The National Agreement and School Workforce Reform

1. The National Agreement and School Workforce Reform

2. Objectives for this evening…. • To gain a better understanding of the National Agreement. • Why was it developed? • What it is all about? • How do schools implement it? • What is the Governor’s role? • Sharing what happens in our schools.

3. Achieving the High Excellence, High Equity System National Prescription High Excellence, High Equity Schools Leading Reform abc (Source: Professor David Hopkins, DfES)

4. Climate ofprescription PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report December 2001 NationalAgreement signed January 2003 The National Agreement is a direct response to needs • Retention issues– workload is the major reason cited for leaving • Recruitment issues– hard to make the profession attractive • Over 30% of teacher’s working week spent on non-teaching activities • Teachers are retiring faster– nearly 50% will reach 60 over the next 15 years • Need for development of professional support staff

5. What are the objectives of remodelling? • Focus teachers’ time and energies on teaching and learning • Re-focus time-consuming, non-teaching activities • Facilitate the use of new technologies to improve efficiency and effectiveness • Assist headteachers and school change teams (SCTs) to optimise the use of resources to meet contractual changes • Learn and share innovative and effective practices within and between schools • Enable schools to deliver solutions to workload issues appropriate to their individual context and circumstances • Encourage school leaders to take control of and lead the change agenda appropriate to its situation, taking account of appropriate Government initiatives • Quicken the pace of the implementation of the National Agreement to raise standards and tackle workload

6. The National Agreement The National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload was signed between Government, employers, and school workforce unions on 15 January 2003.The document details contractual changes required to reduce the workload of teachers while addressing the issue of raising standards.

7. The third phase of the National Agreement includes 10% guaranteed PPA time, which is critical September 2003: • Administrative and clerical work – the “24 tasks” • Work/life balance • Leadership and management time September 2004: • Limit on cover for absent teachers (initially 38 hours/year) September 2005: • 10% guaranteed time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) • Dedicated headship time • End to routine invigilation of external examinations by teachers

8. Administrative and clerical work – the “24 tasks” • Administering examinations • 14. Administering teacher cover • 15. ICT trouble shooting and minor • repairs • 16. Commissioning new ICT equipment • 17. Ordering supplies and equipment • 18. Stocktaking • Cataloguing, preparing, issuing and • maintaining equipment and • materials • Minuting meetings • Coordinating and submitting bids • Seeking and giving personnel • advice • Managing pupil data • Inputting pupil data Collecting money Chasing absences Bulk photocopying Copy typing Producing standard letters Producing class lists Record keeping and filing Classroom display Analyzing attendance figures Processing examination results Collating pupil reports Administering work experience

9. Work/life balance • All teachers and head teachers should enjoy a reasonable work-life balance. • Work-life balance is about helping teachers combine work with their personal interests outside work. It can help to recruit and retain better motivated staff through giving them greater control of their working lives and a stronger sense of ownership. A school that is committed to work-life balance: • recognises that effective practices to promote work-life balance will benefit both teachers and pupils; • highlights the joint responsibility to discuss workable solutions and encourages a partnership between individual teachers and their line managers; • develops, monitors and evaluates appropriate policies and practical responses that meet the specific needs of the school, having regard to fairness and consistency; valuing teachers for their contribution to raising standards, not their working pattern; • communicates its commitment to work-life balance to its staff; and • demonstrates leadership and encourages senior managers to lead by example.

10. Work/life balance Four provisions have been put in place to encourage schools to develop effective work-life balance strategies: • additional hours for classroom teachers over and above the annual 1265 must be reasonable; • for those teachers (deputy and assistant headteachers) not covered by the 1265 annual limit on directed time, overall hours should be reasonable; • headteachers must have regard to the desirability of all teachers at the school (including themselves and other members of the leadership group) being able to achieve a satisfactory balance between the time required to discharge their professional duties and the time required to pursue their personal interests outside work; and • to the extent that headteachers direct their own work, they are covered by the provision above. However… the school governing body need to have regard to the work-life balance of their head teacher and ensure that they are not required to work unreasonable hours and can achieve a reasonable work-life balance.

