Are you ready to work longer hours?

A government review of the 1,265-hour limit on directed time is more than just policy talk—it could fundamentally change your working life. Here’s why this matters and why concern is justified:

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🕒 What the 1,265-Hour Limit Actually Protects

Under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, full-time teachers are legally capped at 1,265 directed hours per academic year, spread across 195 days—190 teaching days plus 5 inset days. These hours include not only teaching but also important professional duties like meetings, planning, preparation, and pupil supervision. [neu.org.uk]

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⚠️ Why the Government Is Eyeing a Change

In July 2025, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson instructed the School Teachers’ Review Body to review directed time, stating that the current cap may be “potentially creating a constraint on schools’ deployment of teachers”. In other words, removing or loosening the cap could give schools greater managerial control over your schedule—at your expense. [schoolsweek.co.uk]

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👩‍🏫 What This Could Mean for You

Without the 1,265-hour cap, heads could require you to work significantly longer—more meetings, extended days, and a surfeit of responsibilities without compensation. The true cost? Rising workload, increased stress, damaged wellbeing, and a risk of burnout. It undermines your right to a balanced professional life.

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🛡️ Why We Should Be Alarmed

• Teacher wellbeing is already stretched. Workload is the top reason educators leave the profession. Weakening this protective cap means even more pressure. [tes.com], [schoolsweek.co.uk]
• Without this limit, directed time becomes a blank cheque for ever-increasing duties, threatening your time with family, your health, and your ability to do the job well.
• This isn’t just a policy change—it’s a massive shift in teachers’ working conditions, with minimal additional funding or support.

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📣 What We Must Do

• Stay informed and vigilant: monitor updates from the NEU and STRB consultation processes.
• Ensure your school negotiates a robust directed-time calendar each year, protecting your contractual limits.
• Prepare to act collectively: the NEU will need every member ready to defend this core right—whether through ballots, campaigns, or workplace negotiations.
  
• Get Ballot Ready: Reps check your membership lists and members update your details at my.neu.org.uk

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This isn’t a distant threat—it’s a real and imminent risk to your working life. Our collective voice and political action are the only protection against creeping expectation for longer, unpaid hours. Now is the time to stand together and say: We will not go back.