The National Agreement
A historic National Agreement between Government, employers and school workforce unions was signed on 15 January 2003.
It promises joint action, designed to help every school across the country to raise standards and tackle workload issues. Action will take place across England and Wales and will take account of the different circumstances from school to school. The Signatories to the Agreement are committed to working in a concerted manner to support schools in implementing the agreed changes.
The Signatories are acting together at a national level in the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group to oversee delivery of a seven-point plan:
- Progressive reductions in teachers' overall hours.
- Changes to teachers' contracts.
- A concerted attack on unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy.
- Reform of support staff roles to help teachers and support pupils.
- The recruitment of new managers, including business and personnel managers.
- Additional resources and national "change management" programmes.
- Monitoring of progress on delivery.
Statutory changes to teachers' contracts are taking place in three phases:
Phase One - September 2003
- Changes to teachers' contracts.
- Promote reductions in overall excessive hours.
- Establish monitoring group.
- Establish new Implementation Review Unit.
- Routine delegation of administrative and clerical tasks.
- Introduce new work/life balance clauses.
- Introduce leadership and management time.
- Undertake review of use of school closure days.
Phase Two - 2004
- Introduce new limits on covering for absent teachers.
Phase Three - 2005
- Introduce guaranteed professional time for planning, preparation and assessment.
- Introduce dedicated headship time.
- Introduce new invigilation arrangements
The Welsh Assembly Government is liaising with and reporting to WAMG in implementing the agreed changes.