GUIDANCE ON
DEVELOPING POLICIES FOR SCHOOLS
Introduction
1.
The Annual Conference 2007 Resolution highlighted the fact
that the Government’s workforce reforms had not brought about a significant
reduction in workload for teachers and pointed out that the key to resolving
this situation lay in schools being committed to developing and implementing
purposeful work-life balance policies which also take account of the statutory
duty on schools to promote gender equality.
2.
The findings of the 2007 School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB)
Workload Survey bear witness to the fact that teachers overall have not
benefited from a significant reduction in workload. Most categories of teacher in 2007 continue
to report working over 50 hours a week.
3.
From information held by the Union
and consistent with its policies, we have distilled the components of a good work-life
balance policy which divisions can seek to include in local authority policies. It may not be possible to incorporate all elements
in every policy. All policies should,
however, cover at least some of them.
4.
Where entitlements are statutory, or contained within
nationally agreed conditions of service, governing bodies have no discretion in
their application. It is important that
both head teachers and teachers have a good understanding of statutory and
contractual entitlements. Where local
agreements have been negotiated with the local authority, community schools are
obliged to honour them. The governing
bodies of foundation or voluntary aided schools, however, can choose whether or
not to adopt the policy. In general,
voluntary aided schools have tended to follow the local authority practice and the
Union would wish this to continue in the case
of foundation and trust schools and academies.
5.
There are, however, many additional ways in which all
individual schools can take the initiative in supporting staff, both by
following local authority guidance and by considering additional supportive
measures. This document examines both statutory
and contractual entitlements, as well as other `good practice’ initiatives.
Rationale
for Implementing Work-life Balance Initiatives
6.
A lack of work-life balance adversely impacts on all staff
and reduces their chances of good health and their ability to balance workload
and other activities, such as learning, sport, leisure and family life. Women teachers are disadvantaged to a greater
degree because women cite workload in teaching as incompatible with raising
their family as they struggle to discharge caring responsibilities.
7.
Where reluctance is expressed on the part of local
authorities to establish guidance for schools/model policies, or negotiate
local agreements, or where schools are reluctant to implement their own policy,
the arguments set out below may prove persuasive.
(a)
Work-life balance is about helping staff combine work with
their personal commitments and interests.
Good work-life balance is an essential factor in staff effectiveness and
satisfaction, which in turn supports pupil learning. It is, therefore, in the interests of schools
to adopt policies that allow employees to balance their working lives with
their personal needs and interests, and caring responsibilities. The introduction to any work-life balance
policy should emphasise this key point.
(b)
The Equality Act 2006 amended the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to place a `general duty’ on all local authorities
and schools in England and Wales,
when carrying out their activities, to have regard to the need:
·
to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment; and
·
to promote equality of opportunity between men and women.
Schools and authorities
are required to publish gender equality schemes.
Providing opportunities
for male and female teachers to balance their work with other aspects of their
life will help reduce the disadvantage experienced by women working within the
teaching profession.
(c)
Head teachers are required by their conditions of employment
(see below for more details) to address this area. Governing bodies also have health, safety and
welfare responsibilities. See section
below ‘Who is responsible for improving work-life balance’ for more information
on health and safety responsibilities.
(d)
Attention to work-life balance issues also has other ‘knock
on’ effects, including:
·
reduced stress and sick leave, leading to financial savings
on supply cover;
·
improved outcomes for pupils in primary classes in
particular where classroom teachers are not affected by ill health absence;
·
a more motivated workforce with high morale;
·
better communication within the workplace;
·
making it easier for disabled teachers to stay in the
profession when they acquire impairments or impairments change;
·
improved pupil behaviour and learning as staff wellbeing
increases (TSN survey);
·
promoting gender equality, because the long hours associated
with full time teaching contracts discourage women seeking promotion and mean
women are over represented in part time teaching;
·
a recognition that working excessive hours might actually
reduce staff effectiveness. Staff should
be valued for their skills, experience and contribution, not their working
pattern;
·
increased job satisfaction;
·
fewer problems with recruitment and retention – a good work-life
balance policy will give schools an ‘edge’ when seeking to attract and retain
staff of the highest calibre;
·
work-life balance is not mainly about doing less – it is
about maintaining, or even raising, performance by living healthier, more
productive, lives.
