Effective Performance Management of Upper Pay Scale and ......Charles Handy ‘Inside...

Effective Performance Management of Long-Serving and UPS Staff

Effective Performance Management of Upper Pay Scale

and Long-term Staff

www.ascl.org.uk

Richard Bird

Association of School and College Leaders


Start Point

‘Who holds that if way to the Better there be it exacts a full

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‘Who holds that if way to the Better there be it exacts a full

look at the Worst.’

Thomas Hardy


Outline

• Intentions of the introduction of Appraisal and Upper Pay

Spine

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• Specific Problems with Regard to Upper Pay Spine/Long-

Serving Staff

• Tackling the Problems and Seizing the Opportunities


Context

• Review of teacher standards – Basic; ‘Master’ Teacher

already out; others to come

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• Consultation on Performance Management – New

framework expected.

• ‘Factors contributing to the referral and non-referral of

incompetence cases to the GTC’ (National Centre for

Social Research)

www.gtce.org.uk/documents/.../competence_referrals0210.

pdf


Purposes -Appraisal

• Appraisal should be about giving teachers the help and

encouragement they need to be the best they can be

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encouragement they need to be the best they can be

• Appraisal was introduced to overcome the feeling that ‘in

forty years no one has ever seen my work or praised me’:

• To encourage improvement through professional

discussion and identifying support for self-improvement


UPS/Long serving staff

• UPS is recognition of the superior contribution that staff,

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• UPS is recognition of the superior contribution that staff,

who have consistently grown professionally since they

started teaching, can make to a school; even though they

do not hold a management post

• That contribution is more than just their teaching


From Ideal to Reality

• If the intentions of performance management and UPS are

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• If the intentions of performance management and UPS are

to be met, then the culture of the school has to be one of

continuous improvement of all staff for the benefit of the

children


Punitive Approach

• ‘Hospital staff and teachers need ‘fear of job loss and real

discipline’ says Letwin’

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• Compliance not mutual desire for improvement

But understandable where there is:

• ‘provider capture’;

• ‘self-employed syndrome’; or

• complacency/ ‘what can you expect?’


Conflict

• Can we marry punitive and positive approaches?

• Concept of ‘supervision’ as much as performance

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• Concept of ‘supervision’ as much as performance

management (Munro):

‘ the few supervision opportunities they do get are dominated

by a managerial need to focus on performance…This

leaves little time for thoughtful consideration of what is

happening in the lives of children and their families.’

• Lesson for schools as well


Distinguishing Activities

Implied in proposed abolition of the ‘informal stage’:

• Appraisal: professional discussion for continuous

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• Appraisal: professional discussion for continuous

improvement

• Performance management: working together to raise to

required level of performance

• Capability: ‘If you can’t change the people; change the

people.


Specific Issues with UPS Staff

• Burnout

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• Age related weaknesses: resilience? fatigue? inflexibility?

• Lack of role/authority in heavily managed system

• Premature retirement in post…


Role

• Master Teachers are regarded as outstanding by

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colleagues and fellow teachers, who want to learn from

them. They happily play a role in the development of school

policies and in the professional life of the school, including

co-operating with colleagues on pastoral and other pupil-

related matters.


Craft

• They are analytical in evaluating and developing their own

craft and knowledge, making full use of continuing

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craft and knowledge, making full use of continuing

professional development.

• They eschew complacency.

• They recognise the vital importance of out-of-school and

extra-curricular activities, both academically and personally,

and play a leading role here and in the wider life of the

school.


Professional

• Master teachers are open in the giving and receiving of

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• Master teachers are open in the giving and receiving of

professional advice, which may include coaching or

mentoring colleagues and younger teachers. They work to

significant effect with other adults in ensuring high quality

education for the pupils they serve.


