This article was originally published on 21 April 2023

Everyone knows that to boost teacher recruitment and retention - and to bring teaching in line with other professions - schools need to better promote, facilitate and innovate for flexible working. Indeed, we’ve been talking about it for decades.

Despite this, compared with other industries, very little of it is happening.

In an attempt to prompt change, earlier this year the Department for Education published a report titled Flexible working in schools: exploring the costs and benefits. It is an in-depth look at the pockets of flexible working practice in education, and it tries to isolate what actually works - and why.

1. Don’t hide part-time opportunities

Lisa-Maria Müller, head of research at the Chartered College of Teaching (CCT), says that research it has conducted on the benefits of flexible working found that being able to work part-time is seen as the equivalent of a 4 per cent pay rise.

“We can see that offering part-time and flexible-working arrangements can give schools a strong competitive edge,” she explains.

But while part-time work exists in most schools, most of the 40 leaders interviewed for the report said they did not “actively recruit part-time teachers” because they feared it could “generate problems and administrative burden” and they had “no desire to proactively incur” these challenges.

A look at the job adverts on tes.com for March underlines this, with only 6 per cent of all listings posted specified as suitable for both full-time and part-time candidates.

For some academy trust leaders, this is a missed opportunity. Jonny Uttley, CEO at The Education Alliance, a trust of seven schools, says it advertises “every single job as ‘up to full-time’”. He says this ensures there is the widest pool of potential candidates to draw from.

“By doing this we then introduce a natural conversation about work patterns, so the onus isn’t on the candidate to have to raise it themselves,” he adds.

Uttley reveals that the trust took the decision to amend the wording of its job adverts after seeing the benefit of adopting flexible-working practices within its workforce.

“We know we need to be flexible to retain our teaching staff and not lose them to non-teaching jobs, or other schools that will offer flexibility,” he says. “It makes sense to include it in our job advertisements to ensure that no one who was hoping for a part-time role is put off from applying.”

2. Flip the mindset

The reason why heads tend to avoid recruiting part-time is the perception that multiple part-time roles increase the workload for all involved - not just in terms of the handover process but the management of the logistics.

Uttley says this is a myth: overall, he argues that offering part-time roles actually reduces workload.

“It’s less of a burden than having to repeatedly advertise,” he says. “We feel it is far more important to find the right candidate - their hours can always be negotiated and accommodated.”

He gives an example of how this approach has worked in practice: a headteacher who needed a four-day-per-week contract.

To make this work, the school’s “highly experienced deputy headteacher” runs the school on the day the headteacher is off - supported by an executive principal who works across the trust - and their salary has been increased to “reflect the increase in responsibility”.

‘It is important we think creatively about how we are - and continue to be - good employers’

Another school to have made these sorts of adaptations is London Academy of Excellence Tottenham, where part-time working is commonplace, as headteacher Jan Balon explains.

“We have more than 50 per cent of our teachers work part-time owing to a culture in which part-time working is actively encouraged at all levels of the organisation,” he explains.

The school makes this work in several ways, from providing remote meeting options - so everyone can attend wherever they are, or watch it later if they miss it - to amending any deadlines to take into account part-time workers’ days.

“A simple change we made to accommodate the increase in part-time workers was adjusting deadlines to match the contracted hours,” explains Balon.

“If we give seven working days to input data, part-time workers have their deadline adjusted to match their full-time counterparts.”

Balon stresses that part-time working should also be normalised among senior staff, so that “the needs of part-time staff are considered at every step of policy implementation”.

Ian Hartwright, senior policy adviser at the NAHT school leaders’ union, acknowledges that there is a “range of organisational barriers and cost pressures” that schools need to consider when introducing flexible working. One of these obstacles is costs, as part-time roles “usually equate to slightly more than a single full-time equivalent post”.

However, he says that, if managed correctly, “the efficacy of flexible arrangements will win the confidence of governors, staff and parents” and help to tackle leader retention issues, which the NAHT has flagged previously.

What’s more, the DfE report notes that with more staff within a school, there is a “larger pool of candidates” to help with everything from extracurricular activities to pastoral roles, and this can help build up the expertise a school has at its fingertips.

The report states: “Some leaders also mentioned that having a higher headcount through employing some part-time staff, as opposed to full-time staff, increases the breadth of experience and expertise in the school workforce.

“They felt that this creates the opportunity for skill sharing, notably from more experienced staff who may remain in their role longer.”

The diversity of the pool of job candidates that part-time work provides access to is another bonus. Balon says he has been able to hire “people that want to continue academic research” as well as “late-to-teaching career changers who wish to continue with non-teaching jobs”.

Over the years, the school has had part-time teachers who also worked variously as lecturers, graphic designers, dance teachers and writers, which Balon says underlines the benefits to both schools and individuals that come from offering part-time positions.

