Effective management of school workforce attendance in primary schools

The report evaluates the impact of the Welsh Government guidance on the ‘Effective management of school workforce attendance’ in primary schools. It considers how well primary schools, local authorities and regional consortia have implemented the guidance and the effect that it has had on the management of teacher and headteacher absence.

Recommendations

The Welsh Government should:

• R1 Promote the ‘Effective Management of School Workforce attendance’ document more widely
• R2 Provide schools and local authorities with guidance on monitoring, recording and evaluating the impact of staff absence due to activities other than illness, such as training, conferences and school-to-school support
• R3 Produce guidance on the effective management of headteacher absence
• R4 Ensure that the provision of supply cover in the Welsh-medium sector is addressed when reviewing the teacher workforce strategy

Local authorities should:

• R5 Ensure that training on managing workforce attendance is available for all headteachers and forms part of an induction package for all newly appointed headteachers
• R6 Provide schools with regular benchmarking data on staff attendance in line with Welsh Government guidance

Schools should:

• R7 Monitor the work of supply teachers regularly and ensure that all pupils continue to make appropriate progress when their usual classroom teacher is absent
• R8 Provide supply teachers with feedback on their performance
• R9 Ensure that supply teachers can always access teacher planning documents