Teachers like the proposals to cut workload. What they need now is the hard cash to bring about real change. Michael Shaw and Warwick Mansell report

THE GOVERNMENT’s drive to cut teacher workload could be scuppered by the Chancellor this summer, headteachers’ leaders warned this week.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the drive to cut working hours would not just depend on ministers’

response to this week’s well-received School Teachers’ Review Body report.

It also hinged on how much money Chancellor Gordon Brown could find for education in the comprehensive spending review, which will set public spending for the next three years.

Key recommendations in the report - including recruiting thousands of extra support staff and the introduction of guaranteed time for marking and preparation - will only become reality with extra resources.

Other key aspects of the report include limiting the amount of time teachers spend every year covering for absent colleagues and a requirement on heads to consider the effect on teachers’ work-life balance when giving them new tasks. And teachers would be given an entitlement to more professional development - but only during their holidays.

Mr Hart said: “The recommendations are not only plausible, they are vital. But we need more teachers and support staff to make them work, and we shall be watching the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s lips very carefully.”

The report said 58 per cent of teachers leaving secondary schools and 74 per cent leaving primaries cited workload as a reason.

Its importance was highlighted after a separate survey by the National Foundation for Educational Research found that almost all of the 320 headteachers questioned were concerned about staff workload. Most heads also said the pressure of work meant there was not enough time for training.

All four classroom unions expressed disappointment that some of their main workload demands, such as contractual limits on working hours, had been rejected. But all believe that the review body recommendations can lead to other ways of reducing workloads substantially.

A report by the consultant John Atkins last week for the National Union of Teachers said that teachers would be prepared to accept working 40-45 hours a week. The higher figure is recommended in the report.

And it said that guaranteeing staff a set amount of non-contact time would be a “major breakthrough”.

Although, the response to the report from unions was cautiously positive, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers did criticise the Government for reacting too slowly to its recommendations.

Ministers plan to consult until July, then consult on proposals of their own after the spending review.

Christina McAnea, education secretary of UNISON, the union that represents support staff hoped the report would encourage heads to hire administrative assistants rather than automatically employing more teachers.

But others question whether support staff provide the best answer. Professor Alan Smithers of Liverpool University argued that the best solution to the workload problem was still employing more teachers. “I think the Government wants a cheap option. If we had more teachers they would teach smaller classes and fewer classes each week.”

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads’ Association, said guaranteed amounts of marking and preparation time, rather than limiting teaching time, could disadvantage some teachers.

He said: “Some spend more time teaching than others. Each hour of teaching demands a certain amount of time marking and preparation, so maximum contact hours would be much more equitable.”

Ministers are refusing to say how much the report’s recommendations might cost. But Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said removing teachers’ administrative duties and giving them an extra two hours’

non-contact time would require 21,000 assistants, 17,000 bursars and 28,000 teachers - at a cost of pound;1 billion.

Leader, 24

NEXT STEPS

May 14: Unions, employers and Government meet to consider how to react to report

July 3: Official consultation on report ends

July: Comprehensive Spending Review sets out how much money the Government will devote to tackling workload

Summer: Government comes forward with detailed proposals. More consultation

Autumn term: First phase of implementation, probably including recruitment of extra support staff to free teachers from administration.

Contract changes including guaranteed marking and preparation time and limits on time teachers spend covering for colleagues may follow.

`Pathfinder’ schools (see boxes, below right) start workload reduction programmes

2004: Review body recommends that teachers’ average working week should be reduced from 52 to 48 hours

2006: Teachers’ average working week should be reduced to 45 hours