Strategic Planning and Measuring Performance

A strategic and operational business plan is important for any provider subject to an OfSTED inspection. They will be asked for before the inspection and also be used to determine judgment findings by the inspectors during an inspection.

The effectiveness of leadership and management

Inspectors will want to see that there is a strategic direction within the organisation, which should be accessible and understood by all staff.

Organisations are able to use the Outcomes Assessment Module in Stedfast to develop, update and share strategic plans.

Too often, organisations will develop a strategic plan just to be ready for an OfSTED inspection. However, they fail to make a working document that can be measured ad performance managed.

What does Stedfast allow organisations to do?

Most strategic plans tend to cover a number of years so that the strategic vision can be fully introduced and embedded. Using Stedfast, organisations can create a strategic plan and a set of outcomes that must be achieved. Each outcome will then have a target or measure applied to it. These targets and measures are allocated to different staff members so they can add their findings, evidence and actions.

The strategic plan owner is able to set review cycles for the strategic plan. An example would be when an organisation creates a 3-year strategic plan with an annual review. The plan owner would set up 3 assessment cycles to review performance and identify strengths, areas for improvement and actions.

By having a robust set of outcomes for a strategic plan, providers can also demonstrate to OfSTED that it is a meaningful document that is designed to improve and develop the organisation.

Stedfast is a collaborative tool so all staff can access the strategic plan to ensure they understand it well.