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NJC FOR STAFF IN SIXTH FORM COLLEGES
COMMITTEE FOR TEACHING STAFF
STAFF SIDE POSITION PAPER ON CONDITIONS OF SERVICE ISSUES
Introduction
Last year the SFCF and the teacher unions agreed that it would be useful to enter into “without prejudice” discussions on workload and working time issues and on possible further guidance to assist teachers and colleges.
This paper sets out the views of the teacher unions –informed by our members - on a range of key conditions of service issues including: group size; administration and bureaucracy; total working time; non-contact time; meetings; cover obligations; work/life balance; and lesson observations.
The teacher unions have carried out a survey of union representatives in individual colleges highlighting specific issues relating to conditions of service in sixth form colleges. The survey had an extremely high response rate covering over 90 per cent of colleges where the national sixth form college conditions are applied.
We believe that it is in the interest of both teachers and colleges for the Employers and the teacher unions jointly to offer advice on effective deployment of teaching staff and on avoiding excessive workload for teachers in sixth form colleges. These issues are key priorities for the unions, and should be for the Employers too. We hope, therefore, that we can establish common ground with the Employers in seeking to address these areas.
Group Sizes
The issue of group sizes remains a key concern for teachers. Our members consistently tell us that the group size issue is the most significant factor in increasing workload. This was reflected in our recent survey which showed that group sizes were a matter of concern or very serious concern in no fewer than 96.5 per cent of colleges.
Although this may be a difficult matter to address, the continuing failure to address this problem has only made things worse. The unions have consistently pressed the SFCF with regard to improving matters in this area and will continue to do so. The impact of group sizes on teachers’ workload and working time is clear, as is the consequent need to develop a meaningful response to the problem.
Administration and Bureaucracy
The national agreement includes joint guidance dated 1999 containing advice on bureaucracy and administrative tasks, drawing extensively on advice for schools which has itself been long superseded. The teacher unions wish to renew and extend this guidance in order to provide current advice which is relevant to the needs of colleges.
Our survey showed that issues relating to administrative and technical support tasks continue to be of significant concern to teachers. Issues consideredincluded matters related to attendance recording,clerical and bureaucratic tasks required of teachers and matters related to administration of examinations.
The nationally agreed NJC guidance already refers to tasks such as these as illustrations of the types of issues to be considered in relation to avoiding unnecessary teacher workload. Nevertheless, teachers continue to have to undertake such tasks.
These types of administrative and clerical tasks are not ones which require teachers' professional skills and judgement. School teachers are not now required to undertake such tasks on a routine basis because it has been agreed that this is an inappropriate use of their time which should be spent on other more appropriate activities. The same considerations apply to teachers in sixth form colleges who should also not be required to undertake such tasks. The sixth form college national agreement should now set out this position in unequivocal terms.
Working Time and Teaching Time
We were surprised to discover that two-thirds of respondents to our survey said that their colleges did not use directed time budgets for the deployment of the 1265 hours of directed time. The NJC must strongly encourage colleges to use directed time budgets for their teachers as a means of avoiding disputes over working time.
In our survey,more than four-fifths of respondents identified contact hours and non-contact time as an issue of “very serious” or “some” concern.
Teaching hours in sixth form colleges appear to be increasing. Our survey suggested that the average contact time per week was 23 hours 20 minutes, with more than a quarter of colleges requiring 25 hours or more of contact time from their teachers. This is a significantly higher teaching commitment than that required in schools. This creates the risk that, taking into account also colleges’ inconsistent practice with regard to classifying other activities as “directed time”, colleges will exceed the contractual working time limits for teachers even before their non-directed time is considered.
The teacher unions would prefer an absolute limit on the number of teaching hours per week to be provided in the national agreement. Such a limit would obviously assist in avoiding disputes locally. It cannot be sensible or appropriate for the national arrangements to continue to be silent on these issues and we would also wish to discuss guidance to colleges on the importance of avoiding excessive teaching hours.
Our survey provided evidence that teachers take very few breaks during their working day, due to a range of factors including a general expectation that they will always be available to students. Respondents to our survey also reported that breaks from teaching are often eroded by other activities and that there is an expectation that individual student support or workshops will be delivered during lunch breaks. Further guidance on the importance of appropriate breaks, during which teachers should not be required to undertake duties, attend meetings or remain on the premises, is needed.