Abolition of the Default Retirement Age

• May be a non-event

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• If not , the issue of effective performance management

becomes critical

• Need to envisage the use of future planning procedures

applying to all staff


‘All armed prophets have conquered, and the unarmed ones

have been destroyed’ Machiavelli ‘Il Principe’

• Political origins of the UPS deprived it of rigour and

credibility

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credibility

• Trades Union pressure to achieve automatic movement up

the spine and limit definition

• No step down procedure – all or nothing

• Fundamental and persistent weakness in middle

management


People Organisations

‘Management is not only lower in status, but has few, if any,

formal means of control over the professionals…..

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In other words, a person organisation is very difficult to run in

any ordinary way. The professionals have to be held on a

very light rein; they can be persuaded but not commanded,

influenced, cajoled or bargained with but not managed.’

Charles Handy ‘Inside Organisations.’’


Not just herding cats…

• What carrot if progress is automatic?

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• What carrot if progress is automatic?

• What stick if progress is delegated to those who cannot

manage?


Changes Proposed

Positive – abolition of limitations in management action: e.g.

the 3 hour limit on observations

Positive – new standards and explicit reference to them (not

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just internal standards)

Neutral – Knit your own Policy and Procedures

Negative – uncertainty over separate UPS standard: system

fragmentation and lack of consistency when recruiting senior

staff?


Autonomy and National Standards?

• ‘It is right that, in each case, the headteacher should have

the freedom to apply the standards in a way that is

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consistent with the needs and circumstances of his or her

school.’

• ‘Both assessments, however, will be made in the context of

a nationally recognised framework of standards which

define the baseline expectations for every teacher’s

performance.’


The Task

• ‘head teachers (or appraisers) will assess qualified

teachers against the standards to a level that is consistent

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with what should reasonably be expected of a teacher in

the relevant role and at the relevant stage of their career

(whether a Newly-Qualified Teacher (NQT), mid-career

teacher, or a more experienced practitioner). The

professional judgement of head teachers and appraisers

will therefore be central to appraisal against these

standards.’


Essential Steps

School definition of what is expected: base it on the standard

This gives the foundation for all other steps

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• Clarify when recruiting what this means

• Clarify that this is the standard of capability that UPS staff

are expected to meet

Create a clear and focused CPD programme to support

improvement


Middle Management

• Leadership can create the culture but management creates

performance

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performance

• Middle managers need far more investment in training for

management than schools have traditionally given

• The role of the middle manager is that of the guarantor of

quality as well as leadership


Middle Managers

• Duties in performance management must be crystal clear –

policy must make it clear that performance management is

continuous and appraisal is a summative process, not a

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continuous and appraisal is a summative process, not a

single event

• Effective moderation of judgement is essential to ensure

validity and reliability

• Failure in performance management is failure in the post


Content of Middle Management Training

Skills

• Observation

• Accurate Judgement

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• Accurate Judgement

• Professional discussion: ‘adult/child/adult’

Attributes:

• Resolution

• Assertiveness

Without these: ineffectiveness or bullying


Guidance for Middle Managers

The questions to be pursued in performance management

are:

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• Results – needs serious training: e.g. in statistical variation

• Improvement and its drivers

• Contribution to the wider school – includes support for

policy and leadership – in relation to the standards

• Target setting that is about outcomes


School Needs

• Reliable sources of independent judgement

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• Good HR advice leading to a clear and definite capability

policy

• Willingness to change the people – embraced by Senior

Leaders and Governors


Embrace the Positive

Compliance is the lowest form of cooperation and only by

rising above it can we achieve the best results

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Teachers are idealists; we need to appeal to their ideals and

vision

Wisdom is something deeply valuable if it is there

Experience is something even without wisdom – ‘We tried

that and it didn’t work…’ ‘Why?’


Role


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colleagues and fellow teachers, who want to learn from

them. They happily play a role in the development of school

policies and in the professional life of the school, including

co-operating with colleagues on pastoral and other pupil-

related matters.

Effective Performance Management of Upper Pay Scale and ......Charles Handy ‘Inside...

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