EC Meeting Papers March 2018

Rt Hon Justine Greening MP Secretary of State for Education Department for Education

Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street London, SW1P 3BT

21 March 2017

Dear Secretary of State,

Our respective unions welcome the recent publication of the 2016 Teacher Workload Survey and note the challenge it poses for your department. The survey has provided fresh evidence of the extent and seriousness of the workload issue in schools up and down the country. We believe it is worth emphasising how important it is, not just to the education workforce, but pupils and their parents, to reduce workload levels in schools and increase the quality of working life to support high educational standards. With 93% of teachers saying workload is a fairly or very serious problem, and average working time of up to 60 hours per week for school leaders, there is an imperative to act. We note in some areas of the country, such as Nottingham schools, limits on the hours that should be worked out-of-school are being discussed and implemented. The delay in publication of the survey report has meant that this new data has emerged at a time when there is widespread concern over school funding, substantiated quite regularly by authoritative independent evidence. It is our view that, left unaddressed, the extreme funding pressures being felt will be a cause of increased workload in schools. So it is even more important for government to intervene to reduce workload now. Unfortunately, we don’t believe the Reducing teacher workload action plan to be sufficient. Its scope and ambition is limited given the widespread problem of excessive and unnecessary workload. Whilst we can welcome the government’s willingness to acknowledge that teacher workload needs addressing and some elements of the plan, such as targeted support for newly qualified teachers, could make an impact, there is a strong case for more preventative action. Earlier DfE research highlighted high stakes accountability, in particular, as a driver of workload and we look forward to the government fulfilling its manifesto commitment to “further reducing the burden of Ofsted inspections”. We welcome your intention to “shift the culture of accountability, so that it feels less like a regime of punitive sanctions and is seen to be much more about a professional dialogue and timely access to the right support.”

In light of this, our unions request you to:

• Reissue an updated action plan that addresses accountability with an ongoing plan of intervention to reduce non-teaching workload generated by the accountability system