the report is to be able to determine what is reasonable for you to not only do but also to expect in relation to the employee and their condition. The report will ideally allow you to set both realistic and reasonable targets and determine ways in which you can move forward in all scenarios whether that be a return to work or progression to the next stage of the process. 

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)

In terms of hard data, your pupil numbers, curriculum model and financial bottom line provide you with more than a firm steer towards what your staffing structure should look like.

Whether you need to undertake a full restructure or simply make a few tweaks, your staffing structure is the nerve centre of your school and it requires almost constant attention.

The truth is, schools are always in the process of restructuring their staff – but by doing it with a long enough lead time, it becomes a change management process rather than a wholesale HR operation to be completed in a half term.

In the current climate of continuous change:

• How do you make sure that not only is your staffing structure value for money but also fit for purpose?
• How do you make sure that good on paper is good in practice?

Below is a three-phase self-evaluation tool designed to help you achieve just that.

Phase 1: Determination – Where do you need to be and what might stop you getting there?

It’s essential to determine your ‘destination’ before you set off on this journey or you are risking the wheels coming off along the way.

Curriculum led financial planning and benchmarking are key cornerstones of school budget management but other factors need to be taken into account before you start reshaping your staffing structure.

It’s easy to delete lines from spreadsheets and merge classes in SIMs but when it comes to dealing with people, assessing, evaluating and implementing the changes you need to make isn’t as straightforward.

Considering the current context, wider picture and long-term goals of your school is the starting point of any staffing review.

Ask yourself:

• Is our vision, mission and strategic plan reflective of what needs to be done and where we need to get to?
• Are there any external threats to our organisation that need mitigating?
• Could upcoming legislation changes impact our capacity or hinder progress towards our objectives?
• How can we ensure that accountability lines remain clear in the face of upcoming change?
• How can we protect the continuity of operation and facilitate knowledge sharing to mitigate the impact of turnover?
• What skills are we lacking that we’re going to need over the next year?
• What knowledge do governors need and what role should they have in relation to any changes that we need to make to our staffing structure?

Phase 2: Assessment – What do you already have, what else do you need and how can you fill the gaps?

Determining your destination will almost certainly have flagged a number of issues that need your attention.

Recruitment or redundancy is often seen as the obvious way forward but both options can prove costly and therefore should only be undertaken if all other angles have been explored. It’s at this stage where marrying together as much as possible the ambitions of your staff and the ambitions of the organisation can really bear fruit.

The more you know about your staff and where you need to be – and the sooner you know it – the better you will be able to implement the changes you need to make. It may even be the case that upon assessing your current position, you re-evaluate your final destination.

The future is not predetermined so go through as many draft versions as you need to.

Ask yourself:

• Do we have accurate and up to date information about our staff in terms of pay scales, job descriptions and skillsets?
• Are the jobs being done across the school being done by the right people?
• Are all the jobs being done needed to be done? Can they be done a better way?
• Do we have capacity and is it in the right place?
• Would a review of job descriptions, an investment in CPD and appropriate remuneration mitigate the need to recruit and secure best value from existing staff?
• How can appraisal inform our thinking in terms of skills and talent management?
• Could leadership roles be redefined across the school to reduce head count and cost but also foster talent management and create new progression pathways?
• What impact will these changes have on our support staff and operational capacity?
• Would a service level agreement or local collaboration be a preferable option?
• If we need to recruit, what terms and conditions will suit both the role and need of the organisation best?

Phase 3: Evaluation – What risks come with your proposed strategy and how are you going to communicate it?

When it comes to staffing, there’s always going to be a curve ball that you didn’t account for. A maternity leave, a resignation or a long-term illness.

This phase is about both testing and safeguarding your strategy in as many ways as you can.  Determine if this is a process that can be managed over time or if it needs to be implemented quickly.

Ask yourself ‘what if’. Think of your Head of English, Business Manager, Deputy Head and your Union representatives and what they could say about your plan. Think about would worry them, what would make them anxious and what questions they might have. Now think about what answers you would give them. 

Ask yourself:

• Will our proposal achieve for us what we need it to?
• Are the reasons we have decided to make changes to our staffing structure sound and objective?
• Are there any factors that are non-negotiable? 
• What are the main risks with the changes we are proposing and is our risk management process robust enough?
• Have we truly exhausted other options and are we able to justify our decisions?
• What is the best way to communicate these changes?
• How can we include feedback from stakeholders in a meaningful way?
• How can we be sure to demonstrate fairness and transparency throughout change implementation?

