Schools to be able to remove poor teachers more quickly, vows DfE

Poorly performing teachers could be removed in about a term – rather than the year or more it currently takes – under proposed reforms contained in a consultation launched by the Department for Education.

The DfE said the existing rules governing teachers’ performance management – contained in the Education (School Teacher Performance Management) (England) Regulations 2006 – were “complex, detailed and prescriptive, telling schools what to do at every turn”.

The Department claimed that the overall system failed to respect the professionalism of headteachers and teachers and made it harder for schools to manage processes, such as how staff are trained and rewarded.

It said further “complexity, overlap and duplication” had been caused by the fact that the existing School Staffing Regulations (2009), which require schools to follow a “model capability procedure” for dealing with poorly performing teachers, had been developed separately from the 2006 Regulations.

The DfE suggested that, in addition to speeding up the removal of poor teachers, the changes would:

• introduce simpler performance management regulations, which set a few basic requirements, remove many restrictions (including the so-called “three hour observation rule”), and leave other decisions to schools
• introduce an optional new model policy for schools that deals with both performance and capability/disciplinary issues
• clarify that staff illness need not bring disciplinary processes to a halt
• scrap about 60 pages of “unnecessary” guidance.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “Heads and teachers want a simpler and faster system to deal with teachers who are struggling. For far too long schools have been trapped in complex red tape.

“We must deal with this problem in order to protect the interests of children who suffer when struggling teachers are neither helped nor removed. Schools must be given the responsibility to deal with this fairly and quickly.”

The proposals are subject to a 12 week statutory consultation. The DfE said the new arrangements for dealing with underperforming teachers were likely to come into effect from September 2011. Revised regulations for performance management will be published in September 2011 and take effect in 2012.

Russell Hobby, General Secretary of NAHT, said the proposals moved things one step closer to giving head teachers the managerial authority to meet the accountability they have for the performance of their schools.

“There are really very few weak teachers in the country, but we must be able to help those that are to move on quickly, fairly and respectfully,” he said. “This is only right for the vast majority of dedicated and skilled teachers in our schools, as well as for pupils themselves."

Hobby added that head teachers should be given the powers to improve the quality of teaching in their schools, “without facing the barrage of hostility and obstruction that often ensues”.

The proposals were fairer than the procedures currently used on head teachers themselves, he argued, and would offer the NAHT’s members a fair procedure and more protection. “Too often, now, a blip in results leads to a 'tap on the shoulder' and another dedicated professional joins the growing number of disappeared; without warning, support or due process.”

The NAHT General Secretary warned that not everything the DfE had proposed would work, and this would need to be addressed during the consultation.

“In particular, we are concerned to ensure the right distinction between performance management and capability, with the lack of protection against vexatious grievances, and the release of confidential appraisal statements to other prospective employing schools,” Hobby said. “This latter issue will only serve to compromise appraisal.”