“Life is not what you expect: it is made up of the most unexpected twists and turns.”
Ilaiyaraaja
“Contingency time is the time left following the allocation of Directed Time commitments. It is recommended that each teacher’s Directed Time budget includes an element of contingency time, to ensure there is flexibility to accommodate situations that may arise and are unaccounted for within the Directed Time Budget” (EA Directed Time Budget training for Principals. Bold added.)
Contingency time exists for unforeseen events and emergencies.
It is recommended that every teacher has contingency time left over from the 1265 hours in order to handle such events should they occur. Simply put, it’s time set aside for a rainy day. In the case of an unforeseen emergency, contingency time can be deployed to direct teachers to a particular task without the need of formal in-year variations.
Contingency time is not unplanned Directed Time that Principals can then assign later on.
Contingency time is not a catch-all slush fund of hours that Principals can set aside for allocation to staff later on, so they don’t have to plan out a teacher’s DTB properly in June / July. This is at best poor practice or – at worse – a “hack” to bypass their Directed Time budgeting obligations. Imagine the uproar if a teacher’s scheme of work included large blank sections, to be figured out “on the fly” at some point in the future?
Additionally, contingency time is not time owed by the teacher, which they must do something gainful with before the end of the 195 days. It is ringfenced time to ensure that the teacher does not run out of hours if there is a sudden requirement for additional / unforeseen work to be done. As with other planned Directed Time, if the need for that work does not arise (for example, because of a non-teaching day or snow day) then the time allocated for it vanishes.
(Remember, while 1265 hours is the minimum a teacher needs to work to fulfil their basic contractual obligations, 1265 hours is also the maximum hours a Principal can direct a teacher to work. So contingency time also provides a buffer to avoid teachers running out of hours when emergencies happen, and shouldn’t be used unless essential.)
Reallocation of time from DTB
The FAQ on Principal training for DTBs states: “Some schools may prefer to ensure that all Directed Time is accounted for at the beginning of the year with time reallocated at a later stage if necessary. Any such changes or amendments to a teacher’s Directed Time budget should be agreed in consultation with the teachers.”
The workload agreement TNC 2024/2 recommends that an element of contingency time should be set aside to ensure that there is a level of flexibility, so this is not the recommended way to handle a DTB. Particularly with the advent of a mechanism to take collective grievances on behalf of a group of staff, an unpopular in-year variation could face considerable kick-back from staff members.
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