Directed Time Budgets -

“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn.“
Dr Seuss

In Northern Ireland Principals can direct teachers to do 1265 hours of duties per year, but these directed hours must be planned in advance as part of the Directed Time Budget (DTB). You should receive your DTB before the first teaching day of term. You can be asked to do any of the professional duties for teaching staff, which are outlined here.

While assigning duties to teachers is the responsibility of the Principal, teachers should be consulted about their time budget so it can be individually tweaked to allow the teacher to fulfil their role. Ideally this should be in June, so the DTB is ready for the first teaching day.

What should be on your time budget?

Okay. Time budgets are complicated. They’re meant to be. They must plan out (a year in advance) each of the 1265 hours every teacher is contracted for. They’re meant to be evidence-based, reasonable, fair, equitable, and detailed at a micro-level. They’re supposed to be unique to you, and they have to include some contingency against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. (Or most Monday mornings!)

But step out of the trees for a moment… look at the wider forest. From this perspective time budgets are fairly straightforward:

If the Principal or their SLT directs you to do a task, it is automatically directed time.

So there you have it – everything you are asked to do as part of your job (largely your professional duties outlined here) is directed time. And you are entitled to have every scrap of every task included in your time budget – with just a few exceptions:

Any day to day lesson planning or marking you choose to do at home. (Note – if you are told to do extra work at home, then that becomes directed time.)
Any extra-curricular activities you voluntarily choose to do. (More on this below – there is little-known flexibility about this.)
Any additional supervision activities you do under a separate contract.

Anything else must be on your directed time budget.

Each bit of directed time should have two elements which are clearly understood and agreed by the Principal / delegated SLT member and the teacher.

The Directed Task:

What have you been asked to do?

The Time It Will Take:

How long will these tasks take to achieve this year?

Each directed activity should be a reasonable use of the teacher’s time, fairly distributed between teachers, and be given sufficient time that a reasonable person would agree that the time given is sufficient for the task. Additionally, as part of our think1265 Charter, we ask for managers to ensure the time allocated is evidence-based, as a reasonable person needs evidence in order to come to an opinion about whether or not a directed task is achievable.

Checkpoint – The time taken to do a task can be an equality issue.

Reasonable adjustments might be required for disabled or neuro-diverse individuals. This is a legal duty on employers, so if you need help with task completion ask your rep or regional centre. E.g. An individual might struggle with using a keyboard for prolonged periods to upload data.A reasonable adjustment might be to submit a paper copy of data for office staff to upload. Or to be given sufficient extra time in their time budget to allow breaks during this task.

Checkpoint – “Contingency Time” isn’t “spare time”.

It is time specifically set aside against events which could not be foreseen or planned for. Some Principals think contingency time is a just bit of flex in the budget that they can use if they need to. This is not the case. It is time to allow teachers to respond to wholly unexpected events, and is ring-fenced against these type of circumstances.

Which of these is contingency time?

Mr Singh teaches in a Primary school, and toward the end of the summer term the Principal calls him in for a chat. Referring to Mr Singh’s DTB he points to the 8 hours of contingency time, and suggests that he use these hours over the next 8 weeks by redesigning a scheme of work.	No – this is not the proper use of contingency time. It is not “spare time” that teachers owe, rather it is for emergencies and unforeseen events. Mr Singh should speak to his union representative and refuse to engage with this direction.
Just before 3pm on a busy Thursday afternoon, a flash message comes from the school office to all staff. There has been a warning from the PSNI of a potential threat to a school in your area, and as a result schools must activate their “stay put” policy. This alert continues until shortly after 5.30pm, before the “all clear” is given.	Yes – this is exactly the kind of thing contingency time is designed for. By ensuring that teachers have time in their budget to cover emergencies they are unlikely to “run out of hours” if there are several emergent events.
A planned event in school is taking place one afternoon, when one of the teachers who was running it has to go home sick. Ms Henry is asked if she would cover this role, and her line manager refers to her contingency when explaining why she should do it.	Complicated – firstly, there was not sufficient notice to Ms Henry for this role. She would be entirely within her rights to say no. Additionally, if it’s a delivery / teaching role, then it would add to her 23.5 hours contact time if in post-primary. While it could be argued this is contingency time, if she chose to help out on this occasion it would be entirely voluntary and a goodwill gesture.

The four strands of directed time.

(Note – these aren’t exhaustive.)

The key thing to remember about Directed Time is this:

If you’ve been asked to do something by the Principal or their designated senior teachers, then it is directed time and must be formally given time in your time budget.

Designed and produced by teachers and trade unionists. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information on this site, members and representatives are advised to contact their own trade union reps before taking action which might leave them in breach of contract. © 2024 think1265

Weekly Contact	Weekly Non-Contact	Periodic Contact	Periodic Non-Contact

Teaching & Cover Pastoral registration Taking weekly assembly Directed extra-curricular activities.	Registration – (taking roll.) Attending weekly assembly. Break / bus duties. Briefings / weekly meetings. Directed parental contact. Email management. Directed work after school (e.g. regular meetings, etc.) Trapped time. Marking homework (if directed to by homework policy.)	Taking special assemblies (Easter, Christmas, etc.) Directed revision classes. Directed extra-curricular activities.	Parents’ evenings. Open Days. Supervising special assemblies / exams etc. Directed periodic marking (e.g. end of unit tests, mocks, termly tests) Data recording and reporting functions. CPD, pastoral work, Baker Days, SDDs, training, meetings, mentoring, etc. (This is basically anything not in the first three columns.)