Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to provide guidance to schools on implementing flexible working whilst maintaining education quality and the attractiveness of the teaching profession.

Ensuring teaching is an attractive profession in which teachers are supported to succeed is a key priority for the Department.

Flexible working is increasingly a normal expectation of employees, and teaching is no different. The opportunity to work flexibly can help to recruit and retain talented teachers, enabling the high quality teaching needed to support pupil outcomes.

The Department is taking action to expand and promote opportunities for flexible working, whilst maintaining the quality of education. This includes promoting formal flexible working arrangements, such as part time working and encouraging informal flexibility, such as agreed ad hoc days off for personal or family days. It also includes opportunity to spend planning, preparation and assessment time working remotely, away from the school building.

To promote flexible working practices, the Department has published supportive resources on GOV.UK, including non-statutory guidance and case studies. The Department is continuing to build on this collection.

The Department is also funding support. In February 2023, a culture change programme was launched, focused on embedding flexible working in schools and multi academy trusts. This programme includes the delivery of supportive webinars. As part of this package of support, the Department is funding flexible working ambassador schools and multi academy trusts to provide bespoke peer support to leaders in education. In June 2023, the Department appointed seven new ambassadors and is currently in the process of recruiting more, building on the work of a previous cohort of ambassador schools.