Debate contribution: Independent Review of Teacher Workload Report

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 28 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

28 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statements

Heading

Independent Review of Teacher Workload Report

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5509582

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I hope that everyone in the Chamber agrees that teaching is a profession that has the utmost importance in our society. Every day, teachers and school leaders shape the lives, aspirations and futures of our children and young people. Our education system depends on their professionalism, skill and commitment. For too long, workload has been a persistent issue for the profession. Previous efforts to address the issue have not achieved the change necessary, and continuing on the same path would inevitably lead to a further deterioration in well-being and morale and in the attractiveness of teaching and school leadership as a career. More sustained, system-wide action is required. That is why I am taking forward TransformED, my wider programme of reform to modernise the education system, to strengthen teaching as a profession and to raise standards for all learners. Through TransformED, we are deliberately creating the conditions in which teachers can thrive by increasing investment in professional learning, improving coherence across the system, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and ensuring that support is focused on what matters most: excellent teaching and learning. Addressing workload is at the centre of my TransformED agenda. The curriculum, assessment and qualifications reforms have been designed to remove avoidable pressures, to simplify processes and to give time back to teachers to focus on high-quality teaching and learning. I therefore appointed an independent panel to undertake a comprehensive review of teacher and school leader workload. The panel's report provides a robust, evidence-informed assessment of the pressures facing the profession and sets out 27 recommendations for change across the education system. Today, I set out my Department's formal response to that review. Addressing workload is not optional; it is essential if we are to value the profession, retain talented teachers, support effective leadership and ensure the long-term stability of our education system. Before I go into detail on the actions that I propose, it is important to contextualise my commitment to the teaching profession and to address some of the recent claims about the teaching workforce. Since my appointment as Education Minister, I have championed the teaching profession and fought to ensure that it is properly recognised. Significant progress has been made in improving teacher pay, reflecting both the importance of the profession and the level of responsibility that teachers carry every day. Since February 2024, the starting salary for teachers has increased by 36·4% to £32,916, while average teacher pay has risen by almost £10,000. Those changes place teacher remuneration on a more competitive and sustainable footing and clearly signal my commitment to recognising teachers' professional status. When it comes to recent claims that large numbers of teachers are leaving the profession, while I take workload and well-being extremely seriously, it is important to distinguish between anecdotal reports and the available evidence on workforce trends. Claims that large numbers of teachers have left the profession due to burnout are not borne out by payroll data. The employment data for teachers continues to show that there is a broadly stable teaching workforce, which suggests that, while pressures undoubtedly exist, they are not translating into the widespread departure of teachers. That said, there is absolutely no room for complacency, and I am steadfast in my belief that action must be taken to address teacher and school leader workload and to ensure that the profession remains a desirable career choice. The action plan that I will publish today represents a decisive shift from piecemeal initiatives to a coordinated, system-level approach. It brings together actions to address each of the 27 recommendations, either fully or in part and with clear ownership, governance and timescales. A consistent and powerful message from the independent review panel was that excessive administration has eroded professional trust and drawn teachers and school leaders away from what matters most, which is teaching, learning and supporting pupils. In response, we will take action to identify and reduce unnecessary administrative tasks and excessive workload, in schools and at system level. The Teachers' Negotiating Committee (TNC) will establish a subgroup to monitor system-wide administrative requirements, evaluate progress made on reducing bureaucracy and identify further actions required to reduce the administrative burden on schools. In addition, a Baker day in the 2026-27 academic year will be designated specifically to allow schools to engage in a structured discussion to identify and reduce excessive workload at a local level. Excessive tracking and planning requirements were among the workload concerns that were highlighted during the independent review process. We will take steps to ensure that tracking and planning are purposeful and proportionate and that they are focused on learning support and professional dialogue rather than on compliance or excessive data capture. The Department will issue clear guidance that no more than three formal, school-wide tracking points should take place in a school year. That will provide a clear and consistent benchmark across the system and is intended to curb the growth of repetitive, low-value tracking practices. On planning for learning, the action plan reinforces the principle that planning should support teachers to deliver high-quality teaching and learning and facilitate meaningful professional dialogue at school level. Clear guidance will be issued to schools to ensure that planning processes are proportionate, focused on impact and that they do not place an unnecessary administrative burden on teachers or school leaders. It is clear that the role of principals has become substantially more complex over the past decade. Balancing educational leadership with their significant operational responsibilities for safeguarding, workforce and accountability is challenging. If we are to secure a high-performing and sustainable school system, we must ensure that school leadership remains a viable, attractive and properly supported role. That is why the action plan responds decisively on that issue. We have committed to the phased introduction of a cadre of administrative support for schools to test what works best in the Northern Ireland school system. The administrative support roles will be designed to absorb non-educational tasks such as complaints-handling, compliance, procurement and data management, freeing leaders to focus on teaching, learning and improvement. In parallel, a review of the workload agreement will examine the working patterns of school leaders, and schools will be advised to appoint a designated governor as a workload and well-being champion to strengthen governance awareness and support. We will also develop an improved and more robust complaints-handing framework for schools, which will be designed to support early resolution, provide greater consistency across the system and ensure that vexatious or unreasonable complaints are managed proportionately. By strengthening system-level support and clarifying processes, we seek to protect leadership capacity and reduce unnecessary workload. The review indicated that workload pressures are often compounded by the lack of clarity on working time expectations. We accept the panel's conclusions that, while an average working week of 35 to 40 hours may be reasonable, it would be unreasonable for teachers to habitually work an average of 40 or more hours per week across the school year. Boards of governors will therefore be reminded of their duty of care to avoid excessive workload cultures, and the TNC will develop protocols for identifying and addressing sustained excessive workload. In addition, guidance will be issued to provide greater flexibility for teachers, allowing work to be completed at a time and place of their choice if their principal has agreed that their presence is not required in the school. We will also develop and issue clear protocols and guidance to support consultation and agreement on collective activities within directed time budgets. That approach will help to strengthen professional dialogue, build mutual understanding and ensure that directed time is used fairly and proportionately while giving principals and boards of governors greater clarity and confidence in managing arrangements in line with their duty of care.

