Schools across the special school sector are finding recruitment and retention tough.

For example, Department for Education workforce data shows that in 2022-23 there were 232 vacancies in pupil referral units and state special schools in England - a jump from just 34 vacancies a decade before.

As such, it is vital that schools and trusts create positive environments for staff so they are motivated by both the job and the organisation they work for to reduce recruitment needs and ensure long-term retention.

At Liberty Academy Trust, a specialist trust of three schools for autistic children and young people, with plans to grow, this is exactly what we have been doing, inspired by our educational offering.

Quality of life

We use Robert Schalock’s Quality of Life Model, which is designed to identify and support the development of features that lead to a positive life for people with intellectual disabilities, to guide our education.

It is based on the belief that every child is entitled to an education and that every child deserves the best possible developmental opportunities so they can learn and do more.

However, its values of emotional wellbeing, interpersonal relations, material wellbeing, personal development, physical wellbeing, self-determination, social inclusion and rights are clearly features that benefit us all.

Therefore, we decided to use these same principles to create a Quality of Life Framework for staff, that mixes policies, programmes and “perks”, and is underpinned by training and development, to bring together a holistic focus on our staff management, recruitment, retention and wellbeing.

The principles cover:

• Material wellbeing: We are a national living wage employer, and staff nominations and awards of £200 are given out each half term.
• Emotional wellbeing: We have a Staff Wellbeing Charter, have committed to the mental health at work standards, and have made duvet days available in each school.
• Physical wellbeing: We provide access to an app-based gym programme, video access to a GP 24-7, and access to a nurse via dedicated email.
• Interpersonal relations: We offer wide access to a range of network groups, such as the Neurodivergent Teachers’ Network and the Equality Diversity Inclusion (EDI) Network.
• Personal development: We provide bespoke leadership coaching, access to CPD via the National College online, and in-house training and development in autism leadership, which is externally accredited. We are also partnering with the University of Warwick to develop postgraduate qualifications to support autism leadership - something we think will be relevant not just for our staff but across the sector.
• Social inclusion: We have introduced ambassadors for important topics like EDI, menopause and climate change; hold town halls for staff; and publish staff blogs that celebrate colleagues’ personal stories and experiences.
• Self-determination: Our regular staff and pulse surveys provide and track views, and give us, as the executive team, a close grip on how staff are feeling.
• Rights: We are a Disability Confident Employer and have adopted the Halo Code.

Moving forward

Developing the Quality of Life Framework for staff has acted as a useful reflection tool to allow us to see where our approach to staff wellbeing needed more work.

For example, despite being quite a new trust, we do have quite a lot of CPD opportunities and networking available, so the personal development section felt appropriate. Equally, within existing budget restraints, our offer for material wellbeing is quite well developed.

However, the social inclusion section just felt sparse, so using the framework allowed us to focus on this area and think about how best to meet the needs and expectations of our staff.

This led us to develop our EDI strategy and to support the development of climate ambassadors in schools, and be more proactive in signposting the things we have already done - such as signing the Workplace Menopause Pledge and being a Disability Confident Employer.

More to do

But we still have more to do in this area - and for this academic year, we will be adopting the Race at Work Charter.

The Quality of Life Framework continues to be shared in newsletters and roadshows and while a recent initiative, 80 per cent of staff who responded to our survey this summer said they felt valued at work - so we feel this offers us a positive starting point and we will continue to gauge its impact through formal and informal feedback throughout the year.

We will also build on these initial foundations and develop the framework further - including streamlining our approach to line and performance management, as well as offering more training in-house, based on staff needs.

Ultimately, the importance of staff recruitment and retention cannot be overlooked. By aligning our core educational philosophy to our wellbeing work we are hopeful staff will remain happy, confident and committed to our trust for as long as possible.

Dr Nic Crossley is the CEO of Liberty Academy Trust. She tweets @Nic_Crossley1