How we addressed workload issues
Case study
School details
School name: Hilltop Infant school
Location: Essex
Type: Primary (4-11) and Social, emotional and mental health (SMEH) provision
Number of pupils: 225
Contact details: Email Head of School, Jane Robinson at hilltopinf.admin@heartsacademy.uk
Impact and outcomes
We formed our Trust Workload and Wellbeing group.
As a Trust we also developed a Workload and Wellbeing Charter which is updated each September and mid-year if needed to ensure that messages are reinforced. An annual well-being survey also supports schools to understand if the charter is effective and being implemented.
Background from Jane Robinson, Head of School
We took part in a DfE project to address workload by running a trial of new approaches in school. After discussions with staff, we identified that in-school communication was driving unnecessary workload and causing additional pressure on staff, so we decided to make that our focus of change.
Our tips for addressing workload issues
Involve everyone
Approach change as a project and appoint someone to lead it. Everyone needs to feel that they have some ownership of the project and to focus on doing the things that make most difference to the root of the problem to find workable solutions.
Conduct a survey
Encourage everyone to be honest in their responses. We used the Staff workload survey in the school workload reduction toolkit and asked staff to complete it anonymously.
Hold an INSET session
Include teaching staff - teachers, HLTAs, SLT - to explore the drivers of workload by discussing the results of the surveys. Debate options for moving forward, share ideas, consider what seems manageable.
Decide together how you will assess the success of any change
Make sure that the information collected can be used as measurable results as this adds weight to the findings. We would consider running a randomised controlled trial for further change projects.
Prioritise what action to take
Many areas might be identified but you can’t tackle them all at once. For us, we prioritised internal communications.
Explore the workload issue
Once we’d decided to focus on internal communications, we issued an additional very short 5 question multiple choice survey to dig deeper and staff agreed to complete a very simple ‘hours worked’ tracker to identify essential and non-essential activity.
Monitor implementation and outcomes
We repeated the survey and tracker (in the middle and end of the project) feeding back to staff, reflecting and adapting as necessary.
Maximise the outcomes
Share and disseminate what you learn and the actions you take through your Trust or local networks.
Communicate with staff
Give and receive feedback throughout. Regular updates, revisits, monitoring are all needed if the change is to become part of the organisation’s psyche.
Empower all staff
Hold each other to account for the commitment to workload reduction.
Create a wellbeing and workload group
Create a group in your school, trust or across local networks. Show the importance of addressing workload and wellbeing by having a dedicated page on your website.
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