Workload reduction must sit alongside professional empowerment. Through TransformED, every teacher will have guaranteed access to high-quality, meaningful professional learning throughout their career. By strengthening induction, early career support, mentoring and leadership development, we aim to ensure that teachers are supported and that professional learning contributes to confidence, well-being and retention so that teaching remains a fulfilling and respected career.

Managing complex pupil behaviour will be a priority within teacher professional learning funding in the 2026-27 academic year, with additional training, guidance and system-level support to ensure that schools are not left to manage these challenges alone. A key theme emerging from the independent review was the importance of restoring professional trust and ensuring that teachers are able to exercise their judgement without undue pressure. Exposure to challenging behaviour and online abuse is a significant contributor to teachers' stress and detrimental to their well-being. The Education Authority (EA) is in the final stages of agreeing a preventing violence at work framework. An awareness campaign will be taken forward to highlight the importance of respecting the professional judgement of teachers and engaging with them in an appropriate and proportionate manner. Teachers are highly trained professionals, and strong outcomes for children are best achieved where relationships between schools, parents and communities are built on mutual respect and trust. It is clear that action is required to address the demands placed on teachers and school leaders in relation to special educational needs support. Through the SEN reform agenda, we are moving towards a more child-centred, needs-based system that is focused on providing early intervention and reducing reliance on rigid processes. Crucially, the development of an integrated workforce planning framework will examine the demands placed on teachers and school leaders in relation to SEN, with actions to address identified pressures. The workload review rightly identified generative AI (GenAI) as a significant opportunity to reduce teacher and school leader workload. We are committed to ensuring that the role of AI is fully embedded in the planned refresh of education technology and approached in a coordinated, strategic and professionally guided manner. The Department will invest over £10 million to support the roll-out of system-aware generative AI tools, alongside high-quality professional development and training, over the next two years. Through that initiative, teachers and school leaders will be supported through a structured programme of professional learning designed to build confidence, understanding and practical capability in the use of GenAI. The focus will be on safe, ethical and effective application, with staff encouraged to develop skills progressively and apply GenAI to everyday professional activities in ways that directly support teaching, leadership and workload reduction. International research demonstrates that GenAI can provide support and achieve significant time savings in activities such as lesson and resource planning, drafting feedback, summarising pupil work, managing documentation and supporting administrative tasks. The potential of GenAI has already been tested in a Northern Ireland context through two proof-of-concept studies led by C2k in partnership with Microsoft and Google. Findings from participating schools have been extremely encouraging and include significant time savings and improvements in well-being for teachers and school leaders, along with improvements in pupil attainment. Finally, the Department welcomes the panel’s endorsement of the redesigned school inspection framework. The new framework is explicitly focused on rebuilding trust across the education system, reducing the workload associated with inspection and establishing a more supportive, proportionate and empowering approach to accountability. It also places a strong emphasis on a school’s capacity to develop and sustain a community of learning, encompassing internal and external relationships. Collegial practice is central to that approach, and the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) will recognise and reflect on that in its reports. The action plan is ambitious, but it is also realistic and deliverable. A workload implementation group has been established to maintain momentum and accountability, and it will work closely with the Teachers' Negotiating Committee. Regular progress reporting will ensure transparency. I am clear, however, that delivery will depend on collaboration, shared ownership and sustained industrial stability. The action plan represents a significant commitment to the profession, and it is in everyone’s interest that it be given the space to succeed. The action plan sends a clear message: the well-being, expertise and professional judgement of teachers and school leaders is vital. By tackling workload systemically, investing in leadership and professional learning and reforming the structures that generate an unnecessary burden, we are taking decisive steps to ensure that teaching remains a valued, sustainable and attractive profession.

