The section on leadership and management responsibilities within the national agreement recognises the need for headteachers to have time for their leadership and managerial role. It acknowledges that there is a distinct problem where headteachers have a significant teaching workload and mentions that where this is the case, remodelling of the school workforce can help.
Dedicated headship time is envisaged as being set aside for activities that are mainly associated with the strategic direction of the school. Although schools can interpret the meaning differently on a school-by-school basis, it is a specific designated period during school sessions when the headteacher can focus on strategic leadership matters without being interrupted by routine management issues.
Each school's governing body is responsible for ensuring that the headteacher has dedicated headship time within the school sessions. It is particularly important for governors of schools where headteachers are identified as having a significantly heavy teaching commitment or higher-than-average management responsibility to ensure that they play an active role in monitoring use of this time. This is particularly highlighted in the case of small schools where the workload of headteachers can be prohibitive in terms of non-contact time.
It is also left to each individual school to determine an appropriate amount of time for dedicated headship time activities to take place. This will be dependent on factors such as teaching commitment of the headteacher, management responsibilities, staffing levels, school situation and so on.
The provision of dedicated headship time can help school leaders focus on:
- school improvement
- raising standards
- school development
- improved monitoring and evaluation
- improved well-being of staff and pupils.
Details of the contractual change on headship time appear in section 4 of the School teachers' pay and conditions document.
