Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on reducing teacher workload.

The Department has taken action to tackle unnecessary teacher workload, and address burdensome tasks such as marking and lesson planning.

The most recently published snapshot survey shows that 73% of teachers and head teachers report that their schools have reviewed or updated school policies to reduce workload, 67% had reduced or changed their approach to marking, and 49% had reduced or changed their approach to planning. Of those that had taken action on workload, 47% said unnecessary workload had been effectively reduced. The survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-snapshot-survey-winter-2017.

Developed by head teachers, teachers and other sector experts, the workload reduction toolkit published in July 2018 provides accessible materials for teachers. These include practical advice, tools and case studies that head teachers, teachers and other staff can use to address workload issues in their school. To date materials have been collectively downloaded around 84,000 times. The toolkit can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/workload-reduction-toolkit.

The Workload Advisory Group, chaired by Professor Becky Allen, has looked at what unnecessary data and evidence schools are collecting, and what (and who) drives that behaviour. On 5 November 2018, the Government published the report from the Workload Advisory Group and their response accepting all the recommendations in full. This report can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-workload-advisory-group-report-and-government-response.

The Department is continuing to collect and analyse evidence on what drives excessive workload and what works to reduce it, and has committed to a large scale workload survey which will run every 2 years, to improve the evidence base and inform policies.