Inheriting a Team: An FE Leader's First 90 Days

Stepping into a new leadership role in further education is both an opportunity and a significant challenge. You are inheriting a team with established dynamics, existing processes, and a history of successes and struggles. The first 90 days are not about imposing immediate, sweeping changes. Instead, they are a critical period for listening, learning, and laying the groundwork for effective, sustainable improvement.

This structured approach helps you gain credibility, build trust, and ensure that your future decisions are well-informed and targeted at what truly matters - the success and well-being of your learners, apprentices, and staff.

Day 1-30: Listen, Observe, and Learn

Your primary goal in the first month is to absorb information and build relationships. Resist the urge to solve problems immediately. Your focus should be on understanding the current reality from the perspectives of those living it every day. Your silence and willingness to listen are your most powerful tools at this stage.

• Schedule 1-to-1 meetings: Meet with every member of your direct team. Ask open questions: What do you enjoy most about your role? What gets in the way of you doing your best work? If you were in my shoes, what would be the first thing you would focus on? What should I know about this team?
• Review key documents: Immerse yourself in the provider's narrative. Read the most recent Self-Assessment Report (SAR), Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), staff and learner survey results, and minutes from recent team and governance meetings.
• Observe normal business: Be a visible presence. Attend team meetings as an observer, walk the corridors, and understand the daily operational rhythm. This gives you first-hand evidence of the culture and how processes work in practice, not just on paper.
• Meet key stakeholders: Identify and introduce yourself to key people outside your immediate team who are critical to your success, such as other department heads, MIS managers, or the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).

Day 31-60: Assess, Analyse, and Triangulate

Now you can begin to piece together everything you have learned. This phase is about connecting the dots between people, processes, and performance. You are moving from data collection to analysis, looking for patterns, disconnects, and areas of strength.

• Map the key processes: On a whiteboard, sketch out the critical workflows your team is responsible for. This could be the SAR process, curriculum review cycle, or apprentice progress reviews. Identify the steps, owners, and hand-off points. Where are the delays or friction points?
• Triangulate your evidence: Compare what you were told in 1-to-1s, what the SAR claims, and what you have observed yourself. For example, if the SAR states learner voice is strong, does that match what learners say and what you see in course review minutes? Disconnects often point to the most important areas for improvement.
• Identify strengths and risks: Actively look for what is working well and who is driving good practice. Acknowledging and celebrating this is vital for morale. Simultaneously, identify the most significant risks to quality, inclusion, or safeguarding that need your strategic attention.
• Sort issues into categories: Group your findings. Some issues will be 'quick wins' (e.g., fixing a clunky IT process) that can build momentum. Others will be deeper, more complex challenges (e.g., low staff morale, inconsistent assessment practice) that require a long-term strategic approach.

Day 61-90: Plan, Communicate, and Align

In the final month of this initial period, you can start to share your vision and build a collective plan for moving forward. This is not about delivering a verdict from on high; it is about synthesising what you have learned and creating a shared sense of purpose and direction with your new team.

• Share your findings: Present a summary of 'what you have learned' back to the team. Frame it collaboratively: "Here's my understanding of our strengths and our challenges. What have I missed? Does this feel right to you?" This builds trust and invites dialogue.
• Co-create priorities: Based on the feedback, work with the team to agree on a maximum of two or three initial priorities. Gaining consensus on where to focus your collective effort is more powerful than dictating a long list of actions.
• Define your leadership rhythm: Clarify your expectations for the future. How and when will you communicate? What is the purpose of your team meetings? How will decisions be made? This provides the team with psychological safety and predictability.
• Communicate upwards and outwards: Share your 90-day plan and priorities with your own line manager and governors. This demonstrates a thoughtful, strategic approach and helps manage their expectations.

Where this fits in QualityHero

A new leader needs a single source of truth to get up to speed quickly. QualityHero provides this institutional memory. The SAR and QIP modules offer a clear history of self-assessment judgements and improvement actions. Leadership Reports can provide a high-level dashboard of key performance indicators across different provision types, while the Toolkit Areas allow you to see at a glance how existing evidence is mapped against the whole-provider and provision-type evaluation areas, helping you to rapidly assess compliance and identify gaps.