Fair Workload Charter: opportunity to get involved

The Department for Education is due to publish information about how to sign up to the recently launched Education Staff Wellbeing Charter this Autumn. The charter is voluntary but “is a declaration of support for, and set of commitments to, the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in education”. (http://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter)

We would therefore like to consider if this charter could be part of our first step in gaining the Warwickshire County Council (WCC) Fair Workload Charter status when the opportunity to participate is re-introduced in 2022.

The Fair Workload Charter was originally developed to address the continuing national focus on the effects the management of workload is having on schools and staff sickness absence and turnover. In order to consider the process for achieving the WCC Fair Workload Charter status further we are looking for some volunteers from School Leadership Teams to form a Task and Finish group.

In particular, we would like representatives who are from: • a school that gained the Fair Workload Charter • who applied but was not successful • from those schools who have not considered applying. We will also ask for representatives from teaching and non-teaching unions to attend these meetings. We anticipate that there will be three afternoon online meetings in the Autumn Term 2021 with the relaunch of the charter expected to take place in January 2022. If you would like to send a representative from the leadership team of your school, please apply to fairworkloadcharter@warwickshire.gov.uk as soon as possible