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Business School England
Staff Development Policy
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Aims
The policy on staff development recognises that staff are its key resource and all staff (including part-
time, short-term contract and research postgraduates) have equal rights of access to internal courses.
These should be relevant to their job and subject to the agreement of their head of department.
Staff development
The Academic Director co-ordinate the development of, and training for, all categories of staff. This
involves working with individuals, groups of staff, or departments to help them identify and meet their
training and development needs.
Academic Staff participate in a programme of workshops throughout the year and there are
courses covering general personal, managerial and IT staff. All of these programmes are discussed in
the monthly staff meetings.
Staff Review and Development
The Business School England is committed to making the Staff Apraisal,Review and Development
Scheme (SR&D) a useful and helpful experience for all staff. Working parties involving all staff groups
revised the paperwork, ensuring that the process suits the different roles within the Institute. During
September of each year, all heads of departments will receive a letter together with a suitable SR&D
Form for distribution to their staff. Staff Development do appreciate that SR&D can be a time
consuming process, however, SR&D is an important means of communication and an occasion to
receive structured feedback. This opportunity is increasingly important and fundamental to the
success of our institution.
What sort of school do we want to create?
Developing staff – professional, adaptable, creative, digital focused and competent leaders who shape
compelling organisational goals and unlock the potential in others to achieve them.
Developing Communication and Relationships- building our capability in knowledge management;
building partnerships, internal and external; sharing best practice; marketing ourselves internally as
well as externally;
Working collaboratively, sharing knowledge, developing and agreeing service standards and sharing
this information effectively.
Developing the Organisation- empowering people, encouraging an environment of creativity;
celebrating our successes; building our capability to deal with change, adaptable; a learning
Developing supporting systems and processes- electronically held records of individual’s training and
development activities, with information available to both staff members and line managers.
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This staff training and development policy builds on our achievement of Investors in People and outlines
the aims and scope of staff development for our employees and describes the processes and
procedures which should be followed.
Aims of the staff training and development policy
The aims of the policy are to:
• Support the achievement of school’s strategic objectives and priorities.
• Enhance the potential and personal effectiveness of staff through the acquisition of
appropriate qualifications, skills, knowledge and understanding which will support them
to contribute and to deliver Department plans.
• Enable staff to develop new skills for their current and future roles so that we can
respond positively to change.
• Ensure that all staff have equality of opportunity and access to training and
development.
• Facilitate our commitments as an investor in People.
• Support the development of school to meet the competing demands of the 21
st
century.
• Develop a culture of participation and accountability.
• Provide opportunities for positive action and implementation of equality through
targeted and accredited, where appropriate, staff development and training.
Equality of Opportunity
We will ensure equal access and opportunity to development, education and training for
all staff, from all areas of school.
All staff will receive induction and training as is deemed appropriate to ensure that they
can carry out their role within effectively and creatively.
Staff with disabilities will be invited to identify any particular requirements they may have
to enable them to participate fully in all training and development events offered e.g.
materials in alternative formats, sign language interpreters, ergonomic seating.
Key Stakeholders in Training and Development Process
a. The senior management team (SMT) has the role of agreeing the Training and
development policy as advised by HR. SMT members are also responsible for ensuring
full compliance with the policy in the areas they manage.
b. The Principal HR via the DER delegates the annual staff Development.
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1) The DER is responsible for advising and verifying cross institutional wide
training and development objectives and plans.
2) HR are responsible for:
• Planning, delivering and evaluation of institutional wide staff training and development.
• Submitting an annual staff development evaluation report to SMT the report will include
data recorded on our HR data base, the number of staff studying for qualifications at
school and data on allocation of funds for staff to attend courses and conferences outside
school.
• Responding to staff needs quickly and to offer as varied a programme as possible. Some
training and development events will be arranged as required during the year.
• Managing the staff development database and provision of timely and relevant
information.
• Managing the staff development database and provision of timely and relevant
information.
• Developing the communications through which staff are kept informed of training and
development activities.
• Supporting managers to develop local staff development plans arising from the annual
business planning cycle and the collective results of generic training and development
needs emerging from the data of the staff Development Review and Appraisal process.
• Supporting managers with development programmes and solutions which are not part
of the school wide programmes and which address specific local needs.
a. All managers are responsible for:
• Identifying and prioristising staff training and development needs and ensuring they are
implemented in conjunction with our strategic objectives.
• Appraising staff as set out in our annual staff Development, Review and Appraisal
scheme(SDRA), setting personal targets, identifying training and development needs,
monitoring progress and outcomes.
• Ensuring local staff development plans are identified, implemented and evaluated.
b. All staff participating in training and development activities are expected to:
• Use supervision and SDRA sessions to identify their training needs and training outcomes
with their managers.
• Attend training or other development events where there is an essential requirement
to attend in order to meet institutional or legal requirements.
• Complete all evaluation forms for internal and external training and development
activities.
• Provide reasonable feedback and dissemination to colleagues following attendance at a
course or conference.
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c. Training and Development Processes
Identification of Training and Development Needs
There are a number of ways to do this:
• Strategic training needs will be identified by our strategic priorities and our HR strategy.
• Staff training and development needs will be identified at senior management and team
levels as well as by individual members of staff. The context for the identification of these
needs will be the successful delivery of our strategic plan.
• The collective needs of staff should be consolidated into school’s Learning and
Development Plans which should reflect our institutional priorities, as well as the
collective team needs in relation to operational objectives.
This should be done by the HR devising a report which summarises the collective results
of generic training and development needs arising from the data of the SDRA process.