Who is
Responsible for Improving Work-Life Balance in Schools?
Health and Safety Duties
8.
Local authorities, where they are the employers, bear
overall responsibility for safeguard, so far as is reasonably practicable, the
health, safety and welfare of employees.
Governing bodies, where they are the employers, carry this
responsibility in, for example, voluntary aided and foundation schools.
9.
Head teachers have a professional duty as set out in Section
2, Part 9, paragraph 57.3 of the 2007 School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions
Document to ‘have regard to the desirability of teachers at the school 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’.
10.
Even where the governing body is not the employer, it has a
duty under the Equality Act 2006 to assess the impact of its policies on gender
equality and issue a scheme with gender equality objectives. Improving work-life balance for all teachers
will be a key way of improving gender equality.
What about the
Head Teacher’s Work-Life Balance?
11.
Head teachers are entitled to a reasonable amount of time
during school sessions for the purpose of discharging leadership and management
responsibilities.
12.
It is up to Governing bodies to ensure that head teachers
are able to take this time, which is known as ‘Dedicated Headship Time’. In some cases governing bodies and head
teachers may need to discuss reducing the head teacher’s teaching commitment so
as to reduce the need to work on school business at weekends. An
increase in headship time must not, however, lead to additional workload for
other overburdened teachers. Governing
bodies will, in such cases, need to consider additional staffing. More detailed advice on work-life balance
for head teachers follows later in this guidance document in the section headed
‘The Position of the Head Teacher’.
Key Aims of
a Work-Life Balance Policy
13.
The key objectives of a work-life balance policy are
described below.
·
To acknowledge that staff need to balance work commitments
with other aspects of their life and to assist in this process so that staff
can achieve their best at work and manage other areas of their life
effectively.
·
To help address the problem of excessive workload among
teachers.
·
To recognise that long working hours have a negative impact
on all families, as well as teaching and learning.
·
To benefit the school and its employees.
·
To acknowledge the need for management, governors, employees
and trade unions to work together to identify realistic solutions to improve work-life
balance.
·
To make employees feel valued and to foster mutual respect.
·
To acknowledge that the needs of both the school and its
staff will change over time.
·
To reduce physical and mental ill health of staff.
·
To communicate good practice to staff on a regular basis so
that they are reminded of the provisions from which they can benefit as and
when their circumstances change.
·
To operate in a fair and consistent manner. It is important that work-life balance is not
simply viewed as a benefit for working parents but as a way of organising work
so that all staff have a life outside school, which could include learning,
sporting, leisure or other interests.
Other staff, for example those with caring responsibilities for disabled
or elderly relatives, should not feel that a good work-life balance approach
simply favours those with children.
Staff who do not have children must not automatically be expected to
assume the workload of working parents who have been granted leave of absence. This would be unfair and would generate
resentment and division among staff.
Examples of good practice in work-life balance provision
14.
The rest of this document comprises information on statutory
entitlements and NUT policy on work-life balance issues, as well as examples of
good practice extracted from local authority and school policies. Together this information represents the
basis for a sound approach to work-life balance.
·
Role of the Governing
Body
15.
Nomination of a work-life balance Governor with
responsibility for promoting and monitoring work-life balance in the school is
a sensible first step, particularly for schools which have thus far not given
much consideration to work-life balance issues.
Giving responsibility to a governor should help kick-start the whole
process.
·
Consultation with staff
16.
The involvement of staff is the key to the success of any
policy. A good place to start is to find
out what problems staff have with their current working arrangements and ask
what options would help staff balance work and home lives. Set out below are various examples of what
form such consultation should take.
- Regular review, discussed at annual
staff meetings, of how effectively the school is taking into account the work-life
balance of all staff.
- Consultation with staff on the timing
of meetings, INSET, Report Schedules, school trips etc., when drawing up the
calendar for the academic year.
17.
Calendars should include all the above, as well as concerts,
open days, sports days, activity weeks and other events that sill impact on work-life
balance. If teachers know what is coming
up, and when, they can adjust their own workload. For example, they can set homework which
requires less marking or which can be marked by pupils in class, if reports
need to be written or an evening event is taking place.
18.
