Sir Steve Lancashire is Chair of Forum Strategy’s National #TrustLeaders CEO network. He also provides mentoring to a number of CEOs across our network and through the Being The CEO programme. In this month’s blog, Steve reflects on the characteristics of high performing CEOs and their executive teams, outlining how they can move from emergent to established and into transformational work together. This work is now a key part of the #BeingTheCEO programme and its CEO mentoring element.
I could almost feel sorry for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of schools (note the heavy emphasis). Designing a new inspection framework (aka report card system) is an incredibly challenging task. Never mind the high stakes, emotionally charged context in which it must be undertaken, there are so just so many other factors and variables which add to the complexity and difficulty of the task.
One of the biggest tensions, of course, is balancing accountability with fairness. I’ve written on accountability before so I won’t rehearse that here; I know all of us believe that we should be held appropriately accountable for our schools’ effectiveness. However, we all also believe that a fair system should recognise the challenges we face, the funding shortages, staffing issues, the ever-diverse needs of our students, societal issues of poverty and social unrest, political turmoil etc etc. Striking the right balance between rigorous evaluation and understanding the complexities of each school is no easy feat. I’m almost sympathetic
On top of that, let’s be honest, the Chief Inspector was inevitably going to face some resistance and criticism. No matter how well thought out a framework is, there will always be opposition. Teachers, trust and school leaders, parents and policymakers all have conflicting views—some arguing that the system is too strict, others claiming it evaluates the wrong things. Meanwhile, the inspectorate also has to deal with pressure from the government and various stakeholders, each with their own expectations and political agendas. Pleasing everyone is virtually impossible – almost sympathy inducing.
