Academies: Facilities Agreements
(asked on 2nd September 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to encourage academies to take part in pooled trade union facility time arrangements.
Funding for trade union facility time is delegated to academies and free schools in the first instance. This gives them the flexibility to manage their own facility time budgets, and as a result the Department for Education holds no systematic evidence on the number and proportion of academies which take part in pooled trade union facility time arrangements.
Department for Education officials and ministers hold regular ongoing discussions with trade unions on a number of issues, which have included facility time arrangements in schools.
The Department for Education has published on its website advice on trade union facility time in maintained schools and academies:
This guidance outlines some of the benefits of facility time and provides examples of how employers, including academy trusts, have managed pooled facility time.