Work/life balance workshop

1. Work/life balance workshop May 2006

2. Reasons to consider Work Life Balance Lloyds TSB January 2005 – said “Two thirds of British workers would rather have a better work life balance than either a promotion or more money” A Study commissioned by DFES 2003 - said “During 2002, workload was by far the most important factor influencing teachers decisions to both join and leave the profession” • One balloon too many!!

3. Objectives of today’s event • To explore the importance and benefits of tackling school staff work/life balance • To introduce and discuss approaches and techniques that schools could employ in assessing and addressing work/life balance needs • To give participants the opportunity to consider approaches and actions for tackling work/life balance within your schools

4. Introductions and your Expectations from this event • Take a moment to introduce yourselves to each other on your table • At your table over the next 5 mins share your idea of work life balance

5. Stage two Stage one Stage three Setting the scene Making the strategy work Approaching work/life balance in your schools Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Action planning Content of today’s workshop

6. Stage one Setting the scene Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Action planning Stage One – Setting the scene Stage two Stage three Approaching work/life balance in your schools Making the strategy work Objective • To set the context of work/life balance in schools • To explore actual and/or perceived challenges involved in tackling work/life balance • To consider the benefits that embedding work/life balance in schools could bring Approach • Discuss the context of work/life balance within the National Agreement • Perform a card sort exercise to consider the challenges • Vision what a school that has successfully embraced whole staff work/life balance would be like

7. A report published by Price Waterhouse Coopers in December 2001 revealed workload issues • Key findings of the report: • Teachers were working around 52 hours each week during term-time • Teachers and headteachers worked more intensive weeks than other comparable managers and professionals • Teachers undertook tasks which they did not believe were necessary to support learning • The pace and manner of change was working against achieving high standards

8. The National Agreement was a direct response to schools’ needs that were highlighted in the PWC report The National Agreement was signed by Government, employers and school workforce unions on 15th January 2003. It introduced three phases of contractual change: • September 2003: • Administrative and clerical work • Work/life balance • Leadership and management time • September 2004: • Limit on cover for absent teachers (initially 38 hours/year) • September 2005: • 10% guaranteed time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) • Dedicated headship time • Exam invigilation Implementation of the National Agreement is being overseen by WAMG – the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group – consisting of representatives of all the signatories

9. There are some significant early signs of success • The 2005 Office of Manpower Economics (OME) survey, published in August, indicates that the contractual changes are beginning to have impact Primary Schools • the average total hours worked by Headteachers, Deputy Heads and classroom teachers has decreased since 2003 • Have recent developments changed this trend? Secondary Schools • the average total hours worked by classroom teachers and Heads of Department has decreased since 2003, though the hours of Headteachers and Deputy Heads has increased Special Schools • the average total hours worked by classroom teachers have decreased since 2003

10. What is meant by work/life balance? • The National Agreement defines work/life balance as being about helping teachers combine work with their personal interests outside work, and cites hours worked and workload as key elements of this • Although the focus of the National Agreement is on teaching staff, schools should ensure that all their staff, both teachers and support staff enjoy a reasonable work/life balance. The provision of reasonable work/life balance to teachers should not be at the cost of appropriate balance for other school staff • The National Agreement gives governors responsibility for headteacher wellbeing

11. Improving work/life balance in schools is time crucial and critical to the profession Situation Impact • School staff still working too many non contracted hours • Conflicting priorities • High levels of stress • Ageing profile of teachers • Subject shortfalls • Little time for outside interests • Work/life balance of increasing importance to the younger workforce • High levels of absenteeism • Increasing turnover between schools • School staff leaving the profession • Losing lots of experience • High turnover costs • High support staff costs It is vital to address whole school work/life balance

12. Hours worked Physical wellbeing support Control Personal fulfilment Emotional care Career development Flexibility Employee ownership Employer attitude In reality, work/life balance means different things to different people

13. Exploring the challenges – card sort exercise • In your table groups, working with one set of cards per table: • divide the cards into two piles; important and not so important • from the important pile, pick your top three to five most important statements • use the blanks to add any additional important statements

14. Exploring the benefits – TFSD • Picture your life with embedded work/life balance culture • What are you Thinking, Feeling, Saying, Doing? • What are your family Thinking, Feeling, Saying, Doing? • What are your students Thinking, Feeling, Saying, Doing? • What are your colleagues Thinking, Feeling, Saying, Doing? If you have work life balance for everyone at school what impact would there be on standards?