Employees who are members of a recognised union are entitled
to take a reasonable amount of unpaid leave during the working day to take part
in union activity. Because there is no
statutory right to paid leave for union activities, union meetings tend to take
place after school. Good
teacher/management relations can be fostered by schools agreeing not to hold
after-school meetings on days when trade union meetings have been arranged,
provided that reasonable notice of such meetings has been given.
- All new initiatives, for example,
extended schools, to be considered in terms of their impact on work-life
balance.
- Properly conducted exit interviews, or
use of exit questionnaires, when staff resign to find out if problems with work-life
balance led to the resignation.
- Consultation between the head or
deputy head and NQTs, new appointees, and those promoted internally, 6 weeks
after they take up their new post, to explore work-life balance issues and to
see if the school can offer further support.
- Clear and up-to-date identification
of duties and responsibilities, relating to individual teacher’s roles in job
descriptions and consultation prior to any changes.
19.
The Equality Act 2006 requires governing bodies to consult
staff in order to gather information upon which to base gender equality
objectives for the school’s scheme.
·
Time off in Lieu
20.
Provision of time off in lieu for staff who volunteer to
stay late for additional, untimetabled meetings could involve permission to
leave early or come in late on another day.
Another example where such an arrangement could operate is for Open
Evenings for prospective Year 7 or Year 12 pupils and parents. Schools could choose to close early on the
day of the Open Evening, to allow staff extra time to prepare classroom
displays, and take a break, and could open an hour later than normal the
following morning to compensate for the late working required. Such a policy would ensure that teachers take
the 11 consecutive hours’ rest, in a 24 hour period, which is their entitlement
under the Working Time Regulations 1998.
·
Training
21.
Working with all staff, including those who work part-time,
to provide appropriate training to enable them to do their jobs effectively
within normal hours.
22.
Ensuring that training, including CPD, takes place during
the school day, not at the end of the day when staff are tired and less able to
concentrate.
·
Facilities/Equipment
23.
Consideration as to whether on-site child care facilities
can be provided.
24.
Purchase of equipment, for example laptops, to help staff
work more efficiently.
25.
Provision of suitable workplace facilities for rest and
relaxation and, separately, for PPA time and healthy lunches.
·
Welfare
26.
Arrangements to allow even those staff who are on playground
duty time for a drink and short break, or for TAs to cover break times and then
take their break afterwards.
27.
Celebrations for staff birthdays.
28.
Parents’ evenings changed to Parents’ days or Academic
Review Days.
·
Working at home
29.
Many people feel that they are at their most productive when
working at home without distraction. The
introduction of ‘Home Admin Days’ may, therefore, be welcomed by many staff
working on significant curriculum projects or Annual Reviews/Reports. Provided that such days are agreed in
advance, recorded in the office calendar, and that staff are contactable at
home during school hours, such days
should not be detrimental to the efficient running of the school.
30.
Some teachers will wish to work at home during their PPA
time. For others it may not be feasible,
because of the timing of their PPA time or because of where they live. Decisions on whether to allow teachers to
work at home during their PPA time are at the discretion of the head
teacher. It is hoped, however, that,
subject to appropriate monitoring systems, many head teachers will be persuaded
that teachers do not necessarily have to be on the premises to undertake certain
tasks. Time set aside at home can help
teachers to focus on tasks and can be a highly efficient and cost effective way
of working.
31.
Where PPA time is taken on the school premises, it is
essential that teachers have access to appropriate work areas, free from
interruption. Without such access, work
which should be able to be completed during the school day, will need to be
completed at home, with inevitable impact on work-life balance.
·
Organisation of Meetings
32.
Sensible arrangements for meetings are a key element in any work-life
balance policy and are essential to prevent meetings encroaching on time when
teachers should be at home.
33.
NUT policy is that meetings should last no more than 60
minutes, be held on no more than an average of one evening per week during term
time, with a maximum of two evenings in any week. Pre-school briefings should be within this 60
minute maximum.
34.
Meetings should be timetabled at the beginning of the
academic year and should have a clear purpose.
Only staff whose presence is essential should attend.
35.
Part-time teachers should not be required to attend meetings
at times when they are not on the premises, unless this has been taken into
account in the terms of their contract.
