Oral Answers to Questions

Thérèse Coffey Excerpts

Monday 27th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Rosie Cooper. Not here.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

7. What steps he has taken to reduce the amount of paperwork undertaken by teachers.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

10. What steps he has taken to reduce the amount of paperwork undertaken by teachers.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

The Government are committed to reducing the amount of paperwork undertaken by teachers, heads and governors. We have removed the lengthy self-evaluation form and the financial management standard in schools; introduced a streamlined inspection framework; removed unnecessary duties and regulations in the Education Act 2011; cut the volume of guidance issued to schools by more than half; and made it clear that neither the Department nor Ofsted expects teachers to produce written lesson plans for every lesson. We are reviewing all requirements on schools so that they can focus on raising standards, rather than on unnecessary administrative tasks.

[Dr Coffey]

I thank my hon. Friend for updating the House on the progress that he is making on the amount of guidance. Will he reassure me that we no longer send teachers and governors thousands of pages of bureaucratic guidance, which at one point was equivalent to reading “War and Peace” from cover to cover three times over?

[Mr Gibb]

And significantly less interesting. My hon. Friend is right that we have swept away pages of guidance. We have reduced the admissions code from 160 pages to 50, the assessment guidance from 220 pages to 30, the attendance guidance from 220 pages to 30, and so on. We have reduced the health and safety guidance from 150 pages to eight, and have taken out important guidance on how to do a headcount, why a headcount is important and why schools should ensure that the school minibus is properly maintained.