3. Make working from home an option

Teaching a class of students requires a teacher to be in the classroom, so opportunities for day-long home working are perhaps unrealistic. But Louise Cowley, headteacher at Bourne End Academy in Buckinghamshire, part of the E-ACT multi-academy trust, says that “other industries can offer attractive mixed-working-from-home-and-office packages, and schools have to be able to match that”.

To do this, Cowley has made it possible for her staff to have a regular work-from-home opportunity.

“Every six weeks, members of staff have one afternoon of flexible working when they are free to leave early,” she says. “We can do this because we have it timetabled so every member of staff has their PPA in a period 5 lesson. Previously our policy was that this takes place in school, but technically they’re not needed on site, and our new policy gives them the option to go off site for that period.”

Cowley says that teachers are then free to decide when they do their PPA. “It can be during that afternoon, or at another time that suits them,” she says.

Rachel Arthur, a classroom teacher at the school, says she uses the time to regain some “work-life balance” and on one occasion used it to “beat the traffic when travelling for a weekend away”.

Another leader who is working to implement this in their schools is Benedick Ashmore-Short, CEO of The Park Academies Trust. He is currently introducing a system, used in a trust he worked in previously, that allows staff to work from home for planning and preparation and have their lessons covered by a “bank teacher” within the trust.

“As long as there is advance notice, we can deploy teachers from our internal bank,” Ashmore-Short explains. “Because we employ them, we can be sure teaching will be to a high standard.”

The bank teachers were made up of 20 staff with various different subject specialisms whose role was to provide cover for teachers who were absent during term time. They were employed as classroom teachers on the main scale, and were entitled to all the same training and support as other staff.

Ashmore-Short explains that when they weren’t covering lessons, these teachers were put to work taking small groups for tuition and providing one-to-one support.

‘I am able to both help students with their revision and take time off to enjoy Glastonbury’

While working from home does require some careful planning for teachers, for support staff it is a lot more straightforward and it also offers myriad benefits, as Cowley explains.

“My attendance officer works part of the time from home, as does my Sendco,” she says.

“When external meetings are conducted on video calls, it doesn’t matter where she makes that call from. Plus, because she can book in all her meetings on her home day, it makes her time in school much more efficient.”

For senior staff in multi-academy trusts, this is something that can be considered, with Ashmore-Short explaining that his trust’s new chief operating officer is on a flexible arrangement that includes home working.

“Having a working pattern that works for him, and the trust, was instrumental in securing his services,” he says. “I think more and more trusts are seeing the advantages of flexible working patterns, which mean you can hire from further afield.”

Leora Cruddas, CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), agrees that trusts must be open to flexible approaches to help them hire the best staff possible to boost educational outcomes. “I think it is important we think creatively about how we are - and continue to be - good employers,” she says.

4. Term-time holidays should be possible - within limits

At Reach Academy Trust, in south-west London, CEO Rebecca Cramer has introduced a policy whereby all staff can take three days off in a row during term time.

“We introduced this policy as we didn’t want our staff to be forced to make choices and miss out on important life events,” she explains. “We thought it was reasonable to be flexible and help our staff be fulfilled inside and outside work.”

These days aren’t given gratis: staff have to “work back” the time off, something Cramer says can be done by “attending school trips or conferences or working outside of directed time”.

“Our teachers still work the full number of days in a year; they’re just able to have the flexibility when important life events occur during term time,” she says.

A good example of this in practice comes from her deputy, Phil Fowkes. “By supervising our Year 11 residential over the Easter holidays, I am able to both help students with their revision in the lead-up to exams and then take time off to enjoy Glastonbury Festival,” he says.

Teachers have to request the time off up to six weeks before it is required - although Cramer says they can sometimes accommodate more urgent requests - and the school will find cover for the days off.

Cramer says because the school has enough internal staff, it can do this without having to use outside agencies, reducing the financial impact and ensuring consistency for pupils.

She acknowledges that this is easier for larger schools and may be a struggle for small settings - but the idea is perhaps not to simply copy what another setting is doing but to think about how a trust or school can offer its own policies that embrace flexible working where feasible.

As the DfE report notes, although some leaders are still concerned about the burdens that flexible working is perceived to create, they also recognise that it can help with everything from retention and recruitment to staff wellbeing - which, in turn, can boost pupil outcomes.

What’s more, Tes understands that the DfE will soon be launching a Flexible Working Programme to try to set out further ideas for how schools can develop practices.

It may not be as immediately impactful as a pay rise or a reduction in workload, but if the sector is to appeal to new graduates and career-changers - and ensure that experienced staff stick around for longer - then having an open mind when it comes to flexible working will be vital, as Cowley summarises.

“It’s easy to say, ‘You can’t work from home. To do the job you need to be in school’ - but the truth is schools can be more flexible.”