Catholic Education Western Australia - Rationalisation of policy and creation of a centralised policy platform for schools - Australian Institute ...

CASE STUDY

Catholic Education Western
Australia
Rationalisation of policy and creation of
a centralised policy platform for schools

Context of the initiative

Catholic Education Western Australia Limited (CEWA) was established by the
Bishops of Western Australia as the governing body for Catholic schools and
offices in Western Australia. CEWA was established through the Constitution of
CEWA and the System Order gazetted by the Minister for Education WA in
accordance with the School Education Act 1999 (WA). The Catholic Education
Commission of Western Australia (CECWA), as the Board of Directors of
CEWA, must publish policies giving effect to the Bishops’ Mandate for Catholic
Education in Western Australia, the System Agreement with the Minister for
Education WA and relevant laws, as amended from time to time. The 163
Catholic schools in Western Australia operate under a common set of policy
settings developed by CEWA, rather than on a separate diocese basis.

                                 —————

        The specific policy statements are designed to help ensure
        a coherent and considered approach to Catholic education
           in Western Australia and ensure that CEWA meets its
                 legislative and regulatory requirements.

                                 —————

All policy developed by the CECWA is designed to assist in enacting the
Bishops’ Mandate to foster the continuous development and improvement of
Catholic schools and to act on behalf of the Catholic community for the benefit
of all Catholic school-aged children and young people, and all children and
young people enrolled in CEWA schools, colleges, and early years learning and
care facilities. The specific policy statements are designed to help ensure a
coherent and considered approach to Catholic education in Western Australia
and ensure that CEWA meets its legislative and regulatory requirements. In
2019, CECWA conducted a review of their policies which revealed
inconsistencies and inefficiencies between the arrangements for system
governance and the reality of the decision-making authority at the school level
in delivering the Mandate.

Intent of the initiative

The intent of the review is to ensure that policies liberate teachers and
principals from system tasks and decision making. Every minute a teacher or
Principal is carrying out functions that can be performed by the system, no one
is attending to the student-parent relationship. Every time a school staff member
must reinvent a solution to a problem solved elsewhere is wasted time. CECWA
currently has 38 policies totalling 140 pages articulating over 60 statutes,
regulations, standards, common law, canon law, church teaching, and subject
matter expertise. The policies reflect historical reactions to changes in
legislation, compliance, deficits in school operation, and subject matter bias,
rather than a holistic framework for good decision making delivering on the
Bishop’s Mandate.

The policies are products of consultation processes involving subject matter
experts and principals who interpret strategic policies through their school
experience lens. Each policy includes behavioural statements made redundant
by the introduction of the Code of Conduct in 2017 (which is not included in the
38 Policies). In short, the policies lack clarity, coherence, harmony and
operational relevance. Adding to the burden on principals and decision makers,
each one of the 163 schools has its own unique set of policies. One principal
reported having 183, meaning there are thousands of policies across the
system.

           Steps taken and challenges faced

As a result of the review a single set of strategic level CECWA policies have
been developed with delegations to the Executive Director to issue Executive
Directives applying to all CEWA staff. CECWA will give Executive Directives the
force of Policy. Executive Directives will define specific subjects about which
principals may issue local Principal Directives (such as Incident Management).
Otherwise, all principals will apply CECWA Policies and Executive Directives
locally, relieving them of maintaining their own policies. CECWA policies will

become lawful directions on Day 1, Term 1, 2021. The 38 policies will apply
until then.

                                  —————

        Executive Directives and supporting resources have been
         created and published on a searchable website allowing
         principals and decision makers to familiarise themselves
        with the new Policies and Executive Directives before they
                           become law in 2021.

                                  —————

38 individual policies covering 140 pages are reduced to eight pages of policies
grouped under four headings: Catholic Identity, Education, Community and
Stewardship. The four subject headings are aligned to the four pillars of
Catholic Education Western Australia. Executive Directives and supporting
resources have been created and published on a searchable website allowing
principals and decision makers to familiarise themselves with the new Policies
and Executive Directives before they become law in 2021. Active engagement
with principals began when the review was announced on 25 February 2019.

Informal feedback showed some principals were alarmed at 38 policies being
reduced to as low as six. They interpreted this to mean they would have less
material to guide them in their decision making. The feedback prompted
CECWA to position Policies within a wider governance and resource
framework. In response the ‘Policy Suite’ was developed. The ‘Policy Suite’
fleshed out the Policies with Directions, commentary and case studies.

                Evaluations of the initiative

Since 29 August 2019, 300 senior leaders and their advisers have participated
in 16 workshops held in Leederville, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton and
Broome, including 104 principals and 90 assistants or deputies. Participants
continue their input and discussion via Microsoft Teams. Anonymous feedback
highly rated the workshops and the approach.

Workshop participants were overwhelmingly positive in their response to the
establishment of a central policy platform, and removal of the need to maintain
extensive local policies. They also welcomed the introduction of the searchable
CEWA Handbook that included templates, proformas and online processes.
The policy workshops also revealed and defined the level at which principals
are equipped to contribute to policy development.

A second round of consultation was undertaken across 10 Catholic Education
Leaders’ Forums held in July and August 2020. The intent was to test the
content, structure and usefulness of the CEWA Handbook as a decision-making
tool. CEWA subject matter experts, alongside the experience and learnings
across the system, will add to what principals have offered to populate the
CEWA Handbook with the full resources needed to operate a school within the
System. The feedback from these sessions was positive and the intent is to go
live on 1 January 2021.

                      Future developments

In Western Australia, much work has also been done to Information Technology
(IT) enable the collection and reporting of data such as enrolment, attendance,
census etc. across the Western Australian Catholic system. Administration of
Schools (AoS) based on a Microsoft platform, provides an integrated solution to
enable the various services required to support the day-to-day operation of
schools. Where, previously, tasks such as data management, marketing,
human resources, facility management, finance and reporting all required suites
of disparate software to maintain, AoS unites these functions into one central
management system.

The Digital Technology Team at CEWA has used off the shelf Microsoft
software (Sharepoint) to create the ‘Policy Suite’ that will host the policies and
support materials created and updated by subject matter experts. The software
is simple enough for any person to edit and publish materials after some short
training.

This is part of a series of better practice examples to share how education
systems and sectors across Australia are reducing the burden of compliance
and administrative tasks on school leaders and teachers.

 Browse all practice examples and reducing red tape report