New Taskforce has been created to tackle teacher workload

Gillian Keegan, the Secretary State for Education has announced the introduction of a new task force to tackle unnecessary workload for teachers and school leaders. The taskforce will look at ways of how to reduce the working hours for teachers and leaders by 5 hours per week within the next 3years. 

Meeting this week for the first time, the task force which includes representatives from all 4 teaching unions, as well as teachers, leaders, academics and other sector experts will make recommendations to government, Ofsted, and school and trust leaders by the end of March 2024.

The variety of expertise within the group will provide insight from across all parts of the education sector, from on the ground perspectives to those in positions of management and leadership.

By the end of October 2023, the taskforce will make initial recommendations regarding:

• 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
• strengthening the implementation of the 2016 independent workload review groups’ recommendations and maximising sign-up to the education staff wellbeing charter

Alongside these measures to tackle workload, the Department for Education is also planning an update to its teacher recruitment and retention strategy to continue to attract and retain teachers.

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.”

Flourish Education have been building strong relationships with schools and top teaching talent since 2010; supplying teachers, teaching assistants and non-teaching staff into primary schools, secondary schools and academies across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region.

We recognize that every school has their own unique culture, community and specific recruitment challenges and by understanding the needs of the schools that we work with and getting to know our candidates, we are able to match the right candidate to the right school.