Director's Office

County Hall

Martineau Lane

Norwich

NR1 2DL

Minicom: (01603 223833)

Gillian Boon

BCS/GB 01603 222901

01603 219050

Dear Colleague,

Recruitment and Retention Initiative

Flexible part time and job share advertising site: Flexecutive.co.uk

Free Job share /part time vacancy advertising.

There is substantial evidence that significant numbers of teachers are being lost to active teaching because, following changes in personal responsibilities, they no longer wish to work full time and are unable to find a job share partner or a part time post.

In the current situation where recruitment is difficult at all levels of teaching it is essential that we retain as many of these teachers as possible. For this reason Norfolk and Essex LEAs have developed a partnership with Flexecutive to build an advertising and recruitment site specifically focused on providing part time and job share work opportunities.

The site goes live on February 4^th and as part of the launch Norfolk has 100 free advertisements to allocate to schools with vacancies for which they would be willing to consider part time or job share applications. These will be allocated on a first come basis. To qualify for the free adverts you need to contact Sarah Hare on 01603 222901.

Sarah will allocate a code and password and you will then be able to upload the advertisement. The site is in the final stages of testing and is very clear and simple to use. Adverts will remain on site until the closing date for applications. All teachers who have registered on the site will receive an email alert of all adverts that match their search criteria.

If, when the advert is placed on site, there are teachers previously registered as seeking a similar post, the school will receive contact details for these teachers. Colleagues will realise that until the site is launched publicly on 4^th February, there will be relatively few teachers registered as seeking posts, but this will rapidly build with the publicity generated nationally and locally by the launch.

After all the free adverts have been allocated, schools will be able to open their own account with Flexecutive to place additional vacancies. These are much cheaper than print advertising and will remain on site, from the time of upload until the closing date, for a single charge. Schools will be able to buy a package of job credits, which can be used as required.

Schools who have experience of job share arrangements report that where work partners are well matched and clear systems are established for communication and continuity, job shares are a very positive experience for the school. There are benefits for pupils and colleagues where part time teachers have more energy and are more relaxed about their work life balance. Additionally many job share partners will cover supply needs within the partnership, thus avoiding the need to employ an unknown supply teacher.

I believe that this site could be a useful tool to help match teachers with vacancies and with work partners. I would ask all schools to visit the site and invite applications from teachers seeking a job share for any vacancies they consider to be suitable for this way of working.

If the site fills a need and is successful, the pilot developed in Norfolk and Essex, will be extended nationwide.

Yours sincerely

Bryan Slater

Director of Education