15. Stage one Stage two Setting the scene Approaching work/life balance in your schools Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Action planning Stage Two – Approaching work/life balance in your schools Stage three Making the strategy work • To consider and experience tools and techniques that are suitable for use in considering and exploring work/life balance within schools • To identify a range of actions that could help in improving school staff work/life balance • To provide delegates with an opportunity to consider how they would like to apply the learning within their own schools Within Stage Two of the workshop we look at an approach for tackling work/life balance within schools: Objective Approach • Introduce and apply a range of remodelling tools and techniques to addressing work/life balance • Discuss the points of learning from each exercise and how it could be used within a school environment

16. Stage one Stage two Setting the scene Approaching work/life balance in your schools Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Action planning Approaching work/life balance in your schools – an overview Stage three Making the strategy work Stage Two is composed of several steps:

17. Stage one Setting the scene First step: Getting started Stage two Stage three Approaching work/life balance in your schools Making the strategy work Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Action planning Objective: • Provide clarity to interested parties, particularly staff, over the objectives and plans for the programme such that all school staff understand what it is seeking to achieve, its potential impact and their involvement in it Approach: • Set the context for addressing work/life balance within the school • Agree the objectives of the programme and how it will operate; how, when, why, what, where. The logistics of a work/life balance programme are best evolved through discussion with all staff, or representatives of all staff groups • Agree how staff representatives or staff groups will be involved and will input to the programme • Ensure that all stakeholders are briefed and that there is a clear line of communication for any concerns or queries

18. Stage one Setting the scene Second step: Identifying the key issues Stage two Stage three Approaching work/life balance in your schools Making the strategy work Identifying the key issues Getting started Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Action planning Objectives • To clarify the issues that most need to be considered within the work/life balance programme Approach • Week/Day in the Life of (WILO/DILO) – consider the way time is currently spent, identifying issues that need to be addressed • Card sort – identifying statements or beliefs that most ring true regarding a school or a team’s current attitude towards work/life balance • Staff survey to identify key issues in your school

19. Second step: Identifying the key issues (cont.) Day in the Life Of • Consider any aspects of your own working day that you are dissatisfied with. Do you have enough personal time? If not, what is eating into it the most? • Working in small groups, consider your analyses. What are the areas that appear to need addressing? Please consider particularly: • activities that require a high number of non contracted hours • non teaching activities that require significant hours effort • do any variations between responses indicate different approaches? • Be ready to share your observations in plenary

20. Stage one Setting the scene Third step: Understanding the challenge Stage two Stage three Approaching work/life balance in your schools Making the strategy work Under-standing the challenge Getting started Identifying the key issues Developing strategies Action planning Objectives • To develop a better understanding of the issues and their root causes, thereby identifying whether there are any ‘hidden’ issues that need resolving • To prioritise those issues or causes that need immediate attention Approach • Prioritisation – once a full understanding of the issues has been reached, a matrix is used to identify the most appropriate prioritisation for addressing them • Five whys – investigating why a particular issue exists and the factors that are leading to the current situation – identifying any ‘hidden’ issues

21. 6 10 1 4 5 2 8 7 3 9 Third step: Understanding the challenge (cont.) Prioritisation matrix Easy 4 3 Control & Resolvability 2 1 Hard 1 2 3 4 Low High Impact

22. Other peoples priorities That’s what we are told Behaviour driven by pupils Wide floods of work Everything we do makes a difference Called on at any time Want to support Feel everything is important Commitment/ own satisfaction Guilt Dealing with humans Told everything is urgent Recognition Difficult to separate urgent from important Pressure to meet targets & good performance Everyone wants everything done yesterday Prioritising tasks is difficult. Why? Poor communication Constrained People are sure you know Lack of clarity about the tasks Poor organisation Role unclear Not in the right meeting Own tasks are important After school may not be possible Time to explain No time to do it Different types of teaching Different teachers have different expectations Lack of time to clarify tasks Lots of different roles School organisation is complex Classroom management differences We don’t ask Time Feel we should already know Not conversant of role change Third step: Understanding the challenge (cont.) Five whys

