Flexible working in schools #5
This document has been developed to support school leaders, Human Resources Directors and Human Resources Business Partners to develop a more proactive and structured approach to flexible working at a whole-school level. It provides answers to key questions that will inform and guide in the following areas:
Teachers do not work in isolation; they work within and across teams, so it is important not to just consider flexible working at an individual level.
Many schools work hard to accommodate individual requests, but then end up with a ‘request-response’ model, which can be restrictive and onerous. A ‘whole-school’ approach to flexible working is more likely to be systematic and proactive, and allows everyone to contribute.
A whole-school approach is characterised by a school-wide understanding of and consistency in the approach, openness and flexibility on both sides. It also incorporates a sense of shared responsibility to make it work and a growing body of ‘know-how’ about what is possible.
A whole-school approach to flexible working is best driven and championed by the Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team. Other key people who could be involved in designing and running it are middle leaders, heads of department, HR, trade union representatives, and those responsible for timetabling and curriculum design.
The process could include the following steps:
Finding out what staff actually want is a critical part of developing a whole-school approach. Schools which do this well have open conversations and a clear and well-understood process to gather preferences, from which they work out what is possible.
Under normal circumstances, this dialogue could be started by saying: ‘’We would like to explore whether there is more scope for flexible working for our staff; and where we can make it work for the school, we’ll make it work for you’’.
The Covid-19 pandemic has created a baseline for improving flexible working in schools. A dialogue could be started with staff by asking: “What have we learnt about our working practices and how can we build on this?’’
Leaders who have been talking to their staff about their other responsibilities, as part of developing their response to lockdown, are likely to have a much better understanding of their needs than before. This helps avoid second-guessing what flexibility people may want.
Many teachers are not seeking to reduce their hours by a huge amount. Research has shown that, of secondary teachers who would like to work part-time, around half would prefer to work 0.8-0.9 full-time equivalent (FTE); there is also some demand for working 0.6-0.7 FTE, but relatively low demand for working 0.5 FTE or less.[1] Others still may want to remain full-time, but with more flexibility around when they are working.
Similarly, teachers know when they join the profession that it is a face-to-face role, but might value a bit of time carved out to work from home, for tasks such as PPA or CPD.
Additionally, people’s needs for flexibility will change over the course of their careers. On-going and open dialogue can help create a positive culture and shared responsibility, and flexible job design can be used to build some flexibility in roles to suit people’s changing needs.
Flexible job design involves looking at the current parameters of a role and designing it afresh to build in flexibility that delivers the right work-life balance for an employee, whilst still meeting the needs of the school.
This is done by exploring the three core elements of job design:
For each of these elements, there are a number of questions to ask to drill into the detail (the Timewise People Manager Guide offers support with this process). The process also needs to be underpinned by an approach which enables understanding, exploration, negotiation, and trialling what works.
Covid-19 has challenged people’s thinking about working practices and where and how different aspects of a teacher’s role can be done. It has created opportunities (such as the use of technology) and addressed concerns (such as the viability of virtual department meetings). This presents an opportunity to build more flexibility into roles in a practical and tested way.
A really powerful approach is for the timetabler, HR, relevant heads of department and job holders to proactively review a cross-section of roles, to determine which kinds of flexible working would be applicable to them. This can be a good way to engage staff if you are starting a project to increase flexible working opportunities.
So, for example, leaders could assemble a team to look at the role of a subject teacher, a middle leader and a senior leader, and see how the roles could be made more flexible. This would also involve thinking about where any excess tasks could be allocated, constraints such as staff/student ratios, and potential limitations of the curriculum model and timetable.
Whilst working towards this approach, a good starting point would be to encourage staff to consider all the elements of their role when they are putting in a request, so they understand about taking the needs of the school into account, as well as their own.
Over time, the SLT, timetabler and wider staff will develop a better sense of the scope for flexibility in different roles.
The nature of teaching, timetabling and other aspects of school life mean that schools need to be more creative in terms of what is possible than many other employers. There can be benefits to challenging how work is done and how lessons are taught.
Here are some examples of adjustments which allow more flexible working:
[1] https://www.nfer.ac.uk/media/3476/part-time_teaching_and_flexible_working_in_secondary_schools.pdf
