As education battles a recruitment crisis that means targets for secondary teachers are likely to fall far short of the target set by the government, numerous issues have been raised for why this is so.
Among the reasons often cited is a lack of flexible working opportunities, especially as numerous other sectors now offer this benefit post-pandemic.
While there are educational settings innovating in this area, for many, the idea of offering flexible working within a teaching environment may seem impractical or too costly, or they simply may not know how to offer and implement new ways of organising teacher time.
Keen to address this, the Department for Education has now published a flexible working toolkit that offers eight guides for schools, including “special schools, alternative provision, pupil referral units and trusts”, to help explain how and why they should introduce flexible working.
Flexible working toolkit
In total, there are eight documents available to access, covering the following topics:
The website hosting the documents says they have been produced through learnings from the DfE’s flexible working ambassador schools project in 2020-21, as well as input from the DfE and with support from sector experts.
How to introduce flexible working
Perhaps of most initial use to schools and trusts will be the Implementing flexible working document that provides a handy start-to-finish process for schools and trusts on all the things to consider when looking at introducing flexible working.
This covers issues such as collecting data on how and why flexible working could improve staff retention and recruitment, what practices already exist in an ad-hoc manner, and consulting with relevant stakeholders such as staff, unions and leaders on how this could be offered.
It then details steps to take when introducing any policies: creating forms for staff to request flexible working; training managers in supporting these requests; monitoring the impact of any changes; identifying and solving issues; and celebrating success.
The toolkit also has an example of a flexible working policy that shows how all this can be put together with suitable wording. At only 13 pages long and just under 2,600 words, it also demonstrates that a policy does not need to be overly complicated or lengthy.
Promoting the positives of flexible working
It is clear that the DfE is keen for schools and trusts to embrace flexible working, with the first two documents both explaining what the benefits are and then how to ensure these are understood.
The first document sets out six key ways in which flexible working can benefit settings, such as boosting retention of staff, improving work-life balance, reducing absenteeism, becoming more inclusive as an employer, being a more attractive employer and even supporting pupils.
The second document then outlines how schools should ensure that any move to offer flexible working is communicated to staff correctly - including how it will work from a safeguarding point of view and how it will fit with the setting’s broader ethos.
Meanwhile, the document on how to address negative perceptions of flexible working - such as concerns it will affect pupil outcomes or cost schools too much - can help teachers and leaders answer any questions that may be raised by a move to flexible working.
For example, regarding the impact on pupil outcomes, the guidance says schools should recognise that flexible working can help “recruit and retain talented teachers, which will support teaching consistency” and thereby improve outcomes.
Meanwhile, on the cost side, the guidance says research has shown that the benefits from flexible working outweigh any extra costs by helping to “retain good staff and improve teacher wellbeing, which was perceived to ultimately lead to better pupil outcomes”.
Legal insights
The statutory documents could also prove useful for teachers and leaders.
The Making a statutory flexible working request document is aimed at teachers and offers a pre-built template form that sets out the information that should be included when making a request, such as the proposed change and what the potential impact may be.
The Reviewing a statutory flexible working request document provides a checklist for leaders to help guide any response to such a request, including adhering to forthcoming changes to the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 that will require decisions to be made within two months, rather than three.
Finally, the Flexible working request flowchart, while at the more basic end of the documents, may serve as a useful notice in staffrooms to alert staff to their right to request flexible working and how a request should proceed.
No doubt the hope will be that more trusts and schools take heed of the advice offered and that, in doing so, embrace flexible working so that teachers - both new to the profession or long-standing staff - can enjoy this new era of working practices.