11. Leadership and management time Members of the leadership group need time to focus on their leadership responsibilities and be supported in leading the reform agenda and managing change in their schools. • The provision for leadership and management time applies to all teachers at the school with leadership and management responsibilities… • Head teachers are also legally entitled to a reasonable allocation of leadership and management time… • The provision of leadership and management time is intended to be a contribution to the time needed to discharge the relevant responsibilities. • Subject to that qualification, some time for leadership and management must be allocated within school sessions… • In order for the time to be meaningful, it should not be allocated in short blocks, for example ten to twenty minutes here and there.

12. Limit on cover for absent teachers (initially 38 hours/year) The National Agreement on ‘Raising Standards and Tackling Workload’ provided the basis for work by schools to create time for teachers and head teachers to focus more of their time on teaching, and leading teaching and learning, including through: • progressive reductions in teachers’ overall hours; • changes to teachers’ contracts, to ensure all teachers and head teachers have a reduced burden of providing cover for absent colleagues; and • deployment of support staff to enable teachers and head teachers to focus on teaching and learning. • Cover for absence is not an effective use of teachers’ time. • Schools are required to ensure that teachers and the head teacher may be required to cover only rarely from 1st September 2009. • The only exceptions are teachers who are employed wholly or mainly to undertake cover.

13. Limit on cover for absent teachers (initially 38 hours/year) • Every school should have in place a clear policy and robust system that does not require teachers or the head teacher to provide cover other than rarely. • Cover supervisors and higher level teaching assistants should be deployed for short-term absences only and should not be used as the remedy for the medium or long-term absence of a teacher. • Medium and long-term absences should be covered by a teacher, possibly through a fixed term appointment or supply teacher. • The school should monitor and analyse patterns of absence (planned and unplanned) and levels of cover and manage these appropriately. • The member of the support staff administering the cover arrangements should keep a record of the amount of cover undertaken by each teacher. It is also advisable to maintain records of cover undertaken by other staff whose contract and job description specifies that a proportion of their time is/will be available to provide cover supervision.

14. Strategies for managing cover • Supply teachers • ‘Floating teachers’ employed for the purposes of cover, • TAs/higher level teaching assistants, who can carry out ‘specified work’ (which includes delivering lessons to pupils) and • Cover supervisors. • Others…?

15. Class / group / individual need Deployment of TAs Short Term Planning For Learning Weekly / Daily Planning Lesson Plan PPA Activities Report Writing Content IEPs Preparation For Learning Assessment For Learning Marking Resources Formative Analysis of Data / Performance Moderating Work Research 10% guaranteed time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA)

16. What do the regulations say about PPA? Who All teachers with timetabled teaching commitments What Minimum 10% timetabled teaching time When From 1 September 2005 How Minimum 30 minute blocks in timetabled teaching time

17. What do the regulations say about PPA? Who All teachers with timetabled teaching commitments What Minimum 10% timetabled teaching time When From 1 September 2005 How Minimum 30 minute blocks in timetabled teaching time

18. What do the regulations say about PPA? Who All teachers with timetabled teaching commitments What Minimum 10% timetabled teaching time When From 1 September 2005 How Minimum 30 minute blocks in timetabled teaching time

19. Planning, Preparation and Assessment time • Employ extra teacher/non-teaching deputy • Specialist teachers e.g. Music, Art, P.E./Games • Two classes and one teacher with teaching assistant support • Headteacher takes classes on rota • “Higher Level Teaching Assistants” - might work with one class for 10% of the week • Sports coaches • Enrichment afternoons

20. PPA — whose time is it anyway? “the time must not be encroached upon, including by any obligation to cover for absent colleagues.” STPCD 2003. Section 4.89 • Planning • Preparation • Assessment • Not cover • Additionally, it is for the teacher to determine how the time is used • activities, including collaboration, cannot be mandated “it is for the teacher to determine the particular PPA priorities for each block of guaranteed PPA time, although that does not preclude them from choosing to use some of that time to support collaborative activities.” STPCD 2003. Section 4.89