The Red Book provides for teachers to be required to work additional days on top of the 195 days a year, and makes provision for compensation in the form of pay or time off in lieu. The view of the Staff Side is that guidance should make clear that any requests to work additional days are subject to the test of reasonableness and should only be made in cases of genuine necessity.
There is evidence from our survey that a significant number of colleges (almost a third of our responses) require teaching time outside the normal timetable, for example for extended support/booster tuition. Guidance must make clear that any such work is subject to the same tests of reasonableness and necessity, and that teachers are appropriately compensated.
Non-Contact Time
Serious discussion is needed on the importance of providing guaranteed non-contact time for teachers in sixth form colleges. The absence of an entitlement to guaranteed non-contact time within the teaching timetable for preparation and other purposes remains a key issue and represents a significant disadvantage for teachers in the sector compared to their colleagues in schools. Our recent survey showed that less than a third of colleges allocated any protected non-contact time to teachers within the timetable for marking and preparation.
All teachers deserve an adequate guarantee of non-contact time within their directed time for the purposes of planning, preparation and assessment. Such a guarantee is essential in order to protect the erosion of time when teacher are not timetabled to teach. Our survey shows that this is often lost due to calls (scheduled or otherwise) for meetings with students, meetings with colleagues or other demands on the teacher.
An entitlement to non-contact time should be clearly set out in the national agreement for teachers in sixth form colleges and should be at least equivalent to the entitlement in schools and subject to a “no detriment” provision for existing practice.
Guidance should further specify that the level of non-contact time should be appropriate to individual teachers’ responsibilities. Our survey showed that most colleges allocate additional protected non-contact time to teachers with management responsibilities. It also showed, however, that the time allocated is regarded as inadequate in 80 per cent of those colleges.
Meetings
Meetings are the main consumers of directed time outside the teaching day. The significance of meetings for teacher workload in sixth form colleges was underlined in our recent survey, in which respondents again indicated that this is an area of concern in which action could be taken to reduce the impact of meetings on overall working time.
The SFCF’s own surveys indicate the lack of consistent practice among colleges with regard to meetings and directed time. In our view, guidance should specify that meetings need to be within the 1265 hours of directed time and within the 195 days; and should advise on the allocation of directed time for meetings. Parents’ evenings, open days/evenings and careers evenings cannot be limited to an hour, but guidance should state that they will be few in number and included in any agreed pattern of meetings.
One in five respondents reported that teachers had weekend obligations in relation to meetings. The issue of weekend working is in our view another appropriate issue for discussion.
Cover for Absent Colleagues
Our recent survey showed that teachers are now expected to cover in almost 60 per cent of colleges. That expectation to cover has increased over the past two years in a significant number of colleges. In the majority of cases, cover now involves actual teaching as opposed to supervision only. Respondents say that time spent on cover is not recorded as part of directed time in 83 per cent of cases.
The Staff Side does not believe that this growing practice of requiring cover for absent colleagues is an effective use of sixth form college teachers’ time and guidance should advise colleges to minimise its extent. Teachers should be asked to cover only rarely and cover should be limited to situations where the absence is unforeseeable, be distributed equitably amongst all teaching staff and be for no more than the first day of such an absence.
Work/Life Balance
A healthy work-life balance for teachers is a key objective that is in the interests of both teachers and colleges. The importance of this objective is recognised in the joint guidance on work-life balance that is appended to the Red Book, which notes that: “it is in the interests of colleges to adopt policies that allow employees to balance their working lives with their personal needs and responsibilities” (Red Book, Appendix 6).
In the recent Staff Side survey, around one third of respondents reported that their college already had a formal statement on work-life balance. These colleges were also more likely to monitor teachers’ directed working time hours than colleges generally. It would be useful for new guidance to underline the importance of this issue and to reaffirm advice to colleges that they should address the issue beginning with the adoption of an appropriate formal statement on work-life balance.
Lesson Observation
Lesson observation is a growing issue in colleges with new forms of observation impacting upon teachers and imposing demands upon them. The Staff Side is clear in its view that lesson observations should not be excessive, intrusive or inappropriate. We would wish to discuss further guidance on this area which should support these principles in order to ensure that lesson observation serves its appropriate purposes and does not contribute to teacher workload or stress problems.
Staff Side
April 2010
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