By Gary Eason Education editor, BBC News website

Teachers' workload has eased - head teachers' has not

Leaders of one of the main head teachers' unions have held private talks with education ministers about the schoolteachers' workload agreement.

Mick Brookes, head of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), described it as a "productive" meeting.

He pressed the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, for a national audit of the impact of the agreement, which the union claims is not properly funded.

"That would resolve the dispute between us, one way or another," he said.

Time out

The agreement was made between the government and the main education unions apart from the National Union of Teachers.

It reduced the amount of mundane chores teachers had to do.

And it guaranteed them 10% of the timetable out of the classroom each week for planning, preparation and assessment - known as PPA time.

But the NAHT subsequently withdrew from the agreement. Many of its members say their schools have not been given the necessary funding to provide adequate cover for teachers' PPA time, rendering it unsustainable.

As a result they are not party to the so-called "social partnership" between unions and government.

This partnership is something which another union leader, Chris Keates of the NASUWT, regards as an invaluable way for her members to influence official policy.

But Mr Brookes said his members were not convinced that the partnership "knows what it's doing".

'Positive meeting'

"We are calling for a national audit of the impact of PPA time, not only on the workload of our members but also on standards," he said.

Mick Brookes: encouraged by "social partnership" talks

He met Mr Johnson on 4 July. The meeting had been private so he did not want to go into details, he said.

But he had been "deeply encouraged" that it had been positive - not something he had experienced with Mr Johnson's predecessor, Ruth Kelly.

Mr Brookes said he had also been impressed by the working knowledge of schools demonstrated by the School Standards Minister, Jim Knight.

Mr Knight had said the government needed to curb its impatience with the capacity of schools to deliver results, he said.

"That's important because we are saying the same thing," said Mr Brookes.

This week however Mr Johnson told the Commons education select committee that the pressure on England's teachers to get pupils through tests and improve school results should if anything be intensified.

Mr Brookes said: "If that's the route they are pursuing they will be in perpetual conflict with the NAHT."

'Not funded'

The issues of workloads and standards arising from PPA time relate to who takes classes in a teacher's absence.

Many schools say they can only provide cover by having head teachers step in or by using teaching assistants.

Mr Brookes has published a small-scale survey of 136 members in Lancashire which he believes is indicative of the wider problem.

It suggests 39% of schools did not have enough PPA funding. Almost a third of those that did have enough were drawing on reserves or making cuts elsewhere.

Head teachers were themselves providing PPA cover in 46% of schools.

About 57% said their workload had risen, 23% that it was the same.

Mr Brookes said this illustrated how heads were "struggling".

He says figures on sickness absence bear out the case.

According to the Schools Advisory Service, which provides absence insurance to more than 15,000 schools, work-related stress accounted for 37% of head teacher absences.

Unless the picture improved suddenly, premiums for head teachers would rise by 11% next year.

Teacher absence had fallen 2% - but among support staff including teaching assistants it had gone up 8%.