For its part, the Department for Education (DfE) says it is committed to reducing working hours for teachers and schools leaders by five hours a week within the next three years.
The taskforce’s creation and a commitment to reduce workload formed part of the agreement over teachers’ pay and conditions that ended the recent strike action in schools.
Current working hours, according to the DfE-commissioned Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders research published earlier this year (Adams et al, 2023) are:
- 7 hours a week for teachers (49.1 hours at primary level and 48.5 at secondary).
- 8 hours a week for school leaders (56.2 hours at primary and 58.3 at secondary). Working hours rise even further for headteachers alone – to 58.8 hours a week.
The taskforce is made up of 14 people, including representatives from the four education unions involved in the recent industrial dispute as well as teachers, school leaders and other experts.
The taskforce will make its first recommendations by the end of October when it will look at “updating and reinserting” the previously removed list of 21 administrative tasks that do not require the professional skills of a teacher into the school teachers’ pay and conditions document.
It will also advise on strengthening the implementation of the 2016 independent workload review groups’ recommendations (DfE, 2016).
The first meeting of the taskforce is due to take place this week and meetings will continue “regularly” until March 2024.
The need for system change is clear: the Adams et al (2023) research found that two-thirds of teachers are spending more than half of their working time on tasks other than teaching – rising to 77% of secondary teachers.
As if to underline the point, the taskforce’s announcement came on the same day that members of the NASUWT in England began an industrial action campaign of working to rule.
Responding to the taskforce’s announcement, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders – which is among those represented on the taskforce – said that “all the evidence” shows that workload is “a major factor in teachers and leaders leaving the profession”.
In 2021/22, 39,930 teachers left teaching for reasons other than retirement. This represents 8.8% of the workforce and is the highest number since records began in 2010.
However, Mr Barton is still to be convinced that the DfE is 100% committed to doing what it takes: “We remain sceptical about whether there is the will in government to take some of the steps that are required to produce systemic change.
“High levels of workload are driven by the underfunding of the education system, which leaves teachers and leaders doing more work with fewer resources, and an accountability system of inspections and performance tables which is excessive and punitive. In order to genuinely tackle workload there will need to be some readiness on the part of the government to accept and take action to address these problems.
“Change must happen. We simply cannot continue with a situation in which recruitment targets for trainee teachers are constantly missed and where many of the people who join the profession then leave early in their careers. This cannot go on. The whole education system is creaking under the strain of this unsustainable churn of teachers and leaders with a clear and present danger to education standards and provision.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, added: “It’s absolutely vital that this results in tangible change which makes a real difference to our members’ working day and frees them up to concentrate their energies on what they do best – providing effective, inspirational leadership.”
Schools minister Nick Gibb said: “We’ve seen rising schools standards over the last decade, and that wouldn’t be possible without the work of great teachers. We do, however, continue to hear the concerns of teachers and school leaders about workload, which is why we want to build on the past successes in reducing workloads and continue to remove additional burdens, so that teachers can focus on what they do best: teach.”
Alongside the taskforce, schools are also getting DfE support to help embed flexible working, with a new toolkit and practical resources to be launched later this month. The aim is to help schools embrace practices including job-shares, part-time working, and ad-hoc flexibility (see DfE, 2023).
- Adams et al: Working lives of teachers and leaders (wave 1), DfE, April 2023: https://tinyurl.com/5n6remw9
- DfE: Workload reduction taskforce, September 2023: https://tinyurl.com/2p8n4bys
- DfE: Guidance: Get help with flexible working in schools, June 2023: https://tinyurl.com/yc4tnb7j