Allow part-time teachers to have set working patterns
Change the part-time contracts/flexible working requests for teachers to allow for set day working requests. For example, 3 days as opposed to the current 0.6 offering.
Signatures
21
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 21/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 21/100,000
- 05 MAR 2026Petition rejectedirrelevant
We can only accept petitions about things the Government or Parliament are directly responsible for. Decisions about flexible working arrangements are a matter for individual schools, not the UK Government or Parliament. Teachers are already entitled to request flexible working arrangements or different working patterns, and it is the responsibility of individual schools to consider these requests and decide whether to allow them or not.
- 28 JAN 2026Petition created
Background
Part-time contracts in teaching disproportionately affect women, specifically working mothers returning from maternity leave. Current part-time requests are for a reduction in hours as opposed to days. This means that teaching staff are being expected to work reduced hours but stretched over the full week, incurring extra costs for childcare and time travelling, without the pay. Allowing teachers to put in flexible working requests for a specific amount of days would improve retention.