Principle 1: Leadership and management
Relational approaches to inclusion and managing behaviour help create a calm, safe and supportive culture and environment. They help create a place where children and young people want to attend and where they can learn and thrive.
This section explains how school leaders can create and sustain a relational approach across their school. It describes the key leadership behaviours, organisational change principles and planning tools that support successful implementation.
Why leadership is important to relational approaches
Implementing relational practice requires organisational change. The headteacher and senior leadership team (SLT) need to lead this work. Their leadership helps create an inclusive and positive approach to behaviour that staff can support and use across the school community.
Relational approaches provide a way to achieve a well-managed school and more. It aligns with goverment guidance, as shown with these quotes.
"Expert leadership creates a strong, shared culture of positive behaviour. The school establishes strong and supportive relationships with pupils and their parents and carers. These result in positive behaviour and, where it is needed, marked improvements." GOV.UK: School inspection: toolkit, operating guides and information
"It is for individual schools to develop their own best practice for managing behaviour. Creating a culture with high expectations of behaviour will benefit both staff and pupils, establishing calm, safe and supportive environments conducive to learning." GOV.UK - Behaviour in schools
Value driven leadership
Value driven leadership reflects principles of standards of behaviour; and your judgment of what is important in life.
"Living your values means that we do more than profess our values, we practise them. We walk our talk. We are clear about what we believe and hold important, and we take care that our intentions, words, thoughts, and behaviours align with those beliefs." Brown 2018, Dare to Lead
Think about what your school sees as important or gives value to, for example:
- what you want to achieve for the school, its staff and pupils
- its priorities that guide how it operates
- behaviours the school approves of and those it does not
Leaders and managers should agree and record what relational practice means in your school.
Create a clear and consistent message that everyone in the school community hears and understands. Use it to explain the reasons for change and to build trust and momentum by connecting with people's moral purpose.
Your message should explain:
- why relational practice is important
- the evidence that supports a commitment to relational practice
- your professional values
Organisational change theory
Understanding how change happens helps you introduce new ways of working successfully.
To help you plan, make changes and review progress, you can use the relational approaches audit and planning tool.
According to Fullan (2005), many education reforms fail because people focus on the change itself but do not understand how to manage the change process.
He identifies 7 drivers that help create lasting change.
Engaging people’s moral purpose
People need to understand why change is happening.
In education, the purpose of change is to improve outcomes for children and young people by improving the systems that support learning.
When people understand the purpose, they are more likely to support and take part in change.
Building capacity
The second driver is building capacity. This means using policies, strategies, resources and actions to help people build the shared power needed to move the system forward.
Understanding how change happens is also a key driver because it affects every part of the system. The change process is about creating the right conditions for continuous improvement. This helps people keep moving forward and overcome the barriers that are likely to come up during reform. It is about being innovative all the time, not just introducing a single innovation.
Developing cultures for learning
Creating a culture of learning means putting the right conditions in place for success. It involves the:
- 'knowledge dimension' - strategies that help people learn from each other, share knowledge and work together to improve services.
- 'affective dimension' - helping people build a shared commitment to making improvements.
Successful change happens when people continue to learn and adapt throughout implementation.
Developing cultures of evaluation
Developing a culture of evaluation and the ability to use technology to improve services must happen together. Most organisations have not developed either area well.
The Deming Cycle helps organisations make changes that lead to improvement. Dr William Edwards Deming developed this approach, which people also call the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle.
Plan
Make the plan by:
- defining the problem, such as suspensions, school avoidance or children being out of class
- setting objectives and success criteria, making them specific and measurable so that you can effectively check progress later
- analysing data, such as a school and staff belonging audit
- developing a plan, such as a training and development programme with dates for completing and launching policies
Do
In this stage you:
- train team members to adopt the change
- bridge any skills gaps
- implement the proposed changes
- document the process for future reference
Check
Review your plan's success at least twice during the project.
You should:
- measure outcomes against your objectives and success criteria
- identify what worked well and what needs improvement.
You may find it difficult to measure outcomes accurately if you did not define clear success criteria during the planning stage.
Act
Use what you have learned to improve your approach before you introduce it more widely.
Embed successful changes into everyday practice and identify further opportunities for improvement.
When you complete the cycle, start again. Use the evidence and learning from each cycle to improve your processes and outcomes continuously.
Focusing on leadership for change
Collins (2001) found that organisations were less likely to succeed when leaders relied on charisma.
Leaders of the organisations described as “great” showed “deep personal humility” and “intense professional will.”
Effective change leaders encourage innovation and develop leadership skills in others.
Fostering coherence
Effective change leaders create clarity in complex situations. They bring people, information and priorities together, show how they connect and explain how they fit into the bigger picture.
Kotter's 8 step model
You can use Kotter's 8 step process for leading change.
Challenges and next steps
Challenges
To succeed in your role, you need to gain support from others.
Start by identifying the relationships and partnerships you need to build to achieve your early wins. For each early win, create an alliance-building plan that sets out:
- who you need to involve
- how they can support you
- how you will engage them
Next, identify the people who will have the greatest influence on organisational change. Consider:
- who makes key decisions
- who influences others
- what support you need from them
- when you need their involvement
Think about the values held by your organisation and senior leaders in relation to relational practice. Consider whether your values and the story you tell about relational practice align with those organisational values.
To explore the factors that may help or hinder change, use a force field analysis. Organisational culture is dynamic, with driving forces that support change and restraining forces that create barriers. Use this analysis to understand the current situation and plan how to move towards your desired outcome. You can adapt the scoring scale to meet your needs.
You may also find it helpful to complete a SWOT analysis to identify:
- strengths
- weaknesses
- opportunities
- threats
Next steps
Prepare a values statement that reflects your beliefs and values about relational practice.
Work with influential colleagues to oversee audits and planning activities.
Collaborate with staff to develop a relational policy and support its early implementation. The policy should include:
- the theory and research that underpin the approach
- how relationships will be developed
- how staff will respond to pupils
- how restorative systems will operate
- how relational approaches will be used in the classroom
- how staff will be supported to develop their practice
- how parents and carers will be involved
- how pupil voice and participation will be organised
- how children who need additional support will be identified
- systems for targeted intervention
- approaches all staff will use
- processes for managing exceptional or special circumstances
Reading and resources
Collins, J. (2001) Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve. Harvard Business Review, 79, 67-76Create Alliances and understanding the Influence Landscape (Watkins 2003)
Fullan, M. (2005) Leadership and sustainability: System thinkers in education. London: Sage
Roffey, S. (ed) 2012 Positive Relationships: Evidence Based Practice Across the World. Springer