ISBL Professional Standards
The School Business Professional Standards have been developed by the sector for the sector. They are fully endorsed by representative bodies and by relevant professional bodies including the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Additionally, these standards are recognised by the Department for Education as the key reference document for evaluating professional competency. The professional standards set out the core and specialist areas of competency required to operate at four tiers of practice from entry level to executive leadership.
These standards also provide a framework for continued professional development, career progression planning and are designed to assist and compliment performance management.
The Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) believes that all roles within the school business profession, from Administrative Officer to Finance and Operations Director, should be supported by a set of professional standards. The standards set out here aim to establish a clear blueprint for effective school and academy business leaders and they celebrate existing best practice.
The standards framework sets out the six main disciplines of school business leadership, along with six principal behaviours required to be effective in the school business profession. Click on the discipline links below to view an interactive version of the relevant section of the standards:
To download a PDF copy of the full Professional Standards document, please click here. You will need to register for an account to access this document by clicking ‘login’ (you do not need to be an ISBL member).
ISBL have also produced employer guidance on how senior leaders and governors / trustees can utilise use the professional standards, which can be accessed by clicking here, including supporting resources to aid performance management.
If you are a member and would like to complete a diagnostic assessment against the professional standards then you can do this through our self-assessment process which can be accessed by clicking here.
