CLCited LeadershipResearch to decisions

Your Cited Leadership account

Create an account or sign in with your email or Google. Save your profile and leadership challenges in a free private workspace. Paid memberships are coming soon. All published reading remains free.

Read Cited Leadership’s Privacy Notice and Terms of Use before creating an account. Newsletter signup is optional and separate. Clerk provides account sign-in.

Free leadership resource · discussion aid

Teacher workload review: stop, simplify or test

Use this worksheet with one team to review one recurring work demand and agree a feasible change. Print or copy it into a local meeting document.

Original Cited Leadership discussion aid. It is not a validated instrument, DfE template or proven workload intervention. England guidance informs the questions; check local requirements. Do not enter confidential staff or student details in the public page.

By Cited Leadership editorial team · Published · Sources reviewed

Get the free weekly research brief · Separate signup and email confirmation.

1. Define the demand

Name the task, who requests it, who performs it, frequency, preparation/follow-up and who uses the output. State the decision or essential function it supports. If the purpose is unclear, find out before changing it.

Demand and purposePeople and frequencyTime estimate and basisQuality or duty to protect
Chosen task   

2. Choose stop, simplify or test

  • Stop: remove a redundant demand after confirming it is unnecessary and that the decision owner can remove it.
  • Simplify: change frequency, format, approval or duplication while protecting the task’s purpose.
  • Test: try an alternative for a stated period when the effect or feasibility is uncertain.
Choice and reasonOwner and permission neededWho may inherit workStart and review date
Stop / simplify / test   

3. Decide how to review

Record the same task in comparable periods before and after. Estimates are acceptable if their basis is visible. Include setup time, work moved to other roles, and any effects on teaching, support or necessary information. Agree a reversal trigger.

MeasureBefore: date and basisAfter: comparable periodInterpretation and next decision
Time on this demand   
Staff experience   
Task quality / learner support   
Work moved elsewhere   

4. Close the loop

Choose keep, adapt or stop. Tell participants what changed and what remains unresolved. A reduction in task time is not proof of a total workload reduction or student-learning gain. A before/after change is a local signal; record other changes that could explain it.

Fictional example: a team tests one assessment-summary record instead of two. Its review would check time, whether anyone lost useful information and whether office staff acquired extra work. No actual school or measured saving is implied.

Why these questions?

DfE guidance separates diagnosis, action and evaluation. The worksheet combines those stages with original stop/simplify/test and workload-transfer prompts; it does not reproduce or certify the toolkit. DfE: identify workload issues (n.d.) DfE: evaluate workload measures (n.d.)

References and reviewed material

  1. Department for Education. (n.d.). Identify workload issues. Workload reduction toolkit. Retrieved 12 October 2026.

    Reviewed: Original HTML guidance and resource descriptions, not all downloadable templates. Setting/design: England schools. Guidance on diagnosis and prioritisation. Limit: Staff perceptions identify questions for investigation; they do not independently establish task costs or effects.

  2. Department for Education. (n.d.). Evaluate workload measures. Workload reduction toolkit. Retrieved 12 October 2026.

    Reviewed: Original HTML guidance and listed evaluation methods. Setting/design: England schools. Guidance on local monitoring. Limit: A local before/after check alone does not show causality or rule out unintended effects.