Part-Time TLRs Revisited

Flexible Teacher Talent recently asked in a Twitter poll how part-time TLRs (Teaching and Learning Responsibility) worked. I was shocked to find again that a large proportion of teachers are not being paid properly for their management responsibilities.

54% said they were responsible for the whole role but for only a proportion of the pay. An additional 2% said this was the case but they received extra perks to compensate.

So only 44% were paid properly for their responsibilities (27% paid for the full TLR, 17% had pay reduced in line with responsibilities being reduced).

See the results here.

A TLR is a teaching and learning responsibility. It is the name given to additional leadership responsibilities that teachers take on over and above their teaching role. If you have a TLR then you get a TLR payment. This might be for being Head of Year 11, Head of Science, Maths Lead, Literacy Coordinator etc.

Someone working part time, say 4 days a week, a 0.8 full time equivalent contract would be paid pro rata 0.8, 80% of the full time salary. This is because they do 80% of the teaching that a full time teacher would do. That makes sense.

However, if you are Head of French or PE Lead and you work 4 days a week, you don't necessarily only do 80% of that responsibility.

The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) is used as guidance for local authority schools in England but is also used for HR policies in many academies too. It states that pay for TLRs should be pro rata for part time staff. (Well for level 1 and 2 TLRs but not for the lower level TLR at level 3, that can be paid as the full amount).

That makes sense if the responsibilities are also pro rata. But we are seeing time and again that they are not. So what is happening on the ground is that part time teachers are being partially paid for full responsibilities.

It is not right that people should be working for free. Many of us do enough unpaid overtime as teachers as it is! What makes this situation even more frustrating is who this affects. Who works part time in schools? Women, mothers, older teachers, those with health issues. Women will be more than proportionately represented in the numbers affected by this unfairness.

Insisting on pro rata TLR payment;

• restricts schools in offering flexible working as they have to get around the issue in order to pay staff fairly (either by working out how to pay them extra for the full role or working out how to reduce this responsibility to make the reduced pay)
• leads to people working full responsibility for partial pay
• leads to schools refusing to offer TLR roles for part time staff
• damages inclusion and results in potential discrimination
• makes it look like flexible working is impossible in middle leadership roles because it is not remunerated properly
• disadvantages local authority schools in terms of staff retention, recruitment, and wellbeing

People should be paid appropriately for the work that they do.

It is as simple as that.

Full responsibility for partial pay should not be an option.

You can read more about this issue here:

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