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Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Working-Together Better  - BHASVIC Embraces Participatory Leadership

Location: East Sussex, UK
Project Owner: Chris Thomson, Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Facilitators: Sean Blair, ProMeet

Client/sponsor

Chris Thomson
Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College

Facilitator

Sean Blair
ProMeet

Working-Together Better  - BHASVIC Embraces Participatory Leadership

Description

Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College is a highly respected college in Brighton & Hove, England for 16- to 19-year-old students.  The UK Government ‘Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills’ (OFSTED) reported its assessment of BHASVIC in November 2012.  BHASVIC was the first college in the country to be awarded a grade 1 “Outstanding” under the (then) Common Inspection Framework.  Today BHASVIC remains one of the top sixth form colleges in the UK.

In January 2015, whilst BHASVIC was a high-performing college, members of SMT felt there was work to be done to improve the culture, manner and effectiveness of SMT, especially in relation to meetings.  BHASVIC approached ProMeet looking for support to help to improve its meetings and become a happier higher-performing team and to improve the meeting culture across the college.

The objective of the project was to improve the effectiveness of BHASVIC Senior Management Team (SMT) meetings and help BHASVIC become a collaborative and mutually supportive team, with a college-wide participative and facilitative leadership culture. This overarching objective to be achieved by realizing the five project objectives:

  • Development of participatory leadership skills for all members of SMT
  • Improve SMT team meetings
  • Improve BHASVIC meeting skills and culture
  • A clear, compelling ‘living’ BHASVIC vision and strategy
  • Develop a well-communicating, happy, high performing SMT

Key Results Achieved

The 12 months of working with ProMeet contributed towards:

  • measurable improvements in team development
  • a ‘radically improved’ approach strategic planning
  • BHASVIC gained recognition for student outcomes, by becoming the second best ‘value added’ sixth form college in the UK.
  • Staff morale rose to 90%
  • 100% of managers were trained to facilitate participatory meetings.