£1.5 million invested as part of mental health and
wellbeing package
New guidance for schools to prevent bullying and
harassment of staff
Steps to ease teacher workload published as initial
recommendations from the Workload Reduction
Taskforce
New measures to enhance recruitment and retention in the
teaching profession have been announced by the government today
(Monday 15 January).
They include £1.5 million of new investment to deliver a
three-year mental health and wellbeing support package for school
and college leaders; providing professional supervision and
counselling to at least 2,500 leaders.
The Government is also committing to publish new guidance for
schools – expected to be completed this spring - on how to
prevent and tackle bullying and harassment of school staff.
The measures have been announced after extensive consultation
with school leaders and teachers around the improvements they
believe will ensure that teaching remains an attractive and
rewarding profession.
Separately, the Workload Reduction
Taskforce – a cross-cutting group made up of unions,
teachers, and sector leaders – has agreed early
recommendations to help reduce teacher workload and encourage
education staff wellbeing to support the Department’s aim to
reduce teachers’ and leaders’ working week by five hours within
the next three years. The group will make final recommendations
on how to address the wider causes of teacher and leader workload
to government, Ofsted, and school and trust leaders in Spring
2024.
This builds on the Public Sector Productivity Programme led by
the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Chancellor, which is
revealing huge opportunities to cut admin, safely harness
Artificial Intelligence and deliver early interventions to
relieve pressure on public services.
School Minister said:
“Great teaching is the key ingredient to academic success – and
while we now have more teachers than ever before – it’s crucial
that we continue to ensure that teaching remains an attractive
and rewarding profession.
“That’s why we have announced new investment and reforms today to
support teacher wellbeing, ease workload pressures and tackle
bullying and harassment of staff.
“Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils, standards in
education have risen significantly since 2010, with nearly 90% of
schools now rated good or outstanding.”
Earlier this year the Government delivered on the manifesto
commitment to give every new teacher a
starting salary of at least £30,000 – alongside the highest
pay award for teachers in over thirty years. With thanks to the
hard work of teachers, standards of education have risen sharply
since this Government entered office in 2010, with 89% of school
rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, up from just 68%
in 2010.
The Workload Reduction Taskforce was launched by the Secretary of
State alongside the pay award in July 2023. They were initially
tasked with finding ways to maximise sign up to the Education Staff Wellbeing
Charter – a public commitment to the wellbeing and mental
health of everyone working in education – and strengthening the
implementation of the 2016 independent workload review groups’
recommendations which looked at on reducing teacher workload in
relation to marking, planning and
data management.
Alongside this, the Department is honouring its commitment to
publish its progress update on the Education Staff Wellbeing
Charter – two years after it was initially launched. The update
shows the significant progress made on its pledges, including the
commitment to: embed staff workload and wellbeing considerations
into Government decisions; measure and respond to changes in
staff wellbeing; and make sure guidance meets user needs. Over
3,000 schools and colleges have adopted the charter so far.
The Department has also renewed a contract with Now Teach to
support career changers into teaching, helping bring in talented,
experienced professionals into the profession. The contract,
valued at £1.5 million will support career changes up to October
2026.
