Initial Recommendations of the Workload Reduction Taskforce
The Workload Reduction Taskforce was established by the Government to make recommendations on specific areas of the work of teachers and published its initial report in January. The final set of recommendations will be published in March with the ambition being to reduce working hours for teachers and leaders by five hours per week within three years, enabling them to focus on their core function to provide high-quality teaching. Schools would be well advised to audit their current working arrangements against the initial recommendations ahead of the March report to place themselves on the front foot ready for implementation in September 2024. Martin Cain provides a summary of the recommendations, their key implications for schools under the headings used in the report.
Performance Related Pay
- The significant administrative/workload burden of Performance Related Pay (PRP) for teachers has long been a thorn in the side of the profession and indeed in recent years many multi-academy trusts have used the freedom not to be bound by the STPCD to move away from it;
- There is an increasingly held view that PRP works poorly in practice and does not have a positive impact on teaching and learning;
- The Taskforce has recommended a formal commitment to consult with statutory consultees on PRP with a view to the removal of this requirement from the STPCD in time for the 2024/25 academic year; and
- In 2022, Handsam produced an appraisal policy for teachers for use in schools and academies where PRP no longer applied. For this, please refer to T-POL-ST13 Example Appraisal Policy for Teachers where Pay and Appraisal have Been Decoupled.
Administrative Tasks
- The list of examples of administrative tasks in the STPCD that teachers and leaders should not be required to carry out will be updated. It will also be re-emphasised that teachers and school leaders should not be required to carry out activities that do not require their professional skills or judgement;
- Perhaps the most significant update is the addition of question level analysis which a number of schools have already devised systems for this to be undertaken by non-teachers; and
- Schools should fundamentally pose themselves the following three questions: ‘Does a task need to be done at all?’ ‘Is the task of an administrative or clerical nature?’ and ‘Does it call for the exercise of a teacher’s professional skills or judgment?’ A summary of the draft proposed list of tasks is provided below:
- Managing data and transferring data about pupils into school management systems (e.g. Question Level Analysis) or printing electronic records for paper filing.
- Reformatting data or re-entry of data into multiple systems.
- Production of photographic evidence of practical lessons e.g. for assessment purposes or to ‘evidence’ learning.
- Creation or duplication of files and paperwork perceived to be required in anticipation of inspection, such as copies of evidence portfolios, or regularly updated seating plans.
- Administration or data analysis relating to wraparound care and preparation of food / meals.
- Administration of public and internal examinations.
- Collating pupil reports e.g. reports of pupil examination results.
- Producing and collating analyses of attendance figures.
- Investigating a pupil's absence
- Responsibility for producing, copying, uploading and distributing bulk communications to parents and pupils, including standard letters, school policies, posts on electronic platforms.
- Administration relating to school visits, trips and residentials (including booking venues, collecting forms and recording lunch requirements) and of work experience (but not selecting placements and supporting pupils by advice or visits).
- Organisation, decoration and assembly of the physical classroom space e.g. moving classrooms, moving classroom furniture, putting up and taking down classroom displays.
- Ordering, setting up and maintaining ICT equipment, software, and virtual learning environments (VLEs), including adding pupils to VLEs and online subscription platforms.
- Ordering supplies and equipment.
- Cataloguing, preparing, issuing, stocktaking, and maintaining materials and equipment, or logging the absence of such.
- Collecting money from pupils and parents.
- Administration of cover for absent teachers.
- Coordinating and submitting bids (for funding, school status and the like).
- Administration of medical consent forms and administering of medication on a routine or day-to-day basis.
- Taking, copying, distributing or typing up notes (e.g. verbatim notes) or producing formal minutes.
- Producing class lists or physical copies of context sheets.
- Keeping and filing paper or electronic records and data e.g. in school management systems or physical office files.
- Bulk photocopying.
Building on the 2016 and 2018 Recommendations
- The report reminds all schools of the importance of the recommendations from the 2016 independent workload review groups and 2018 Workload Advisory Group and the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter and of the need to raise the awareness teachers, leaders, governors, trustees and local authorities to these;
- Governors and trustees need to be reminded that the core function of strategic leadership includes consideration of staff workload and wellbeing when setting the school's/trust's strategic priorities;
- All school and trust governance bodies should make an explicit commitment to actively promote the recommendations of the workload review and advisory groups, as part of a renewed drive to reduce workload around planning, marking and data management;
- Schools and trusts should consider the merits of assigning a senior leader with dedicated responsibility for improving wellbeing and reducing workload, working with the recognised trade unions and staff;
- Schools should work throughout the year with all relevant stakeholders on the specific workload concerns of their setting, using the recommendations of the reports wherever relevant and may want to consider using INSET time to look at addressing workload issues;
- The DfE should update the School Workload Reduction Toolkit, ensuring that case studies and resources remain relevant and include the most current and impactful solutions that schools and trusts have implemented;
- The DfE should also further update the Charter, raise its profile and include case studies that demonstrate the positive impact of signing up and using the tools available;
- All school and trust stakeholders should each promote the value of trade union health and safety representatives and workplace health and safety committees in improving wellbeing, facilitating charter sign-up, and ensuring the benefits of signing up are felt across the workforce; and
- Schools and trusts should bring the attention of governors and trustees the DfE Governance Handbook which requires them to have due regard for the wellbeing and mental health of senior leadership teams and teaching staff and states that they may want to consider having a designated governor as a wellbeing champion.
Flexible Working
The DfE, working with trade unions and employers, should continue to promote and embed a diverse range of flexible working opportunities in schools. This should include raising awareness of the support available, including the funded programme of webinars and bespoke coaching offered by Flexible Working Ambassador MATS and schools (FWAMS) and the Flexible Working Toolkit. It should also involve developing additional case studies on effective flexible working solutions that schools and trusts have implemented.
Many schools and trusts have already been proactive in progressing this agenda in recent years by, for example, making the right to apply for flexible working a day one right, signalling their willingness to accommodate flexible working and/or job share arrangements in their job adverts for posts at all levels.