Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of recent changes in local government funding on the workloads of staff in schools.

Removing unnecessary workload for teachers is a priority for the Government. We are continuing our extensive work with the profession, teaching unions and Ofsted to challenge unhelpful practices so that teachers can concentrate on teaching and continue to inspire all young people to fulfil their potential.

We have protected the core schools budget in real terms. That means that in 2016-17, schools will have more funding than ever before for children’s education, totalling over £40 billion, the highest on record.

We have published a wide range of tools, information, and support for schools, to support them to improve their financial health and efficiency, in one collection at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/schools-financial-health-and-efficiency.

This includes School Workforce Planning Guidance to help school leaders when reviewing their staff structures.

On Friday 24 February we published the findings of the Department’s Teacher Workload Survey of 2016, and a clear action plan, including an offer of targeted support for schools to tackle workload where it is most needed.