Due to other commitments, many part-time teachers will be unable to come
into school at times when they are not timetabled to work. Head teachers should respect this position
and should not seek to direct teachers to work in circumstances where such a
direction would be unreasonable.
36.
More information about meetings is contained in the NUT
document ‘Teachers’ Working Time and Duties’ available on Hearth and www.teachers.org.
·
Flexible working
37.
Work-life balance policy should support, as far as is
reasonably possible, requests for flexible working from both men and women
teachers.
38.
Teaching is a challenging, at times exhausting, profession
to work in. Combining it with parental
responsibilities, or any other kind of caring responsibilities can be too much
for some teachers. One way of preventing
the loss of experienced colleagues is for a school policy to promote flexible
working and be supportive of reasonable requests for time off.
39.
The term flexible working covers a wide range of practices,
including job share, part-time working, time off for family and domestic
reasons, and parental leave.
40.
There are minimum statutory requirements which local
authorities and schools must adhere to, and which are described below. The best employers will, however, seek to go
beyond the minimum required by law. It
is important that work-life balance policies make teachers aware of the minimum
statutory provisions described below, as well as any improvements in place
through local agreements.
41.
As stated earlier in this document, where divisions are
able, by virtue of local agreements, to incorporate superior provisions into
teachers’ conditions of service, these provisions will apply to all teachers
employed by the authority. To ensure a
‘level playing field’ in terms of recruitment and retention, however, other types
of school, including foundation, voluntary aided and trust schools, as well as
academies might be prepared, if approached, to match the local authority
improvements, rather than applying statutory minimums.
42.
A school work-life balance cannot ignore gender. It requires
consideration of how to reduce and remove the gender discrimination which
exists within the teaching workforce, as it does in every sector of the
workforce. School work-life balance policies should:
·
aim to remove the economic disadvantages suffered in terms
of pay, progression and pension by those to whom current gender norms allocate
greater caring responsibilities (currently, women);
·
challenge current gender norms by enabling families to share
caring responsibilities more equally between men and women;
·
acknowledge the value to society of the unpaid ‘care’ that
employees juggle outside their paid employment;
·
acknowledge that increasingly all adults wish to contribute
to both caring and paid employment.
43.
It is important that school work-life balance policies and
flexible working policies enable male teachers to become more involved in
caring for babies and children. It is important also that policies do not
encourage gender stereotypes or reinforce gender inequalities in the home or in
employment by assuming that caring is female.
Statutory Right to Request Flexible
Working
44.
Male or female teachers may request a change to their hours,
time or work or place of work in order to care for a child under the age of 6,
a disabled child under the age of 18, or an adult aged 18 or over who is
related to, or living at the same address as, the employee. There is unfortunately no absolute right to
be granted the request. Formal requests
for flexible working can only be made under the Flexible Working Regulations
every 12 months.
45.
A good work-life balance policy would, therefore, point out
that there is nothing to prevent staff from submitting informal requests for flexible working since these are not covered
by the Regulations.
46.
The long hours working culture in schools undermines the
right to request flexible working. Both
issues are connected in policy terms.
Unless the dominant school culture is seen to be supportive of reducing
working hours for all teachers, including men, then not all carers/parents will
take advantage of the right to request flexible working and the policy will not
achieve its aims. The greater the
difference in hours between full time teachers and those working “flexibly”,
the more likely the latter will be penalised in terms of pay, career
development and promotion.
47.
Divisions who require more information on the right to
request flexible working will find an NUT guidance document on Hearth and on www.teachers.org.
Statutory
Right to Unpaid Time Off for Family and Domestic Reasons
48.
All employees have a legal entitlement to take unpaid time
off to deal with incidents involving employees’ dependants. A dependant is defined as:
·
a spouse or civil partner;
·
a child;
·
a parent;
·
a person living in the same household, other than as an
employee, tenant, lodger or boarder.
49.
By this definition, partners of the opposite or same sex and
living together, will be classed as dependants.
50.
A dependant is also any person who reasonably relies on the
employee for assistance on an occasion when the person falls ill or is injured
or assaulted, or to make arrangements for the provision of care in the event of
illness or injury. This will include,
for example, elderly relatives or same sex or opposite sex partners not living
in the same household but reliant on the employee to assist them in the event
of illness or injury. A dependent is
also any person who reasonably relies on the employee to make arrangements for
the provision of care.
