Andrew Blench explores the “Data, Performance Management and Action” domain from the 2024 Operational Excellence Framework, highlighting how trusts and schools can better harness data
The Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) and Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) published their Operational Excellence Framework for Schools and Trusts in 2024. The paragraph below is taken from the Executive Summary of the report:
This paper focuses on the importance of Operational Excellence (OpEx) as a discipline for the non-teaching “central functions” of school trusts (trusts). It is positioned as an enabler of excellence in the delivery of teaching and learning, which this paper calls Educational Excellence, by helping to create the conditions where schools can focus on education.
In this series of blog posts I am looking at each of the 10 domains in turn as identified in the OpEx Framework for schools and trusts. Today I am looking at ‘Data, Performance Management and Action.
What Does Good Look Like?
Good in this area is defined as: ‘The data required to run the business is understood, well-structured, accurate, timely and complete. Data is turned into insights in ways that support understanding and decision-making. Users of data are sophisticated in their interpretation. Key performance indicators that drive the right behaviours are gathered into balanced scorecards. Performance is visible to all and drives improvement.’
Throughout my career I have worked in complex and high volume/demand organisations. This includes the civil service, NHS, financial services and latterly education. All of these environments have had a range of key performance indicators/targets to measure their performance against, and I have been on the receiving end of various reports during my career which have informed decision making and driven actions.
I would say that there are some ways in which education works differently from other sectors in this respect and in my view, this is not a positive difference.
Democratisation of Data
Sadly, in many schools and trusts the only people who appear to know ‘how well we are doing’ are those in the most senior positions. In my experience performance data is not shared with staff at every level in the organisation. Or where it is it is done in a format which is almost impossible for the lay person to understand. If you think you are different then I challenge you to ask your receptionist or site manager ‘how well are we performing?’
Data Which Informs Decision Making
This is something that the private sector in my experience is very good at doing. Presenting different options and researching the impacts of each option in terms of impacts, costs and outcomes. I have sat in SLT and board meetings where senior colleagues have been asked to make significant decisions about the future of a school without modelled data. Sadly, instead of challenging the business case and refusing to decide, things have been nodded through.
Understanding My Contribution
Good performance data which is presented against a small range of KPIs in an accessible dashboard report can help each member of the team understand how their individual contribution impacts the whole organisation. This also comes down to taking good insights from data. Pupil attendance data is a case in point. Where our analysis of data is sophisticated, we will understand that actually it is only a small improvement in a specific (often small) cohort of students which will improve the overall result in % terms. Whilst every student’s attendance is important, having this insight from data then can drive actions in terms of focusing our efforts into the pupils and families who most need it.
Data Lag
Commercial organisations have developed sophisticated systems which give live data in a dashboard format. This has the effect of closing the time lag between a decision being made and being able to measure the impacts. The decision usually is in terms of diverting staff resource from one area of focus to a new emerging need. Live data can inform this decision-making process and should be more than possible in the business operations of schools and trusts. So, a question is can you see – in your live environment – where your bottle necks are with business operations tasks? Do you have regular short meetings with team leaders to prioritise tasks and people using that live data?
Visibility of Business Operations Performance
Understandably education leaders are keenly interested in data which covers things such as pupil progress and attainment, attendance, behaviour logs, internal and external assessment data. None of this is achieved without an effective and efficient business process which enables teaching and learning. So how visible is your business operations performance data? Is it discussed at the leadership table?
I’ll leave you with a quote – ‘what gets measured is what gets done’.
May all your KPIs be green!
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