The statement outlined a response to all the issues that the Member asked me about in his supplementary question, so I commend the statement to him. We need to understand all the issues that face the profession and then to come up with a plan to address them. I have been doing that since I came into office. We have taken forward a series of reforms under TransformED. If we do not make changes, we retain the status quo, and that is what is placing all the unnecessary workload and burden on our teaching profession. We had not invested in the professional development of teachers for many years. I have been doing that. We have had significant investment through the teacher professional learning (TPL) programme that teachers and school leaders have very much welcomed. For the response to be successful, collaboration and shared ownership are required, and that goes beyond me as the Minister of Education. I will lead the Department; I will come up with solutions and plans and will seek to implement them, but all of us, collectively, not just in the Chamber, need to work through the processes. It has to be shared and owned at the school level, and that will be the success of the reforms that we are taking forward. Where there is a willingness to implement the schemes, I am confident that they will make a real, tangible difference to the workload and pressures faced by our teachers and school leaders. I encourage Members to get behind the reforms and support the endeavours.

The response is comprehensive; it outlines the actions, there is a clear timetable and there are commitments. It responds to the 27 recommendations. When the trade unions came to me during the negotiation of a previous settlement for terms and conditions, workload had emerged as an issue through their consultation process. However, the ability to precisely define the issues proved difficult even for those who represent the teaching profession. That is why we jointly agreed to establish the review panel, which was chaired by a former permanent secretary, had representation from the trade union movement and had a former school leader as a panel member. The panel carried out the engagement and came forward with the 27 recommendations, and I am formally responding to them. The document does not sit in isolation, however; it is very much connected to all the transformation programmes that we are taking forward. It should be read alongside all the other reforms that I have taken forward, which are comprehensive, whether it is on special educational needs or the proposals in the new framework. It is a very detailed report, and it should be read alongside all the work that we are doing on assessment, qualifications and the curriculum; all of which is being designed to assist with teacher workload. The review does not sit in isolation; it is very much part of the entirety of the transformation work that we are taking forward, and teachers will see clear benefits. The Member asked what is in it for the teaching profession. I met the trade unions yesterday. They have been engaged in the process, and we went through the process for engagement. I was very much encouraged by the response from the leadership teams of those trade unions to the commitments. The action plan continues to build on the momentum and direction of travel, and that is something that they welcomed. Of course, there are still issues on which they will seek to get further progress. The establishment of some of the subgroups within the action plan and framework will be the vehicle through which those issues will continue to be addressed. That is very much continuing the momentum that we have built upon. There is more to do, but I welcome the engagement that I had with the school representatives through the trade unions, yesterday.

