Teachers: Leave

(asked on 19th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on establishing pilot schemes for teacher sabbaticals.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 1st March 2021

The Department has a longstanding programme of work in place through the Recruitment and Retention Strategy to ensure that teaching remains an attractive profession, where people feel supported to stay and develop their careers. This includes encouraging schools to develop a supportive culture for staff and to work flexibly.

As part of this, the Department explored a pilot on sabbaticals during the 2018-19 academic year. In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, it has been vital that we prioritise the immediate support teachers need at this time, such as work to support staff mental health through the Education Support charity and our Wellbeing for Education Return initiative.

We are also maintaining a focus on innovative approaches, including establishing eight Flexible Working Ambassador Schools to champion flexible working practices from Spring 2021. These schools will share their experiences, resources and expertise to create change in their local networks. We will continue to work with the teaching sector to review approaches such as sabbaticals.

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