Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers
and Lecturers (ATL), said: “The Department for Education’s (DfE)
long-awaited workload report shows us what we already know, and
have been saying for some time – education professionals are
struggling under unrealistic workload pressures. ATL’s
#make1change campaign has been working in schools supporting
professionals to reduce their workload, but the problem is vast,
and the Government needs to accept its culpability as a driver of
workload.
“It has been a year since this data was collected; a year longer
for pay to lose its value, a year more of implementing flawed
Government policy, a year in which funding cuts are increasingly
being felt in schools, and the recruitment and retention crisis
continues. The growing imbalance between workload and reward is
driving teachers from the profession and harming the education of
children.
“This report shows that the DfE recognises the severity of the
problem for teachers, and we welcome the Department’s approach to
improve support for the early years of teachers' careers, but the
action plan published today is unambitious and will struggle to
change cultures or to make an impact on workload levels. The
Government has failed to heed the warnings of their previous
research about what drives workload - accountability, Ofsted
inspections, and Government policy change. These things continue
to be the major drivers of workload and there is little sign of a
Government plan to effectively tackle the root causes of the
problem.
“From our own recent research of leaders, 81% of ATL/AMiE members
report their workload has increased. Worse still, rather than
reducing workload, leaders say the Government has actually
increased it. Around 62% attribute the rise in workload directly
to the Government whose breakneck approach to policy
implementation leaves school leaders to pick up the pieces. This
is also despite the DfE publishing three workload reports which
were meant to help reduce the burden of planning, marking and
data collection a-year-ago.
“The Government needs to better support leaders and make national
level interventions relating to the things in its power. The
Government must tackle the key driver of workload and reform its
school accountability structures and systems. The Government must
conduct workload impact assessments for all policies, and control
the cumulative effects of policy change and implementation.
“For the DfE to publish this data today, so long after it was
collected, and on the TUC’s ‘Work Your Proper Hours’ Day, is
farcical.The TUC’s workload stats, also released today, show, yet
again, that teachers are near the top of the professions working
unpaid overtime.”
