Tackling staff workload and reducing bureaucracy is a key priority set out in Our National Mission Action Plan. To achieve this, discussions have taken place over the past few months with our education leadership and teacher unions, local authorities, regional partnerships, Estyn and other key stakeholders. We have made significant progress, which is summarised below:
This will be at the forefront of Welsh Government policy development and will ensure appropriate consideration of workload implications and union engagement early in the policy making process. A professional learning programme for policy makers has been designed and will be operational in September. We are also developing a digital tool designed to gather evidence from headteachers based on questions about what creates workload, which will lead to refining current arrangements and will support the ongoing impact assessment process. This tool will be in operation in the autumn term.
We are taking forward a thorough policy review of the regulations with reporting requirements that impact on schools, to ensure that they are aligned with Ministerial policy expectations and are as simple and coordinated as possible. There is also a range of non-statutory reporting requirements through Welsh Government, local authorities and regional Consortia and Partnerships. We will develop a more coherent and simpler process for reporting to reduce burden, which will be grounded in the school improvement guidance.
We will establish a national forum chaired by Welsh Government to ensure schools are supported appropriately. Its role will include ensuring that there is clarity of purpose of all engagement in discussion with heads, and to foster purpose-driven collaboration to improve standards collectively.
