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WQ.215/2023
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
BY DEPUTY R.J. WARD OF ST. HELIER CENTRAL
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 15th MAY 2023
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 22nd MAY 2023
Question
“Further to her response to Written Question 184/2023, in which the Minister stated that research on flexible working was due to be commissioned shortly, will she advise –
- the commencement and completion date of this research;
- how it will be undertaken and when its outcomes will be implemented; and
- how many staff have been refused requests for flexible working options, such as part time or job shares, over the last 3 years?”
Answer
The Government of Jersey intends to launch a revised flexible-working policy in June 2023. The department will be required to comply with the revised policy. To develop and support the most appropriate implementation of the revised policy in schools it is intended to commission support from an external partner.
- The work with a partner is due to commence in the summer term 2023 and is expected to be completed by the end of the autumn term 2023.
- A partner with experience in assisting organisations to enable increased flexible working in the education sector will be used. We are at the later stages of confirming the brief, so the following is indicative rather than contractual. The overarching objective is to establish a proactive, whole- school approach to flexible working. This will include establishing what flexibility means and how it could operate within educational settings, the requirement for integrated workforce planning to enable flexible working and how this can be offered to different elements of the school workforce at different career stages.
The intention is to have a mix of desktop review and workshops with primary and secondary head teachers (or representatives) to ensure relevance with our local context. Final outputs will include headteacher guidance on the approach to flexible working in schools and it will be the responsibility of the Education directorate to communicate and implement this in 2023.
I have made head teachers aware of these plans and welcome further input from Deputy Ward as this process unfolds.
- There is an established process for considering flexible working requests today and the department actively receives these and engages in this process. No central statistics are held currently; the revised policy and toolkits for managers provides an electronic form so we may be able to provide this data at some point in the future.