Establish a wellbeing committee
Example
School details
School name: Notre Dame High School
Location: Norwich
Phase: Secondary
Number of pupils: 1400
Contact details: Email Headteacher Neil Cully at NCully@ndhs.org.uk
Impact and outcomes
We established a wellbeing committee who created a report on staff wellbeing which was shared with governors and staff. The report included quantitative data on staff absence rates which we try to benchmark against national data. We use this, as well as qualitative data from our staff wellbeing survey, to give an indication of staff wellbeing to governors.
We review the committee terms of reference annually. They were introduced to give clear purpose to the work of the committee so that it did not simply become a ‘talking shop’.
All documentation, including minutes of meetings, is freely available to all staff via our intranet. We make this transparent to increase confidence, trust and accountability in what we seek to do.
Background from Neil Cully, Headteacher
In the last 3 years we have directed our focus more specifically to identifying issues around staff wellbeing that we feel we have some control over and therefore can do something about.
We created a committee to improve staff wellbeing. The committee is made up of volunteers who meet once every half term. Their focus has shifted towards creating the annual workload survey, analysing its results and formulating an action plan. They also consider issues raised by members of staff. We seek to make sure that the committee is representative of the different teams of staff within the school.
1. Choose who should be on the committee
Create a committee comprised of leadership team members and representatives from all staff.
Decide who will chair it.
2. Agree what the committee should do
The aim of the committee is to promote and ensure the wellbeing of all employees at the school. They could advise the leadership team on all matters relating to wellbeing within the school and report to governors termly.
For example, the committee could:
- distribute a survey to monitor wellbeing
- identify issues that challenge the wellbeing of the staff
- communicate issues to the leadership team and governors, suggesting ways to resolve them
- evaluate the impact of any intervention to resolve wellbeing issues
- review the school’s wellbeing documentation at the start of each academic year
- inform staff of wellbeing initiatives via the wellbeing notice board in the staff room, the bulletin and staff meetings (when appropriate)
3. Agree when and how the committee will meet
The full committee could meet at least once per half term.
A meeting schedule of these meetings and the membership of the committee could be regularly published to all staff.
Additional meetings may be held for teachers and support staff committee members, also once per term, or by agreement between the chair and the staff representatives where circumstances warrant it.
Notice of meetings could be advertised in advance so that staff can take any issues to their representative for discussion.
4. Plan appropriate training
The committee should ensure that its members receive appropriate training to undertake their duties.
5. Review the committee
The committee, and its terms of reference, will be reviewed at the first meeting of each autumn term and any proposed and agreed changes should go to the full governing body.
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