Performance Related Pay - What a performance!

What a performance

Ten quick questions that will help you assess your school’s readiness 

for performance related pay

Although many academy heads have had flexibility on setting pay levels for some time now when September arrives every headteacher will be able to set pay levels according to a teacher’s performance.

Instead of automatic progression up the traditional pay scale, pay bands will be kept as a reference point and heads will have discretion over where in the band they place any member of staff.

There will of course be many heads who will be concerned about this. They may be afraid that it will leave them open to accusations of favouritism that may set colleague upon colleague.  

The risks exposed by the introduction of Performance Related Pay (PRP) are even starker when you consider the information management ‘gap’ that exists in most of England’s schools. Most still do not have a systematised way of managing and tracking school improvement planning processes like staff performance, school development planning and CPD.

Heads find it difficult to determine where their staff are in meeting the requirements of the new teacher standards in the current performance management arrangements, not least because the teaching standards changed last year, creating a significant knowledge gap. The same applies to teachers. This is worrying, especially when we know that these very same standards will be used to judge PRP.

I believe that headteachers can prepare their schools for the challenge of PRP by taking a fresh look at their existing performance appraisal processes. A good starting point is to test them against a set of key principles.

First of all, it is vital that any decision about pay based on performance is justified by hard evidence and that this is benchmarked against one set of standards by which everyone is judged. As Russell Hobby, general secretary of headteacher union the NAHT said back in December: “Staff have a right to confidence in the performance management system before their progression is connected to it.”

Confidence will come from robust, transparent and systematic approach to performance appraisal. Without these core characteristics PRP will be compromised. This could lead to the headteacher being accused of inconsistency and favouritism. At worst, this could even lead to legal proceedings such as an employment tribunal.

But good performance appraisal shouldn’t just be about PRP. It is important to get performance appraisal right because it is one of the main tools for supporting and developing staff. Good performance appraisal helps you deliver the most effective teaching and learning possible for your students.

So what should the process look like? Here are six key features for starters, plus 10 key questions to ask yourself in your preparations for PRP:

• It should be about more than just the annual appraisal process – it must be part of the bigger picture.
• It must be clear and transparent so that everyone knows what they should be doing and why they are doing it.
• It has to be consistent in terms of process and procedure, but flexible enough to cater for individual roles and responsibilities.
• It should promote objectivity by making possible fair and equitable discussions which make all the stakeholders in the process feel confident and valued.
• It needs to be scalable so that it has the capacity to grow and flex with the development of the school.
• It must be future proof. Evidence put into the process today must automatically carry forward and presented in context so that the work put in does not become redundant.

Are you ready for PRP?

Ten quick questions that will help you assess your school’s readiness for performance related pay:

1        How familiar are you, your SLT colleagues, governors and staff with statutory and non-statutory PRP guidelines?

2        Does everyone in the school understand the importance of gathering evidence for their performance appraisal and long-term career development? And do you give staff time to reflect on and gather performance-related evidence?

3        Is performance-related reflection and evidence gathering scheduled into the school working week?

4        What guidance is there for staff to understand exactly what good evidence of performance is?

5        Is the school development plan used as a driver for measuring performance?

6        Do you give staff the opportunity for discussion, feedback and guidance on their performance, other than in performance appraisal meetings?

7        Is there an agreed complaints procedure for any PRP disputes?

8        Do you have easily accessible systems in place for recording ongoing performance related evidence?

9        Are the systems consistent, fair and transparent and are staff given adequate training and support to use them properly?

10   What did Ofsted think of the school’s performance in all of the above areas?