Fair Distribution and Rotation of NCCT
Renfrewshire Council · 3 February 2026
Back to Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff — 3 February 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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PUBLIC Agenda Item.......... Renfrewshire Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers To: Renfrewshire Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers On: 3rd February 2026 Report by Joint Secretary (Teachers’ Side) Fair Distribution and Rotation of NCCT 1. Background In primary schools full time teachers are currently entitled to 2.5 hours non-class contact time (NCCT) which is allocated on a pro rata basis for part time staff. The non class contact time is often covered by another teacher, who will have the role of covering NCCT across the school. It is common practice for NCCT teachers to be given responsibility to cover elements of the curriculum which are not seen as ‘core’ subjects: RE, MFL, Expressive Arts, for example. Teachers have raised concerns that once they become the ‘NCCT’ teacher they are then pigeon-holed in that role, and, despite requesting their own class, they are left for many years covering other colleagues’ non class contact time. This can be particularly true for part time staff. Covering NCCT does develop a particular skill set: it requires the need to be highly organised, the need to be flexible and to have an in-depth knowledge of the curriculum at all levels as teachers could be covering from early to second level in a single day. However, when in this position long term, many teachers feel they become deskilled because they are not planning full units in the core curricular areas, they are not involved fully in the tracking and monitoring of pupil attainment, building relationships with families, providing reports etc. NCCT teachers feel that they lack autonomy to make decisions or last-minute changes to lessons they are teaching because the class is not theirs. They miss the relationships with pupils and even having classroom that is their teaching space. This can sometimes lead to job dissatisfaction and anxiety. One of the core values of Renfrewshire Council is fairness and this value is central to the Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy which states that Renfrewshire Council is an ‘equal opportunities employer where all people feel valued, included and to be at their best.’ It is therefore incumbent upon Headteachers to allocate NCCT teaching in a manner that articulates with these values.
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PUBLIC A key element of a teacher’s professional development is GTCS Professional Update whereby teachers must keep abreast of their professional development by measuring their practice against the GTCS professional standards. Being timetabled regularly as a NCCT teacher stands as an obstacle to fulfilling the range of standards required and is inherently unfair. 2. Recommendations Positive discussions have already taken place with the Joint Secretaries and the Teachers’ side has been informed that the matter has been highlighted with head teachers. The Teachers’ side is keen that when setting classes head teachers consult with staff to ensure that all staff are allocated the NCCT role on an equitable, rotational basis. This would ensure that all staff develop a broad skill set and would alleviate any perceived unfairness, anxiety and dissatisfaction that has been expressed by some who are permanently allocated the NCCT role. Ideally a primary teacher should spend no longer than two consecutive years in the NCCT role, unless they specifically request that role.