Earlier this year, the Institute for Business Leadership (ISBL) released revised professional standards for the business profession setting out the core and specialist areas of competency required to operate at four levels of practice, from entry level to executive business leadership.
NAHT formally endorses the Professional Standards, recognising them as a framework for the business profession, highlighting best practice and the depth and breadth of skills required across the sector.
NAHT also sees the standards as a way to support CPD, career planning and assist in performance management for business professionals. They can be a valuable tool not just for business leaders and their teams, but for other school leaders and governors as well.
In this blog, Lee Herridge, head of professional development at ISBL, outlines the revised Professional Standards for the business profession and explores how school leaders can use these to support and develop the business teams and functions in their own schools.
Lee also highlights some of the tools and guidance developed to support governors, headteachers and business team line managers in effectively using the standards.
What are the ISBL Professional Standards?
The ISBL Professional Standards have been developed in conjunction with regulators, professional bodies, unions, national associations and experienced frontline practitioners.
They set practice expectations in six distinct disciplines, and across four practitioner levels from entry level to executive leadership:
- operational leadership
- finance
- HR
- procurement
- estates
- marketing and communications.
The standards are underpinned by a code of ethical practice and six behaviours, namely agility, resourcefulness, leadership, collaboration, emotional intelligence and decisiveness.
The standards describe various tasks and responsibilities within each of the disciplines and at each of the practitioner levels and then go on to describe the knowledge and skills needed to perform the task, again by practitioner level.
How can senior leaders and line managers use the Professional Standards?
The Professional Standards framework document contains technical detail and spans every aspect of school business leadership roles. We recognise that this means it can sometimes be difficult to navigate as non-business professional, particularly when our leaders and governors are so time poor.
That’s why, alongside the relaunched standards, ISBL have updated its employer, trustee and governor guidance and produced case studies, testimonials and talking head videos on the effective application of the standards for employers, all of which are free to access through the ISBL website.
These help to outline how the Standards have been used to support recruitment, performance management and professional development of school or trust business professionals.
In addition, ISBL is launching a self-assessment tool for members to carry out a diagnostic review of their experiences in relation to the Standards. This new tool should be another way to further assist senior leaders and line managers in assessing capability across a range of complex and sometimes very technical functions.
How might you use the new self-assessment tool as a line manager?
It is a sobering statistic that recent research (Hays, 2023) suggests that as few as 50% of school business professionals participate in a meaningful performance management conversation each year. Neglecting the professional development of this critical cadre of education leaders risks compromising the operational effectiveness of schools and trusts.
The Professional Standards can be used help to frame the professional conversation, as part of the performance management process, and anchor the discussion to defined functional areas.
"When I became a head teacher, I knew how vital the role of business leader was and that the role had a huge scope! I had found the teacher standards invaluable when considering the performance of teachers and leaders in school. However, I really didn't know where to start with the business leader role.
"When our current business leader shared with me the ISBL Professional Standards I was really impressed and grateful. The standards clearly explain the business leader role strategically and professionally and made it much easier to manage (and praise!) the performance of our school's business leader" – Andrew Knight, head teacher.
As outlined above, ISBL is launching a new self-assessment tool. This will allow school business professionals to identify strengths, areas for development and create a personal development plan, which will aide senior leaders and line managers in performance management processes and conversations. Alongside this, ISBL has provided a number of supporting documents to assist line managers in the performance management process including a performance management template, guidance and personal development plan template.
ISBL would recommend that the self-assessment report is used as the basis for the professional conversation, and the supporting documentation can be used to aide this in a structured manner to allow the setting of specific targets and priorities and identify personal and appropriate professional development needs.
ISBL members can also use the self-assessment to apply for formal ISBL accreditation against the identified practitioner level. ISBL encourages line managers and senior leaders to participate in the accreditation process, to support engagement with the Professional Standards on an ongoing basis, and to support the professional development of your business professional.
How do I access the standards and resources?
The Professional standards can be viewed interactively through the ISBL website or downloaded as a PDF. The ISBL Professional Standards, employer guidance, testimonials, blogs and personal development plan are all free to access resources.
The self-assessment tool, performance management template and accreditation application are accessible to ISBL members only. NAHT members can benefit from a 25% discount with ISBL as part of our joint membership.
ISBL also now offer trust membership which includes unlimited sign-up for all trust members (staff and trustees) and access to our range of resources including the professional standards self-assessment tool, guidance, supporting access to weekly news and bi-monthly bulletins and professional development discount. Further details can be found on the ISBL website.
Lee Herridge is head of professional development at ISBL.