Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of scrutiny of schools by (a) her Department and (b) Ofsted on the (i) workload and (ii) job satisfaction of teachers.

The Department is working with Ofsted to tackle the drivers of unnecessary workload at national level. We recognise the importance of assessing the impact that its policy changes have on teachers' workload and job satisfaction. The Department for Education Protocol sets out commitments to provide schools with a year’s lead time for any changes to accountability, the curriculum and qualifications, and to take into account the workload impact on schools of such changes.

The Department’s ‘workload action plan’, published in February 2017 alongside the results of the 2016 Teacher Workload Survey, sets out the steps we will take to continue to tackle workload at all levels of the education system. Ofsted has carried out a range of activity to support workload reduction: its recently published strategy includes a commitment to seek to reduce regulatory burdens, streamline inspection process and tackle the workload side effects of inspection. These commitments align with the Government’s commitment to reduce the burdens of inspection. Further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/594680/Teacher_Workload_Action_Plan.pdf.