Mr Speaker, there was not one question — not one — about the report; there was just the cheap, party-political attack that Sinn Féin has become accustomed to making when it comes to education. It is not interested in substance or content, but simply makes a cheap swipe.

I thank the Member for the question. Over the past two decades, across curriculum, statutory assessment and qualifications, Northern Ireland has relied on a model that has placed a disproportionate share of workload on schools and, in turn, individual teachers. That has driven avoidable workload by requiring schools to interpret vague curriculum and assessment expectations, design materials from scratch and manage complex assessment and moderation processes locally. Reducing the structural workload burden on teachers is a central long-term objective of the TransformED programme. Across curriculum, assessment and qualifications, the TransformED reforms have been deliberately designed to remove avoidable pressures, simplify processes and give teachers back time to focus on high-quality teaching and learning. We are taking forward TransformED because we have listened to what the teachers and school leaders have told us. We have examined international best practice, and we have come forward with a clear plan and are implementing it. I am greatly encouraged by the feedback that I have had from the teaching profession — the school leaders and principals who are excited about the reforms that are taking place. Yes, we need to work through the reform, but the only way that we will get to the light at the end of the tunnel is by implementing these reforms. Failure to implement the reforms means retaining the status quo, but it is the status quo that has failed. That is what has created the burden; that is what is creating excessive workloads.

The Member needs to listen to school principals in his constituency, some of whom are leading the TransformED agenda; actively participating in the curriculum reform process; leading by being on the principals' panel; and, when we implement policies, testing them and providing feedback. They are principals in the Member's constituency, serving pupils whom he claims to represent.

He does not want to listen to me because he is fixated on narrow, partisan politics. I ask him to listen to people in his community and those who are actively supporting what I am doing.

I would love Sinn Féin to help me with the SEN reform agenda. I would love Sinn Féin to allow the £1·7 billion capital programme for new schools to be implemented. I would love Sinn Féin to support me at the Executive table, where it has blocked my paper for nine months. Sinn Féin allowed only a discussion to take place on that capital investment. Sinn Féin therefore has a lot to reflect on when it comes to how it is participating in education. Focus —.

I will work in partnership with anyone who will follow the evidence about the education system. I have worked in partnership with the trade unions. I had constructive engagement with them yesterday. We went through the 27 recommendations and produced a plan. The challenge that I put to Sinn Féin is this: what is your plan? In two years, you have not presented a single plan to me, as Minister of Education, setting out what you would do. You know what you are against and what you want to frustrate, but what are you for, apart from taking cheap political shots?

I thank the Member for his question. He is right to highlight the fact that promises were made before but not delivered on, and that is why I have taken seriously the transformation process for the education system that I am leading in the Department. Throughout the independent review of teacher workload and the development of the action plan that I have published today, I have been kept updated on emerging issues and on discussions with the teaching unions. Workload pressure is a long-standing issue that has multiple causes, and it has proven difficult to define the root cause and appropriate solutions. Over recent years, many of the workload actions identified by TNC have been delivered, but the Member will be aware that it is the actions that have not been delivered that often tend to be remembered. Given the need to make further progress and the challenge in identifying the core issues, I decided to establish the independent review last year to examine the issue in detail and to bring all the previous work together into a single action plan. The plan translates the review's recommendations into practical, deliverable actions that protect professional autonomy, promote sustainable working practices and reinforce the status and importance of teaching. It represents a clear statement of intent that teachers' time, expertise and commitment are valued and that the system must work for them as well as through them.

I will have more to say on that in response to the motion later, but, yes, the action plan includes how we can support schools administratively. Administrative support in schools is available for the whole school. It is not just about providing a personal assistant, so to speak, for the school principal. The action plan addresses principal and teacher workload, and that includes SENCO workload. My officials and I spoke about that issue yesterday with the trade unions. They asked that question, and I was able to give them an assurance that administrative support in schools can be utilised by the whole school.

3,596 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:27 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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