School Workforce Reform and Workforce Planning

Workforce Planning

The success of a school, its standards, performance and inspection outcomes depend heavily on its staff's skill, ability, knowledge and motivation.

Ofsted inspections have demonstrated that the most successful schools take a strategic approach to investment in their workforce and its development.

Effective people management and development is fundamental to achieving school improvement. Unless a school can attract, retain, develop, manage and motivate skilled people it will find it difficult to keep pace with the increasing demands for high performance, improvement, remodelling and reform.

In addition, schools are faced with a number of existing and emergent challenges that can only be dealt with successfully by clearly linking workforce developments to school development priorities. These challenges include:

• achieving workforce reforms including more flexible working practices and 'remodelling'
• meeting different and individual learner needs
• exploiting the benefits of using new technologies to the full
• responding to Every Child Matters and the forth coming Children's Bill
• extending school provision, meeting child, family and community need at a local level
• filling the gap left by experienced school leaders, managers and teachers retiring in great numbers within the next 10 years
• meeting individual employee's expectations for progression and variety in their career
• a greater need to promote community cohesion within a context of growing diversity within local communities

Workforce Planning identifies strategies for building the relevant skills and the capacity needed for school effectiveness and success now and in the future.

School Workforce Planning means:

• identifying the current and future skills, competencies, behaviours and numbers of employees needed to deliver new and improved school services
• analysing the present workforce's characteristics in relation to these needs
• comparing the present workforce and the desired future workforce to highlight shortages, likely surpluses and competency gaps
• looking at the school diversity profile at all levels against that of the future local population

The school workforce planning process can provide the basis for producing longitudinal Workforce Development Plans (spanning three to five years or more) that set out how the school will recruit, support, develop and retain the employees (including parents and volunteers) it needs for the future to serve the needs of a diverse community. The plans might also set out where the workforce will need to move to new roles to meet changing needs and priorities. These plans should be reflected in the School Development Plan.