51.
No qualifying period of service is required, and all
employees have the right to time off. A “reasonable” amount of unpaid time off
is allowed, although there is no definition of what is “reasonable” and it
will, therefore, vary according to each case and each set of circumstances.
52.
As noted above, the statutory right to unpaid time off for
domestic and family reasons is entirely separate from, and additional to, any
entitlement to parental or maternity leave.
53.
A good work-life balance policy will allow some element of paid leave to assist with incidents
involving dependants. See `Leave of Absence’ section below.
·
Leave of Absence
54.
Work-life balance policies should recognise the difficulties
that teachers face because they do not have the same flexibility to take annual
leave as other employees.
55.
It is important, therefore, that local authorities and trade
unions negotiate local agreements which specify minimum levels of paid leave
for different circumstances. As
described in the introduction to this guidance document, such agreements will
apply automatically in community and voluntary-controlled schools but will only
apply in voluntary aided and foundation schools if the governing body has
agreed to adopt them. Head teachers can
then use their discretion to grant additional unpaid or paid leave. Examples of reasonable arrangements are
listed below. Note that this is not an
exhaustive list.
56.
Examinations – paid leave to attend the examination and
award or degree ceremony. Discretionary
study leave.
57.
Interviews – up to 3 days’ paid leave per year for teachers
seeking an alternative post within any local authority.
58.
Funerals of close relatives/friends – paid leave as
necessary.
59.
Wedding or civil partnership of
a near relative – one day’s paid leave.
60.
Medical appointments/medical screening – where possible
teachers should arrange these in their own time but where this cannot be
arranged, paid time off will be granted.
Paid time off must, however, be granted for ante-natal appointments.
61.
Moving house – one day’s paid leave if on a school day.
62.
Time off to care for a sick child or other dependant – paid
leave as necessary.
63.
Public duties – Section 50 of the Employment Relations Act
1996 gives a statutory right to time off for public duties. The Burgundy Book provides that ‘teachers
shall have entitlements comparable with those of local authority officers so
far as paid and unpaid leave entitlement is concerned for jury and other public
service’. Reasonable time off should,
therefore, be granted for public duties or for serving on public bodies,
including service as:
·
Justices of the Peace;
·
members of local authorities;
·
governors of schools;
·
members of a police authority;
·
members of any statutory tribunal;
·
members of advisory bodies of trade unions;
·
members of the General Teaching Councils for England and Wales;
·
members of a health authority or a primary care trust.
64.
Where a teacher can claim an allowance for loss of earnings,
this should be done, and the school will then deduct this from the teacher’s
pay.
65.
Schools could also demonstrate their commitment to
supporting teachers with young children by considering requests for limited
amounts of time off to attend their children’s Christmas or end of Summer Term
performances. Such requests would
generally only amount to an hour or two away from school but agreeing such
requests, provided they are submitted well in advance, would generate large
amounts of good will among staff concerned.
66.
If such requests are genuinely problematic, a practical
solution would be to allow teachers to attend during their PPA time, or
swap/rearrange their PPA time with colleagues so as to facilitate their
attendance without increasing workload for those teachers who do not need time
off.
·
Time off for Religious
Observance
67.
Under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief)
Regulations 2003 it is unlawful to discriminate against workers because of
their religion or belief. The
regulations do not say that employers must provide time off and facilities for
religious or belief observance in the workplace. It is, however, good practice
for employers to consider whether their policies indirectly discriminate
against staff of particular religions or beliefs and, if so, whether reasonable
changes could be made. There is always a balance to be struck, but in general
the NUT advises that schools should seek to be sufficiently flexible to
accommodate a teacher’s religious observance where that is reasonably
practicable.
·
Time off for Fertility
Treatment
68.
The NUT believes that schools should deal appropriately and
sensitively with requests for time off for fertility treatment. The NUT believes also that paid leave of
absence should be given for medical appointments for initial infertility
investigations and for other medical appointments during the treatment cycle
and should not be counted against the teacher’s sick leave entitlement. Sickness absence resulting from the treatment
should be counted against the teacher’s sick leave entitlement in the usual
way. The nature of the treatment may
mean that absences cannot always be planned in advance but it is reasonable to
expect teachers to give as much notice of the need for time off as is possible.