Top Tips

1. Beware the ripple effect– one seemingly small change can create a lot of problems. Don’t assume anything and always think at least two steps outside of the immediate ‘impact zone’ when it comes to adding, removing or changing any roles.
2. Have a contingency– don’t hang your strategy on one person or one plan. Have an alphabetised file of back up plans. ‘Just in case’ never hurt anybody!
3. Don’t be held hostage – if you do end up caught out, negotiate on your own terms. Don’t get panicked into a ‘knee jerk’ – and likely costly – response. Remember that hostage situations can be negotiated.
4. Consider intelligence, not just evidence– do your homework. Don’t just rely on hard data. Triangulate your knowledge with numerous sources before committing to anything.
5. You don’t need to be a mystic, just be aware– it’s not just about planning for the future; you can only plan so far after all and as we’ve said, the unexpected can and usually does happen. It’s how often you review your plan that enables you to be agile when you find yourself on shifting sands.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)

It’s important for school leaders, when reviewing their teacher training, levels of workload, resources and support, to ensure that frontline support staff aren’t left out.

Support teams face a variety of challenges and have diverse CPD needs, but there are some things that all school leaders can do to foster greater inclusion.

1. Provide relevant CPD

Support staff undertake important work in areas such safeguarding, first aid, finance, HR and data protection; ensuring they possess at least the statutory training appropriate for their roles is thus essential if teachers and leaders are to maintain their focus on the school’s teaching and learning.

2. Plan ahead

Keeping support staff in the hall for the whole of your next INSET day can be counterproductive, when they could be using that time to undertake role-specific training or carry out tasks that are difficult to complete in a normal working day.

On the other hand, excluding them completely will be similarly unhelpful, and can suggest that school leaders lack an understanding of their role. By planning ahead, ensuring that time will be available and using it appropriately, school leaders can go far in helping to alleviate workload pressures on support staff while enabling new opportunities for training.

3. Assign responsibility

If your CPD is to be both appropriate and sensibly organised, the line managers of your support staff have to understand their responsibility for making this happen. Depending on your staff structure, it might be worth assigning this oversight to a member of the SLT or the school’s SBM, so that quality CPD can be properly identified and delivered, and its impact recorded.

4. Communicate more

Most CPD isn’t a whole school activity, but providing quality education provision very much is – and school-wide communication is the key to making this happen. School leaders should share whole school information and messages with all staff regularly.

Make sure all support staff have their own email accounts, are included in any email briefings and bulletins, and are invited to general staff meetings. This can foster a wider team feel, regardless of how many hours people work or which specialist team they’re part of.

5. Establish dialogue

Support staff will collectively see a lot of things that teachers and leaders often don’t. Their experience of the school will be from a different perspective, which means they can provide you with valuable insights by discussing their work, their interactions and general view of the school. Asking for their opinions, valuing their feedback and acting on their concerns can go a long way towards building your staff relationships and improving the school.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)

Schools will typically look at HR outsourcing for reasons of cost, in that they believe they’ll save money, or compliance – because they don’t have people with sufficient knowledge of staffing regulations. If you’re a very small school and lack in-house expertise, the size of your staff could make outsourcing your HR relatively cost effective.

In my own experience, however, perhaps 1% of the HR cases I’ve dealt with were ‘messy’, in the sense that I had to liaise with an employment lawyer. You do need to manage risk and avoid expensive tribunals by ensuring that you’re compliant and not breaking any laws – but at the same time, you shouldn’t automatically assume that having an internal HR function ‘is expensive’.

This might lead you to paying someone to contract manage your entire HR function, and if there’s no one in your organisation who knows what that contract should be delivering and whether the provider is performing sufficiently well, the function becomes disconnected from your organisation and you’re just making a bigger issue for yourself in future.

Heads and governing bodies can make decisions regarding oversight of their HR, such as transferring service level agreements while payroll often stays with the LA, but that requires brokering between the two, and heads will likely decide against it. I know of one headteacher who decided to do just that and thought it best for the LA to not know what was going on. He came unstuck very quickly.

Heads should be aware that if they’re paying for an outsourcing service, that service can inadvertently be perceived as being paid to do the head’s bidding. There should be someone based in the school who does the ‘softer’ side of HR, who can link local knowledge to legal processes. Otherwise, heads can risk undermining what they’re trying to achieve. Having someone with local knowledge – of both your school context and your staff – liaise with outsource providers such as payroll and employment lawyers is critical, and also a great way to ‘grow your own’.

It’s important to remember that HR is people. If you’re looking at outsourcing more than just your transactional HR – i.e. paying people – bear in mind that nobody will care as much about ‘your people’ as you will, because you’re the employer.

There’s something to be said for separating some parts of your HR system from others. You don’t need a CIPD qualification to perform basic level HR. You do, however, need to be able to speak to people, be empathetic and sensitive, and respect people’s confidentiality. Your people are your greatest asset, and how you look after them can be a big differentiator when it comes to recruitment and retention.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)