Your FAQs - PPA and directed time

Summary

As schools prepare their directed time budgets and share these with teaching staff, we have seen an increase in the number of questions submitted to our HR Advisory team surrounding this topic. We’ve seen a rise in union challenges in this area, with unions flagging that some schools require teaching staff to work more than their 1265 directed hours, or the equivalent percentage if they are part-time. When planning your directed time budget, it’s important to ensure you are fully compliant and comfortable with the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions document to structure your budget correctly before sharing it with your teaching staff. Below are some of our most frequently received questions in this area, and our responses to help you understand the STPCD, and confidently navigate your directed time and PPA budget.

Understanding the School Teachers pay and conditions document

Before we dive into the questions, what does the School Teachers Pay & Conditions Document state in relation to directed time? The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2023 sets out the working time arrangements for teachers in maintained schools, which the majority of academies continue to recognise and follow. In section 2, part 7, paragraph 51.5 (page 48) it states: A teacher employed full-time must be available to perform such duties at such times and such places as may be specified by the headteacher (or, where the teacher is not assigned to any one school, by the employer or the headteacher of any school in which the teacher may be required to work) for 1265 hours, those hours to be allocated reasonably throughout those days in the school year on which the teacher is required to be available for work. In relation to part-time staff, paragraph 51.6 states: Paragraph 51.5 applies to a teacher employed part-time, except that the number of hours the teacher must be available for work must be that proportion of 1265 hours, which corresponds to the proportion of total remuneration the teacher is entitled to be paid pursuant to paragraphs 40 and 41. Paragraph 40 refers to a) “pro rata principle” which means that proportion of total remuneration which corresponds to the number of hours that the teacher is employed in that capacity during the course of the school’s timetabled teaching week as a proportion of the total number of hours in the school’s timetabled teaching week; (and for this purpose “total remuneration” means the remuneration that would be payable to that person if employed in the same post on a full-time basis); and b) “the school’s timetabled teaching week” means the aggregate period of time in the school timetable during which pupils are normally taught. 40.2. When a relevant body is required to determine the salary of a part-time teacher in accordance with the pro rata principle it must do so not only in relation to those hours that a parttime teacher normally works under the contract of employment but also in relation to any additional hours the teacher may agree to work from time to time at the request of the headteacher or, in a case where the part-time teacher is a headteacher, the relevant body. Paragraph 41 goes on to confirm that the salary and any allowances, except for TLR3s, of a part-time teacher must be determined in accordance with the pro-rata principle.

Your frequently asked questions

Q. What is ‘directed time’?

Full-time teachers employed under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) must be available to work and perform activities or tasks specified by their employer or headteacher for 1,265 hours across the school year on the 190 days of teaching and five additional non-teaching days. This time is known as 'directed time'. The 1,265-hour limit is pro-rata for part-time teachers. Teachers can also work reasonable additional hours as necessary, including planning and preparing lessons, and assessing, monitoring, recording, and reporting on the learning needs, progress, and achievements of assigned pupils. However, these additional hours cannot be directed by the headteacher or employer.

Q. Does the school have to publish its directed time calendar?

There is no requirement specified within the STPCD to publish directed time. However, there is guidance included at Section 3 for part-time teachers in regard to paragraph 51 on working time, which outlines that a written agreed statement should be provided on expectations in respect of working time, including directed time to be deployed beyond the school day. It’s best practice to publish a school-wide calendar setting out how many hours the school expects teachers to work on different tasks (e.g. teaching time, PPA, meetings etc). Calendars are a good method of ensuring staff workloads are sensible and that they are not working more than the maximum directed time hours while receiving the minimum 10% PPA time of timetabled teaching in accordance with the STPCD. For part-time teachers, a personalised calendar or statement can be provided to set out their directed time according to their pro-rata percentage of the school’s timetabled teaching week. The published calendar can be a useful resource to facilitate some more challenging conversations to defend alleged workload concerns, which may be related to poor performance or absenteeism being monitored. Section 3 Guidance for Local Authorities, School Leaders, School Teachers and Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools 85. The relevant body should ensure that all teachers employed on a part-time basis are provided with a written agreed statement which sets out the expectations of the school, and the part-time teacher, regarding the deployment of working time. This should encapsulate both timetabled teaching time and leadership and management time where applicable. In addition the statement should also set out the expectations of the school in respect of directed time which is to be deployed beyond the school day. 86. The part-time teacher should not have a greater proportion of their directed time allocated outside their normal sessions than is the case for full-time teachers, as this may amount to discrimination. In arranging meetings and other activities outside of school sessions, headteachers should try to minimise situations where part-time teachers are subject to directed time either side of a period when they are not required to be available for work on any given day by structuring timetables as far as possible to accommodate working patterns.

