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A Department for Education push to give teachers more flexibility in terms of where they work has not led to a rise in home working, new data suggests.
According to senior sector figures, it will be difficult for teachers to take advantage of the greater flexibility while schools continue to suffer staff shortages.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson this summer said the department would issue new guidance that teachers can complete some work like lesson planning at home as part of a Government bid to make teaching more flexible for under-pressure staff.
The guidance was formally updated last month to read: “Teachers can use their PPA time flexibly at home and in one chunk of time, where operationally feasible and safeguarding considerations allow.”
The guidance also said: “Employers could look at how PPA time is scheduled as part of a strategic whole-school approach to accommodate more flexible PPA time.”
Teachers receive allocated time to complete their duties away from the children in their care known as planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time.
But new data, collected last month by Teacher Tapp and shared with PoliticsHome, shows that the percentage of teachers in state schools who had spent their PPA time at home in the week commencing 18 November rose to 11 per cent from 9 per cent in September — a change which Teacher Tapp says is not significant.
In primary schools, the percentage of teachers spending PPA time at home rose from 16 per cent to 19 per cent.
In secondary, where it is often harder for PPA time to be taken away from classrooms, teachers completing work at home rose from just two per cent to three per cent.
There have been calls for ministers to make teaching more flexible amid a wider effort to tackle a recruitment and retention crisis in the education sector.
A recent report showed women in their thirties are the largest group leaving the profession.
The think tank The New Britain Project’s report “Missing Mothers”, which was published earlier this year, said that “increased pay alone won’t be sufficient to stem the tide of teachers leaving the profession; creating a sustainable career requires addressing other foundational needs, particularly for women”.
Speaking to PoliticsHome, Head of Community at Teacher Tapp Grainne Hallahan said: “The difference so far is within what you would expect for normal variation — there hasn’t been a sudden increase of teachers working from home.”
Hallahan said it could be that taking PPA time from home “is impractical” or that some schools are “unwilling to let teachers go home for practical reasons like needing enough staff or fire drills or covering absent colleagues”.
Ultimately, “first we need more staff in school to facilitate having staff off-site,” she said.
“Until the issue of understaffing is addressed in schools, then it is very difficult to offer flexibility like PPA at home.
“But the recruitment crisis would be eased if teachers had more attractive perks like being able to work from home. And of, course, all of this has to be balanced with ensuring outcomes for pupils aren’t negatively impacted.”
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, told PoliticsHome the “only route out” of what he called a “severe recruitment and retention crisis in schools” was increased investment in education.
“Even simple mitigations to retain more teachers, such as greater flexible working, are extremely difficult because of the lack of capacity in the school system,” he said.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Improving teacher wellbeing and work-life balance is vital so we can continue to recruit and keep great teachers in our classrooms and drive up standards for all children.
“On top of the 5.5 per cent pay award, we are resetting the relationship with the education workforce and working alongside them to re-establish teaching as an attractive, expert profession.
“We have already clarified that teachers can carry out their planning time at home and continue to encourage schools to make use of the full range of flexible working practices to support their staff as their lives change and develop.”
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