Teachers to be given legal right to work from home under Labour plans
Teachers may be allowed to work from home in a new move to tackle recruitment shortages.
Headteachers will be told they can let their staff do marking and lesson preparation from the comfort of their own home.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson intends to put measures in place to make it more convenient for teachers to work from home during periods for marking homework and planning lessons.
It comes as a staggering 32,000 stopped working in the industry between 2022 and 2023.
Under the plans, teachers would be given the option to take their free periods in blocks at the end or the beginning of the day, enabling them to work from home while looking after children, or to complete the school run.
General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders Pepe Di’Iasio told the Daily Mail: “We support anything which helps to make teaching more flexible and improves the attractiveness of the profession as a career choice amidst an ongoing recruitment and retention crisis.
“There will be a lot of detail that needs working out on this proposal and we look forward to discussing this with the government.
“This initiative may help to a certain extent but it is important to understand that it will not be enough to solve the problem of teacher shortages. The only way to do that is to improve pay and conditions.”
General secretary of school leaders union the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Paul Whiteman added: “Many schools already allow their teachers to undertake lesson planning and preparation time at home, and these proposals would simply firm up what has been in place for years.”
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He added: “Crucially, this won’t impact pupils at all, as it only applies to the 10 per cent of a teacher’s teaching week that is specifically set aside for planning, preparation, and assessment. We are currently working through the most severe recruitment and retention crisis in living memory.
“Given the opportunities for flexible working in other professions, teaching needs to find ways to compete if it is to solve the recruitment and retention crisis.”
A Government spokesperson told The Telegraph: “‘Unlike its predecessor, this Government is taking the recruitment and retention of teachers seriously, which is why we’re making common-sense changes that enable great teachers to stay in our classrooms.
“These changes are part of a wider reset of the relationship between government and teaching staff to ensure we drive high and rising standards across our schools and deliver better life chances for our children.”
General secretary of the National Education Union Daniel Kebede said: “There has been a big increase of women in their 30s exiting the profession because other professions are more compatible with family life.
“The lack of flexibility for teachers is not keeping mothers in the profession in particular. When I started out in the profession it was seen as family friendly, but that is no longer the case. This is a start, and there is more for the Government to do around this.”