Q. Does the school have to consult on its directed time calendar?

For teachers employed under the STCPD, there is no requirement to consult on directed time, as the maximum amount of time teachers can be directed is stipulated within the STPCD. Academies or trusts that are not contractually bound by the STPCD can potentially choose to introduce one, and it would be advisable to consult. However, there is no legal requirement to do so.

Q. How much Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time are my teachers entitled to?

All teachers who have passed their induction are entitled to a minimum of 10% time of their timetabled teaching time to allow for PPA. ECT teachers are entitled to a minimum of 20% time. Paragraph 52.5 states: All teachers who participate in the teaching of pupils are entitled to reasonable periods of Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time as part of the 1265 hours, referred to in paragraph 51.5 or pro rata equivalent (as the case may be) to enable the discharge of the professional responsibilities of teaching and assessment. PPA time must be provided in units of not less than half an hour during the school’s timetabled teaching week and must amount to not less than 10% of the teacher’s timetabled teaching time. A teacher must not be required to carry out any other duties during the teacher’s PPA time. A teacher with leadership or management responsibilities (including subject coordinators) is entitled, so far as is reasonably practicable, to a reasonable amount of time during school sessions for the purposes of discharging those responsibilities. The STPCD does not stipulate a minimum threshold for this, however it is important to ensure equity between different management roles across the school.

Q. Should PPA time be identified on the timetable?

Yes, this should be clearly identified on the timetable in blocks that are not less than half an hour during the school’s timetable teaching week.

Q. What is the “timetabled teaching week”?

This is the school session hours that are timetabled for teaching, including PPA time and other noncontact time but excluding break times, registration and assemblies. Once you have worked out what the figure is for your School, you can use this as a basis for determining the percentage to be used for part-time teachers and, therefore, their remuneration and amount of PPA time.

Q. Am I required to give HLTAs/TAs PPA time?

If the HLTAs or TAs are carrying out “specified work”, they should have time identified within their contracted hours to enable them to plan and prepare. [Specified work is defined in the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) Regulations 2003 as:

planning and preparing lessons and courses for pupils
delivering lessons to pupils - this includes delivery via distance learning or computer-aided techniques
assessing the development, progress and attainment of pupils
reporting on the development, progress and attainment of pupils.

The regulations set out that in addition to these duties being carried out by an HLTA, they must only undertake ‘specified’ work:

to support and assist a qualified teacher
under the supervision of a qualified teacher.]

Q. Can I request a part-time member of staff to attend all 5 of our staff training days?

You can only require a part-time member of the teaching staff to attend training days which fall on the days they would normally on: 51.9. Subject to paragraph 51.10, no teacher employed part-time may be required to be available for work on any day of the week or part of any day of the week on which the teacher is not normally required to be available for work under their contract of employment (whether it is for the purposes of teaching pupils and performing other duties or for the sole purpose of performing other duties). That said, there is nothing to stop you having a conversation with part-time teaching staff to encourage them to attend, explaining the benefit for their personal development. If they agree to attend all training days, they should be paid for the additional time they are working, over and above their contractual obligations.

Q. Should breaks be included or excluded from the directed time budget?

The usual approach schools apply, which is accepted nationally by the trade unions, is that the morning break is included due to it being such a short period of time, which means the teacher is unable to go off-site or home or do anything for themselves personally. The lunch break however, being a longer period, is normally unpaid and allows teaching staff to go off-site if they wish. This is, of course, unless they are undertaking lunchtime duties, which should be paid for under a separate contract if there is regularity of work, or as a casual employee if on an ad hoc basis.

Q. What is ‘trapped time’?

Trapped time is when any meeting or activity is scheduled to take place at the end of the school day (e.g. Parent consultation meetings, school productions etc.), and there is a gap of time between the end of the school day and the beginning of the meeting. If there isn’t sufficient time between to go home, this is trapped time and, in our experience, is usually counted towards directed time.