The paper examines what should reasonably be expected of schools and colleges, how they should be resourced to deliver those responsibilities, and how to make sure they are able to attract the staff they need. It has been produced following a year-long consultation with ASCL Council, the association’s policymaking body comprised of 60 serving school and college leaders. The paper concludes with 16 proposed actions to recognise and address the major challenges facing the education system. 

These include: 

• Invest in children’s services to ensure that pupils’ health and social care needs are met.
• Map out who is responsible for what in each local area with clarity about the roles of education, health and social care.
• Ensure that school and college performance tables and Ofsted inspections are based only on core education responsibilities.
• Introduce a system which enables schools, colleges, or other local agencies to flag up if they don’t think another agency is fulfilling its remit.

Julie McCulloch, ASCL Director of Strategy and Policy, said: “In recent years the expectations on schools and colleges have grown way beyond teaching and learning to encompass a wide range of societal responsibilities. Some of this can be traced back to the pandemic, but also to high child poverty rates and crumbling public services, meaning that schools and colleges have been left to pick up the pieces. 

“From running food banks and supporting families with housing, to resolving parking issues and mediating parental disputes, the burden placed on school and college teachers and leaders has never been higher. Some of these issues are obviously of great importance, but they cannot continue to be shouldered by educators. 

“More needs to be done to clearly distinguish where the core responsibilities of education staff start and end. It is time to rethink exactly what we expect from schools and colleges and how they should be resourced to meet these demands. We hope this paper will be a valuable resource to policymakers and we would welcome further engagement to discuss the ideas it sets out.” 

You can read the full paper here.