69.
Requests for time off for fertility treatment are not likely
to come from large numbers of teachers at any one school. This fact, together with the possibility of
falling foul of sex discrimination legislation may encourage local
authorities/schools to be supportive of teachers.
70.
Seeking, undergoing and, in many cases, paying for,
fertility treatment is difficult and stressful.
Anything which schools can do to support teachers will help minimise
this stress.
·
Statutory Parental Leave
71.
Parental leave allows employees who have or expect to have
responsibility for caring for a child the right to take a period of unpaid time
off to look after their child. Employees
who have completed 1 year’s qualifying service with their employer by the time
they want to take the leave can take 13 weeks total leave for each child (18
weeks if the child is disabled). The
leave must be taken by the child’s fifth birthday or the fifth anniversary of
the date or adoption (18th birthday if the child is disabled),
although there is an extension to this for children born or adopted before 15
December 1999.
72.
Local authority and school work-life balance policies should
refer to these statutory arrangements.
73.
In the absence of local agreements, individual schools could
improve upon the arrangements by exercising discretion with regard to the
deadlines for taking leave, if there are compelling reasons to do so.
74.
Heads should recognise that fathers need plenty of
encouragement to take parental leave.
Most couples are likely to conform to current gender norms so that the
mother takes most of the leave.
Workplace culture is important.
Where taking parental leave is common practice, so schools develop
practices to cover for those on leave, and the school culture supports it,
parental leave is more likely to be taken by fathers in full.
·
Statutory Paternity Leave
75.
Partners of mothers or adoptive parents who have the
requisite service have the right to one or two weeks’ statutory paternity leave
paid at £112.75 per week from 1 April 2007.
There may be existing local agreements on paternity leave which improve
upon this rate for all or part of that period or which have wider eligibility
for leave.
76.
Offering all, or at least part, of the two weeks at full pay
is a positive gesture of financial and emotional support to partners of mothers
which enables them to support their partner, and any other children, in the
weeks following the birth or adoption of a child.
·
Maternity and Adoption
Leave and Pay
77.
Information on these arrangements should be referred to in work-life
balance policies. The NUT’s
comprehensive guidance document called ‘Maternity Matters’ is available from
Hearth and teachers.org. Information on
local authority maternity/adoption arrangements which improve upon the Burgundy
Book scheme is set out in Circular 05-177/CoS, ‘Best Practice in Maternity
Agreements’ (November 2005). Guidance on
contractual and statutory adoption leave and pay is also available on Hearth.
·
Part-time Working
78.
Part-time working can help employers with recruitment and
retention as well as demonstrating their commitment to equal
opportunities. In particular, it may
encourage more women teachers to remain in teaching after maternity or adoption
leave or to return to teaching. It can
also reduce turnover because teachers with convenient hours of work are more
likely to stay in post. It may also
reduce teacher stress, tension and illness, enabling teachers to come to the
job fresher and more energetic.
79.
Schools then benefit by having more highly motivated
teachers who feel that their professional experience and expertise is well
rewarded. The results have been
demonstrated by OFSTED research which found that the quality of work of
part-time teachers was “significantly above the national average” with benefits
for the quality of educational provision and pupil progress.
80.
Although there is no general legal right to move to part-time
working from a full time post, the law protects employees from less favourable
or discriminatory treatment. If a
teacher is employed to teach full-time but wishes to request a move to
part-time working, it is good practice for employers to consider such requests
objectively and in some circumstances employers may be legally obliged to do
so.
81.
In some cases teachers are able to rely on local agreements
or informal requests for flexible/part-time working. Where such requests are not granted teachers
with a child under the age of 6 may seek to exercise their statutory right to
request flexible working, as described in the section on flexible working
above.
82.
Detailed guidance on part time working is available on
teachers.org, entitled ‘Part Time Teachers – Guidance on Pay and Conditions’.
·
Job Sharing
83.
A policy on work-life balance would not be complete without
a positive commitment to consider applications for job shares.
84.
Many local authorities have job share policies, negotiated
with the NUT, which are helpful in persuading schools to agree to applications
for job sharing.
85.
‘Good practice’ policies should permit job share
arrangements unless the employer can demonstrate that in respect of a
particular post, or posts, it is completely impracticable to operate such
arrangements.
