One evidence based approach that can be adopted is the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards.

This is the approach we recommend and that we use to underpin the staff wellbeing survey provided, together with the reporting of results.

These standards can be used to define the characteristics and culture of a school, where the risks from work related stress and poor staff wellbeing are being effectively managed and controlled.

These cover the six key areas of work design, that if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and wellbeing, lower productivity, increased sickness absence and lower staff retention. By measuring your school against these you can determine how staff view their working environment and take action, where required, to improve it.

The six Management Standards are:

Demands – this includes anything that places a demand on a staff member, such as workload, work patterns, working hours, deadlines, their timetable, the time given for them to complete tasks, and the behaviour of students, colleagues and leaders.

Control – this is the level of autonomy a staff member feels they have, including; the say they have over what they do at work; how they do their work; the level of choice they have over what to do when taking a break; and the level of flexibility available to them.

Support – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources they receive or have access to and are provided by the . . .