§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps her Department has taken(a) to reduce the number of new initiatives and (b) to improve the rigour of assessment of those initiatives following the publication of the School Teacher's Review Body report on teacher workload. [63167]
§ Mr. MilibandWe are consulting on the School Teachers' Review Body report on teacher workload. One of the recommendations concerns the management of initiatives and reporting requirements. We are discussing the best ways forward on this and other aspects of the report with the school workforce remodelling working party, which includes teacher and head teacher representatives. Following the current consultation exercise, we expect to make formal proposals in the autumn.
Our strategic document "Education and Skills: Delivering Results A Strategy to 2002" describes how we will be working to improve delivery of our targets. We have worked with Cabinet Office to improve how we assess the impact of our policies on delivery partners, including the workload implications. This includes greater involvement of and consultation with schools about the best method of implementing new policies.
The Government are committed to helping teachers raise standards in schools. Departmental initiatives are designed to spread good practice, tackle poor practice and sponsor innovate practice. Sometimes this involves streamlining departmental programmes—for example the national supplementative of the standards fund.