23. Our contribution to your worklife balance • Sarah Edwards from WEA

24. Stage two Stage three Approaching work/life balance in your schools Making the strategy work Stage one Developing strategies Setting the scene Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Action planning Fourth step: Developing strategies Objectives • To identify actions that could be undertaken to tackle priority issues • To build consensus and commitment to those actions Approach • Problem Solving, team building (PSTB) – an inclusive, short, sharp and structured way of identifying possible work/life balance solutions, selecting the most appropriate and developing a high-level implementation plan with a defined and agreed timeframe

25. The process has 7 steps for the team to work through 30 min example Problem Statement 5 mins Background Idea Generation 10 mins Idea Selection Benefits/ Concerns Analysis 10 mins Work Critical Concerns Action Plan 5 mins Fourth step: Developing strategies (cont.) Problem Solving, team building (PSTB)

26. Fifth step: Action planning Stage one Stage two Stage three Setting the scene Approaching work/life balance in your schools Making the strategy work Action planning Getting started Identifying the key issues Understanding the challenge Developing strategies Objectives • To bring together the implementation strands in a single and coherent plan that delivers the target benefits within appropriate timeframes • Through this, to demonstrate the technique so that delegates feel confident using it in their own schools Approach • To work together to develop a fan plan, plotting actions within implementation strands, phases and timeframes

27. Fifth step: Action planning (cont.) Improve staffroom environment Term 3 Opening party Refurbish Finalise refurbishment plan Review rules Flexible staff meetings Term 2 Design layout Staff review Review feedback Fund raiser Move machinery Hold new style meetings Set meeting timetable Term 1 Gather staff preferences Survey timing preferences T.A/Teacher time Agree room rules Agree meeting formats Proposal agreed Survey staff preferences Get a team together Develop options Review impact Proposal trialled Articulate options TA/SLT discussion Whole school consultation TAs discuss concerns Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

28. Useful approaches and additional information • Cumbria County Council Health and Safety Team - Guidelines for the Identification and Management of stress related ill- health • Model Stress Risk Assessment page 7 – change – hazards identified and Further actions required identified. • Also gives a model work-related stress and Stress Management policy • National Agreement Toolkit has list of prepared Key questions for considering work load issues • Achieving work life balance booklet – advice from practising Heads • Remodelling section of CGfL website:-www.cumbriagfl.org.uk/

29. Risk assessment Stress factor Change

30. The exercises in the workshop follow the remodelling approach Change management tools, techniques and skills Commitment Clarity Common ground Openness Trust Trust across the school in applying agreed work/life balance principles for the benefit of all Common ground between members of the school change team Openness around work/life balance needs and parameters of solutions Commitment of the whole school to the potential benefits Clarity of understanding of work/life balance issues across the school Increased levels of openness and trust • Context setting • Card sort • TFSD • Week in the life of • DILO • Five whys • Fish Bone • Prioritisation matrix • Problem solving / team building • Fan plan • TFSD

31. Work/life balance is a philosophy, not something that can be ‘one and done’ • Schools need to commit to WLB as a philosophy thus embedding the culture. • This will mean continuing to re-visit staff and school needs to ensure WLB approaches are adopted in all the workings of the school as the norm.

32. Time for personal reflection • Please use the next 20 minutes to reflect and plan your next steps. You could use the bullet points below to help you. • Think about the characteristics I would like to see demonstrated within my school that would suggest to everyone that the school has an embedded work/life balance culture • the actions I think that my school should be taking around staff work/life balance: • Activity/tools that I might use to proceed / instigate WLB • My next steps to make this happen and target date Thoughts around my own work/life balance that today’s activities have sparked and actions I should take to improve my WLB

33. We would now like to capture your feedback on the whole day in plenary What went well Even better if