In September 2010, I was one week into my new role as deputy head (pastoral). A knock at the door and the words “can I speak to you about a teacher?” became a career defining moment and one which has shaped the safeguarding journey of Wellington College over the last decade.
The serious safeguarding case that emerged at that time sparked an initiative which has had a significant impact on the safeguarding culture at Wellington: Values and Attitudes Based Interviewing.
In 2011, we commissioned the NSPCC to carry out an review of our safeguarding procedures and policies. The only recommendation suggested us considering the adoption of Values, Behaviours and Attitudes Interviewing (VBA) when recruiting staff.
I was curious and began working with consultant Kerry Cleary. Over a nine month period, an extensive scoping exercise was undertaken which involved speaking to large numbers of staff and students, examining the college’s five core values — kindness, courage, integrity, responsibility and respect – and formulating a new recruitment plan which incorporated VBA.
“It is crucial that any recruitment process in any school considers an individual’s behaviour and their underlying motives and values.”
Key individuals were trained and the whole process trialled; we never looked back and in February 2022, the Safeguarding and Child Protection Association (SACPA) announced Wellington as the winner of the Safeguarding Initiative Award, recognising the impact of VBA across the entire organisation over the last decade.
When you think about it, it is crucial that any recruitment process in any school considers an individual’s behaviour and their underlying motives and values in order to identify whether they are suitable to work with children.
This has particular resonance in independent schools and particularly boarding schools; the students are vulnerable — they are living away from home, often in a different country and rely on trusted adults for their daily guidance and support.
The recently published IICSA Residential Schools Investigation Report also highlights several other key factors which make boarding schools uniquely at risk to potential abuse by individuals.
Research shows that traditional interviews have a low predictive validity highlighting that they are not a good indication of how someone might perform once they are in a role.
“A candidate has various opportunities to demonstrate their behaviours in different settings.”
Using a number of different assessment tools as part of the interview process means that a candidate has various opportunities to demonstrate their behaviours in different settings; the advantage of this is that the picture built of an individual wishing to work in your school has not been painted “by chance” and has been seen more than once.
The VBA interview allows the interviewers to get nearer to the true values, motives and attitudes of candidates and also seeks to draw out information from a candidate’s “blind area” – the area where a person may be unaware of how they act in different situations and under different pressures. The Johari’s Window Model provides a useful pictorial illustration of these different facets of an individual’s persona.
By using a VBA to facilitate the gathering of more in depth knowledge about someone who you are employing to work within your organisation, specific questions pertaining to your organisation’s values and ethos can be asked in order to gain evidence of past behaviour with children or colleagues; you can ascertain not only what they did but why they did it and how it impacted on them and others. It allows you to gain a unique insights into that person.
“The process has been refined and has evolved but the core principles remain the same.”
We have been able to create a much more sophisticated interview approach which built on the core tenets of safer recruitment already in place and the college values have provided a robust framework on which to develop interview questions and criteria. Since its introduction, the process has been refined and has evolved but the core principles remain the same, and the interview model currently in place distinctly analyses the interaction between the college values, a candidate’s values and how the candidate would be expected to behave when employed.
We have developed our own, very practical, two day training course in order to educate staff in the process thereby allowing a large organisation to sustainably operate an additional layer to the recruitment procedure. In 2021, three staff also completed a three day “train the trainer” course which was a brilliant way to recognise the unique internal expertise and knowledge that they had built up as a result of their interviewing experience.
There have been stumbling blocks and obstacles along the way, but those involved in the project believed in the merit of the process so much that solutions were able to be found. 2021 also provided us with an opportunity for reflection and this year, question banks have been reviewed, policies refreshed and a new look given to questions that we ask candidates with limited life experiences.
“Our greatest lessons are often learned from moments of darkness and VBA interviewing has been a true example of that.”
Every potential new member of staff undergoes a VBA and the results of the interview form a vital part of the decision making process, being considered seriously alongside the competency and skills based interviews. The interviewers don’t know who they are interviewing or their background and they may find themselves interviewing alongside a member of staff from a completely different part of the college; many have commented on this being one of the most positive “side effects” of being involved in the process.
Our greatest lessons are often learned from moments of darkness and VBA interviewing has been a true example of that. One of our college values is courage and perhaps this is the value which has been most visible through the VBA journey: The courage and vulnerability shown by candidates in the answers that they have shared, the courage of the interviewers to get to grips with a new skill and the courage of the organisation as a whole to invest time and effort into an initiative which was largely untested in the educational area.