21. Alternative staff can take the class providing the following conditions are met They deliver specified work The class has an assigned teacher It is within timetabled time It is scheduled into the school timetable + + + • To maintain the quality of teaching and learning they must deliver specified work to a standard that satisfies the Head • If delivering specified work, the class must be assigned a teacher • the teacher does not have to be physically present at the time of the lesson • The lesson must take place within timetabled teaching time • The lesson and alternative member of staff must be scheduled into the school timetable “the headteacher must be satisfied that the support staff member has the skills, expertise and experience required to carry out the specified work” Section 133 Regulations “Accountability for the overall learning outcomes of a particular pupil will rest with that pupil’s qualified classroom/ subject teacher.” Section 133 Regulations “It should take place during the school timetable.” STPCD 2003 Section 4.88 “This time must appear on the teacher’s timetable.” STPCD 2003 Section 4.93

22. Dedicated headship time • Head teachers must have dedicated time to lead their schools, as well as manage them. Therefore, with effect from September 2005, governing bodies have needed to ensure that head teachers have dedicated headship time, having regard to resources in the school and to further national guidance that is being developed. • Issues remain where head teachers with significant teaching loads (for example those who teach for more than 50% of the school timetable) have inadequate time during school sessions for their leadership and managerial role. The momentum behind the remodelling of the school workforce and a number of other specific provisions that have been introduced have helped here. These include: • the work-life balance provisions; • the introduction of leadership and management time… which will effectively limit how much teaching a head can be expected to do; • the limits on cover; and • guaranteed PPA time, commensurate with their teaching load.

23. End to routine invigilation of external examinations by teachers Invigilating examinations is not a productive use of teachers’ time. From September 2005, teachers have no longer been routinely required to invigilate external examinations (e.g. GCSE and AS/A examinations). Schools should have worked towards these changes and maximised the use of support staff as external examination invigilators, prior to the contractual change. The principle underpinning the change is that invigilation does not require a teacher’s professional expertise. In this context, it is a reasonable expectation that, subject to the agreement of the headteacher, a teacher should be present at the beginning of an external examination in their subject area to check the paper and to ensure that there are no problems with it. Those invigilating the examination should be made aware of the procedure for dealing with emergencies and for contacting a teacher in the subject area under examination should any candidate raise a concern or problem with the paper which requires their professional judgement. It may also be appropriate for a teacher to be present at the end of an external examination to ensure its efficient conclusion. When carrying out such tasks, teachers should not be expected to stay in the examination hall/room for any longer than is necessary to perform them.

24. Evaluation of the extent and impact of remodelling on learning and the school workforce April 2009 • The workload agreement is having a very positive effect in schools. • A majority of schools are now beginning to evaluate the impact that the arrangements are having on curriculum provision and raising standards. • Almost all secondary schools surveyed have removed the requirement for teachers routinely to undertake administrative and clerical tasks. However, about one in 10 primary schools report that they have not, as yet, fully implemented this aspect of the agreement. • Almost all schools sampled have fully reduced the burden of providing cover for absent colleagues to required levels. • All teachers in the survey schools receive at least 10% PPA time and, as a result, they have more time available in which to undertake planning, preparation and assessment activities. • All secondary schools in the sample report that they have removed the requirement for teachers to invigilate examinations.

25. Evaluation of the extent and impact of remodelling on learning and the school workforce April 2009 • Schools find it more difficult to implement the conditions of the agreement as they apply to leadership time and dedicated headship time. • Dedicated headship time remains the aspect of the workload agreement that has been the most difficult to implement in practice. • Governors have been fully involved in the changes associated with the implementation of the national agreement, including considering the headteacher’s work-life balance, in almost two-thirds of the schools. In the other schools, governors have been informed of and have approved the changes made.

26. Evaluation of the extent and impact of remodelling on learning and the school workforce April 2009 The Welsh Assembly Government should: R1 review the distribution of funding for the statutory elements of the national agreement to ensure that all schools can implement the changes fully; and R2 continue to monitor, by commissioning further research on the implementation of the national agreement, its impact on pupils. Local authorities should: R3 review the quality of the guidance and support offered to schools relating to the effective implementation of the national agreement. Schools should: R4 focus on how teachers can make more use of the time released by remodelling to raise standards of pupil achievement; R5 implement all statutory elements of the national agreement fully; R6 ensure that governors review the headteacher’s workload in order to support a reasonable work-life balance; and R7 continue to evaluate the impact of the changes on pupils’ standards of achievement.

27. Monitoring by the Governing Body • Review school policies- PPA, Exam Invigilation etc • Look at/discuss these issues during Governor visits to school • Ask the HT for a report showing how the Agreement is being implemented. • Staff questionnaire?