Allow part-time teachers to have set working patterns

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

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.

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.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

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.

Timeline

28 Jan 2026	Petition opened for signatures
5 Mar 2026	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 5 Mar 2026

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