DMT

RAISING STANDARDS AND TACKLING WORKLOAD:

NATIONAL AGREEMENT

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

In October the Government published its wide-ranging proposals for remodelling the school workforce to raise standards and tackle teachers workload, “Time for Standards”r. In January an Agreement was signed which committed the Government and most trade unions to work jointly until at least 2006 to cut working hours and offer more personalised learning for pupils. The signatories to the Agreement included the Secretary of State, representatives of the Employers and all the relevant trade unions, with the exception of the NUT. The Agreement shows a commitment to a progressive reduction in teachers' overall hours, contractual changes, a concerted attack on bureaucracy, reform of support staff and additional resources to help school leaders achieve in their schools the necessary reforms.

Contractual change to help ease burdens and enable teachers to focus on their professional responsibilities:

· Administrative and clerical tasks - from September 2003, teachers should not be routinely required to undertake particular tasks, including the "24 tasks" already specified in the Agreement. From September 2005, teachers should not routinely be required to invigilate external examinations;

· Worklife Balance - from September 2003, Governing Bodies and Headteachers will need to ensure that their staff have appropriate workloads in support of a reasonable worklife balance and have regard to their health and welfare;

· Limits on cover - from September 2004, there should be limits on the extent to which teachers at the school can be asked to cover, with progressive movement towards the shared objective that this should only happen rarely. Initially, the number of hours will be set at 38, but "it should be unusual for most teachers to provide such a high amount of cover";

· Guaranteed time for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) - from September 2005, teachers should have guaranteed PPA time to enable them to raise standards "through a combination of individual and collaborative professional activity". This time must not be encroached upon, including any obligation to cover. Guaranteed PPA should be set at the equivalent of at least 10% of a teacher's normal timetabled teaching time. It should be timetabled, in blocks of no less than 30 minutes' duration, as part of the teacher's normal weekly or fortnightly timetable. The implication here is that any teacher should have a clear expectation of when they will be receiving their guaranteed PPA;

· Leadership and Management time - from September 2003, every teacher, including the Headteacher and other members of the Leadership Team, should have a timetable that provides - in addition to PPA - a reasonable allocation of time in support of their leadership and management responsibilities.

Bureaucracy

An independent "Implementation Review Unit" will be established to consider the impact on workloads of existing policy operation and potential new initiatives and address issues of excessive bureaucracy, focusing on "all bodies which impact on schools". The Unit will feature a panel of practitioners - overwhelmingly serving Headteachers.

Reform of Support Staff

It is clear that schools will not be able to deliver the contractual changes outlined above unless there are appropriate extensions in both the numbers and roles of support staff in the classroom. The remuneration of such support staff will need to reflect the level of training, skills and responsibilities. Such staff may include:

· High level teaching assistants, able to make a substantial contribution to the teaching and learning process in schools and to raising standards of achievement by pupils. They will need to be well trained, drawing on QTS standards and modules where appropriate. However, teaching assistants and qualified teachers will not be interchangeable and "every pupil will have an assigned teacher";

· A new cadre of cover supervisors, with appropriate training, including pupil behaviour management, to assist with short term teacher absence and relieve the pressure on qualified teachers to cover;

· Additional support staff to act as "personal assistants" to teachers providing direct, targeted support to individual teachers;

· Additional technical support staff, including ICT;

· Further development of the use of support staff involved in the guidance and supervision of pupils;

· The recruitment of new managers, including "Business and Personnel managers and others with experience from outside Education" where they have the expertise to contribute effectively to schools' leadership teams.

Timescales of Agreement

Phase 1 - 2003

· Promote reductions in overall excessive hours;

· Establish Signatories Group;

· Establish new Implementation Review Unit;

· Routine delegation of 24 non-teaching tasks;

· Introduce new worklife balance clauses;

· Introduce leadership and management time;

· Undertake review of use of school closure days.

Phase 2 - 2004

· Introduce new limits on covering for absent teachers.

Phase 3 - 2005