Graham is quite right in his statement that schools are implementing the workload reforms and that the changes are welcomed by headteachers, teachers and support staff.

In the past four months I have addressed more than 1,500 heads, teachers and bursars on this subject and I have found real enthusiasm for the programme. I have received letters from bursars outlining the programmes that their schools have put in place, many of which have addressed the problems within their schools with the co-operation of the whole of the school’s workforce.

Radical changes in the work practices in schools were long overdue.

Shortage of teaching staff in many schools, lack of an appropriate worklife balance for staff and the need to direct resources into the classroom, rather than to supply teacher agencies, need to be addressed.

This agreement affords the opportunity to do this, over three years. It needs others to offer real support, as the LGA have shown, for it to be really successful.

William Simmonds Chief executive National Bursars Association Ltd Rugby, Warwickshire