Line managers should review training needs on a continual basis and certainly as needs
arise, for example when a team restructures and job roles are redefined.
• Individual training needs should be reviewed through the SDRA scheme.
Definition of Training and Development
i. The following are examples of staff training and development for
which funding and support can be made available:
• Staff induction at school.
• Professional updating through attendance at external or in- house courses, conferences
or events.
• Professional or academic courses leading to an appropriate qualification through
attendance at a school course.
• Industrial, commercial or educational secondments, visits or placements.
• Acting as an external or internal verifier, examiner, assessor or consultant.
• Coaching and mentoring programmes.
• Team development work.
• Up-skilling in area in areas such as Information Communication Technologies(ICT), which
are relevant to present and possible future roles and technological advancement within
school.
• Specialist training as agreed and directed by Principal or DER.
ii. Not all learning needs can be best met by training. school places high
importance on other forms of learning and development such as:
• Action learning sets
• Mentoring
• Work based projects
• Research and scholarly activity
• Job shadowing and secondments
• On the job learning
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• Peer Observation and review
• Opportunities to learn more about school and /or national trends, the staff monthly
briefing meetings.
• Opportunities for more cross group working and sharing best practice.
Monitoring and Evaluating Training and Development
This is fundamental to the management of the training and development provision at school. All staff
have responsibility for feedback processes which are essential in order to:
• Assess progress in achieving school’s strategic aims.
• Continually improve our staff training and development provision.
• Provide evidence of return of investment of the training and develop resources, in terms of the
benefits to school, its students and external customers.
Application for Funding Training and Development Programmes
Applying for Cross school wide training
HR manages the administration of the school wide programmes. All members of staff are
sent a copy of the published programme.
In exceptional circumstances, a decision may be made to charge for the course. This
charge will be calculated to cover the necessary costs.
To apply:
• Discuss your need with your manager and seek approval for release.
• Contact HR by e-mail.
• HR will confirm a place for you and send you joining instructions 10 days before the
event. A reminder is also placed on the date of the event.
Applying to Study at school- full or part time
school encourages all full time and part time staff to work towards recognised vocational
and academic qualifications related to their role as part of its commitment to career
development and the achievement of the IIP status.
Staff may be able to study at school without being liable for tuition fees;
The fees waiver is subject to a number of conditions:
• The course of study must be approved by the manager as being relevant to the needs of
your current role and reasonable career development aspirations.
• A staff member may be asked to repay of some or all of the fees if he or she fails to
complete the course or leaves the employment of school before completion of the course.
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• Approval to study at school is given on an annual basis and a staff member will need to
submit their application to HR.
school will normally provide funds for staff to study for a qualification which is related to
their professional or career development. If the application is not approved by the staff
member’s manager, the staff member will need to decide if they wish to pay the full fee
costs.
Applying to study for the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher
Education.
It is a Principle of school that staff who have less then two years experience in teaching
are encouraged to successfully the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in
Higher Education.
Continuous Professional Development-Applying to Study Outside school – full or part
time
A staff member may find a qualification more suitable for his/her professional
development at another institution and the opportunity to study for a similar qualification
at school is not available. If this is the case, the DER has discretionary rights to agree to
fund part or all of the fees or provide other support such as release time. The DER will
take into account the availability of funds and school/service budgets and the extent to
which to which the proposed course of study is necessary for the staff member’s work at
school.
If a staff member is given approval to study outside school, his or her manager will
authorise the payment of fees.
Applying for other Development Activities
Staff may wish to attend other development activities such as short courses and
conferences. The fees for this are normally paid out of the Dept budget and approval to
attend is at the discretion of the DER and the availability of funds.
Staff wishing to attend such development activities will need to seek approval from their
manager and complete the appropriate application form. The manager will authorise the
payment of agreed fees or funds including travel.
Managing Staff Performance Capability Procedures
A) Introduction
We recognise that during employment at school capability to carry out duties may deteriorate. This
can be for a number of reasons, the most common ones being that either the job changes over a
period of time and staff fail to keep pace with the changes, or they change (most commonly because
of health reasons) and can no longer cope with the work.
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B) Job changes/genera capability issues
1. If the nature of a job changes or if we have general concerns about ability to perform a job we
will try to ensure that staff understand the level of performance expected and receive adequate
training and supervision for change. Concerns regarding capability will normally first be
discussed in an informal manner with time to improve.
2. If standard of performance is still not adequate staff will be warned in writing that a failure to
improve and to maintain the performance required could lead to dismissal. We will also consider
the possibility of a transfer to more suitable work if possible.
3. If there is still no improvement after a reasonable time and we cannot transfer to more suitable
work, or if level of performance has a serious or substantial effect on our organisation or
reputation, staff will be issued with a final warning that will be dismissed unless the required
standard of performance is achieved and maintained.
4. If such improvement is not forthcoming after a reasonable period of time, staff will be dismissed
with the appropriate notice.
School's Strategic Plan Aims for Staff Development
Main Strategic Plan Aim:
To promote a culture of excellence across our activities and in our staff, in so doing, enhance our
institutional reputation in the sector
Investing in individuals with potential will support and strengthen leadership of these
multidisciplinary teams and deliver concrete results that support the Mission. Good leadership,
governance and efficient systems for people management will underpin all that we do and how we
act. In this way we will allow our staff to achieve their potential and thus build the reputation of the
school. Our reputation is built on the endeavours of our staff, the quality of their thinking and the
opportunity to communicate these to a wider audience.