Who is this for?

Applicants will wish to develop high level skills and knowledge of how to support organisations when managing change. The programme will be particularly useful for those considering accreditation for the Senior Associate level of the AOEA as well of those working at Associate level who wish to develop their knowledge and skills in the area of change management

What is the problem we are trying to solve?

The education system is complex and constantly changing. Change ranges from low-disturbance and incremental to high disturbance and radical, from local change to that imposed from national initiatives. System level change requires an enhanced skill level on the part of the adviser. Organisations at all levels in the education system may get into difficulty, which may lead to negative publicity, be very costly to put right and, most importantly, have a negative impact on the future of their students and staff. It is, therefore, important that advisers support organisations to take hold of the change agenda.

What is change management?

Change management is a way of bringing a proactive and reactive approach to organisational change. It addresses the problems and opportunities that change brings and improves the individual and organisational capacity to cope continuously with the drivers that promote change.

Who is delivering?

Ray Steele will be leading the programme. Over the last 11 years, as an independent consultant, Ray has led a number of significant change projects in education. These have included successful bidding for, and the project management of, several new schools, MAT merger proposals, academy conversions, options appraisals for MAT growth and school closure. He is currently chair of a MAT and formerly led an LA School Improvement Service, including the Project Sponsor role in a £2million+ build programme.

What will I get from the programme?

You will:

• understand what drives change in organisations.

• understand the various leadership approaches to change management and develop the ability to adapt your own role

• understand a number of models, each of which will bring their own approach to the conceptualisation of change

• be able to support due diligence procedures and assess the risks of success and failure of change management programmes.

• Apply specific tools to support the change programme, including Culture Mapping, SWOT Analysis, PESTLE Analysis, Force Field Analysis, Critical Path Analysis and Stakeholder Analysis

• Consider a number of tools designed to support whole project planning

• Develop your resilience to deal with complexity, uncertainty, the unforeseen and the unintended