86.
The following arguments may help schools to embrace the idea
of job shares.
87.
Job shares can:
·
help with recruitment and retention;
·
reduce staff turnover (teachers with convenient hours are
less likely to leave;
·
motivate teachers;
·
offer pupils a wider range of teaching experiences;
·
offer a certain amount of flexibility in timetabling;
·
provide pupils with role models of co-operation;
·
reduce stress and sick leave.
88.
Job shares are not just about helping teachers combine work
with playing an active role in bringing up children. Their positive effect on work-life balance
extends beyond this. Work-life balance
policies should, therefore, recognise that the following categories of staff
may be attracted to job shares, as a means of enriching other aspects of their
lives:
·
existing part-time teachers seeking the opportunity to
obtain posts of responsibility while remaining in part-time employment;
·
mature teachers who, after an absence of some years from the
profession, would like to return to teaching preferably on a part-time basis;
·
teachers who would welcome a decrease in their professional
responsibilities and workload because of responsibility for a dependent
relative or other personal commitment;
·
teachers who wish to pursue courses of study;
·
teachers with disabilities or progressive medical conditions
who may, with a lightened teaching load, be able to remain in employment
longer;
·
teachers nearing retirement age interested in a “phased
retirement”.
·
The Position of the Head
Teacher
89.
A good work-life balance policy will advise head teachers on
how to help themselves, thereby setting a good example to their staff.
90.
There is a wide range of advice for head teachers, much of
it from other head teachers, on how to maintain an appropriate balance between
work and home life. Policies which are
drafted following consultation with head teachers and which encourage them to
share experiences and ideas will have more credibility among head teachers than
those which ignore this important area.
Some of these suggestions are listed below and will help head teachers
to ‘set the tone’ for the rest of the staff.
·
Decide on at least two lunch breaks which are ‘yours’ and
leave the premises.
·
Spend quality time with children.
·
Go home early at least once a week and don’t feel guilty.
·
Do something you enjoy such as reading or listening to
music, for at least an hour a day.
·
Don’t attempt to be a supply teacher/police officer/builder/architect/electrician/plumber/painter. Leave this work to those who can do it better.
·
Have time out once a fortnight working from home (but set a
time deadline and stick to it).
·
Wherever possible, arrange for governors’ meetings to take
place in school time.
·
Have only one in-tray and don’t read everything, particularly
if it’s not statutory. Don’t let papers
accumulate.
·
Read papers with a highlighter in your hand.
·
Delegate appropriately to staff (not to those who are already
overburdened) and trust them to get on with things. It helps to give staff ownership of, and
responsibility for, a task.
·
Call upon the local authority for support – that’s what it’s
there for.
·
Run tight, well planned, productive meetings.
·
Lead by example. Show
that you have a life outside work. Don’t
feel you have to be the first in and last out of school.
91.
School leaders and managers often work the longest hours and
it is sometimes said about headships and leadership posts in schools that their
jobs are the least able to be done by part timer or job share basis. The NUT
believes this is not the case.
92.
Increasingly it is becoming more acceptable for teachers in
management positions, including head teacher posts, to work part time or on job
share basis. Studies find that job sharing managers and those working flexibly
have greater problem solving and analysis skills, as well as better planning
and organisational skills than full time colleagues.
Reducing Workload
in Order to Promote Gender Equality
93.
The long working hours in teaching is one of the main
stumbling blocks to promoting equality between mothers and fathers in terms of
caring responsibilities and labour market opportunities. Many women teachers are restricted to part
time teaching because the long hours associated with full time teaching are
incompatible with the long hours that their partners work, either in teaching
or in other sectors of the economy. This
restricts the father’s ability to take part in caring for their child and the
mother’s availability to take up opportunities for promotion. Women continue to take responsibility for
child care and having children therefore has a far greater negative impact on
the promotion prospects of women rather than men. This is partly because the peak time for
promotions coincides with the main child bearing and caring years.
Government
Action
94.
The Government claims to be actively supporting employers on
work life balance. One element of the campaign is the Challenge Fund which has
provided £10 million to support employers taking action. This fund is
administered by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) Work-life
Balance team (0207 715 5000) and information about how to apply can be found by
employers at www.berr.gov.uk.
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