Future Flexible Working Hours in Education?

With current debates recently circulating the media regarding teacher's work-life balance there is discussion that flexible working hours might be enforced within the education sector.  A recent ITV article shared that requesting flexible working hours is a new right for all workers.

Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said: “This new day one right stands to benefit millions of people, helping them to balance their work and life commitments and give them more say and more opportunity in where and how they work.”

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the escalation of working from home and ever since this culture has been adopted by many workplaces with lots of jobs offering remote or hybrid work.  

The conciliation service Acas published a new statutory Code of Practice on requests for flexible working and guidance. Its chief executive, Susan Clews, said: “There has been a global shift to flexible working following the pandemic, which has allowed more people to better balance their working lives and employers have also benefited from being an attractive place to work.”

Peter Cheese: “Flexibility around time, scheduling and place of work can be transformative in opening up opportunities for people to get into and stay in work.” Could this be applied to teaching? Education is currently in a retention crisis as teaching requires commitment and often long working hours outside of school.

ITV News covered one of the first schools to adopt a new working model. “Inside one of the first schools which allows teachers to have a day off every two weeks”, documents West Grantham Secondary Academy and its difficulties with retention of teachers. Their newly established working model allows all teachers to have a day off every two weeks but makes lesson times fifteen minutes longer. This has been met with happy feedback from not only teachers but students also. The new model of working allows teachers to ‘catch up’ on things that they have to sacrifice in a normal school week.

The new labour government have put forth their plans to recruit 6,500 new teachers. With recent figures showing that a third of teachers quit the profession within 5 years - adaptive ways of improving retention are more important than ever. A report commissioned by Teach First said that the government must focus on how to allow secondments in teaching to attract more generation Z teachers. However, Paul Whiteman, of the NAHT leaders’ union, warned that there are truly “no simple solutions or quick fixes” and the government must be “realistic about what is manageable for schools” in making policies.

Headteacher Mat Galvin says secondments are “incredibly worthwhile for teachers and their pupils” and “could transform recruitment and retention”.

But they can also be “challenging for some schools, especially those with tight budgets and serving communities experiencing deprivation, as we do”.

Schools Week shared the research by Public First of more than 3,000 16 to 24-year-olds. The findings showed that although 61 per cent would consider working as a teacher, 56 per cent crave a good work-life balance and 80 per cent would prefer some degree of hybrid working.

Although many of the respondents agreed that teaching is a rewarding career where you can make a difference, they stated that they also want to be able to afford a house or flat, and do not “expect to have linear career trajectories within any industry”.

Christian Bunting, Director of Birth to 19 says:

“The education sector is changing significantly; it is more commonplace now than ever to welcome part time contracts to improve work life balance. It is an important part of the professional offer and as we navigate life post-pandemic the nature of employment has forever changed. Particularly with new graduates wanting a mixed and varied portfolio. By delving into different sectors during their working life employers must be flexible to meet this ask. In terms of teaching, it is a profession that grabs a hold of you but that does not mean there is not a future where flexible working hours cannot be the “norm”. As it becomes the way of working currently and in the years to follow, we are anticipating how this will be negotiated within education.”

To read the ITV article about the rights to flexible working, click here.

To read the Schools Week article about generation z demands, click here.