Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 54
54
Accepted
Redouble efforts to promote the Flexible Working Toolkit and monitor school flexible working offers.
Conclusion
The Department should redouble efforts to promote the Flexible Working Toolkit with school leaders, with flexible working ambassador schools playing a central role in this. In addition, this should be backed up with a strategy to monitor the extent to which schools are offering flexible working. We ask that the Government provides a full update on this in response to this report. (Paragraph 221) Teacher recruitment, training and retention 83
Government Response Summary
The government details its existing efforts to promote the flexible working toolkit via campaigns, ambassador schools, and webinars. It also states it already monitors flexible working levels through existing surveys.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Expanding and enabling flexible working is a priority for ensuring we can attract and retain the expert teachers our children need. Ministers have expressed support for flexible working, including through clarifying the position on Planning, Preparation, and Assessment time in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), so schools are clear that teachers can use this time at home whilst not compromising on pupils’ face-to-face time. We continue to explore opportunities to promote the flexible working toolkit and our funded flexible working programme wherever possible. We have promoted the toolkit through a range of sector bulletins and newsletters and we ran a small-scale paid search and social campaign last year. We recently ran a comms campaign in collaboration with the Teaching Vacancies service, which aimed to build broader awareness of the benefits of flexible working in the sector, as well as to promote our wider flexible working programme. Our flexible working ambassador schools already play a central role in promoting our work, speaking at local and national sector events. We also signpost towards the toolkit in all our webinars. The toolkit was co-created with the sector, and we continue to work with a broad range of partners including flexible working experts to promote flexible working for teachers and leaders. We already monitor levels of flexible working in the sector through the Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders (WLTL) Survey and part-time rates through the School Workforce Census. The most recent WLTL survey shows that 46% of teachers and leaders have a flexible working arrangement in place, an increase from 40% seen in 2022. Whilst this is encouraging, we know there is further to go.