In June 2026, the government announced new benchmarks to give every school and college in England the ‘tools’ to offer high-quality enrichment across arts, sport, nature, civic life and life skills.

Whilst welcoming the intent of the government to ensure enrichment is a ‘common entitlement for all’, the Union is aware that many of you will want to understand the potential implications for your school/college moving forward.

We are aware that many of you already take charge of enrichment programmes and activities offered in your school/college and are content to do so in a voluntary capacity.

The Union has produced this advice and guidance to ensure that you are aware of your rights and entitlements and are supported during this time.

Background and context

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education (DfE) have made £132.5 million available to fund enrichment activities as part of the ‘Every Child Can’ programme.

The DfE wants children and young people to be exposed to a wide range of experiences throughout their time in education that operate alongside the core curriculum taught during the normal school day.

There is a recognition of the fact that enrichment opportunities ‘can help expand horizons, raise aspirations and improve engagement’, as well as ‘contribute to greater wellbeing and improvements in attainment.’

The DfE defines enrichment in schools and colleges as encompassing ‘a wide range of activities and experiences that exist beyond the curriculum, either linked directly to the curriculum (co-curricular), or covering skills, knowledge and activities that work in addition to it (extra-curricular).’

It applies to schools and to further education, sixth-form and post-16 settings. It is supposed to put into practice the enrichment entitlement recommended by the Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Whilst acknowledging this, NASUWT notes that enrichment should not be seen as some sort of mitigation for an ever-narrowing and disengaging curriculum and qualifications offer. Indeed, the core curriculum should in itself be enriching.

In addition, the Union has serious doubts about the ability to achieve this aim given that the level of funding provided is unlikely to meet the scale of the government’s vision.

Furthermore, NASUWT is concerned about the sustainability of funds in the future and the impact this will have on the ability to retain enrichment activities in the longer term.

The DfE Enrichment Framework

The DfE Enrichment Framework, published on 15 June 2026, is non-statutory guidance built around five enrichment categories and eight benchmarks that schools and colleges in England are expected to use to plan a broad, well-rounded enrichment offer for children and young people.

The five enrichment categories

The DfE advice identifies five categories that may provide enrichment opportunities.

They are:

  • civic engagement - e.g. volunteering, community engagement;

  • arts and culture - e.g. taking part in and having live experience of music, art, dance and theatre;

  • nature, outdoors and adventure - e.g. gardening, residentials and camp;

  • sport and physical activities - e.g. individual and team sports, attending live events; and

  • developing wider life and future skills - e.g. digital literacy, STEM clubs, enterprise, cooking.

A broad and well-rounded enrichment offer should give pupils experiences across all five over time.

The eight enrichment benchmarks

The DfE advice identifies eight benchmarks that it believes describes the features of a strong enrichment offer.

They are:

  • A strategically aligned enrichment offer: a school or college has an enrichment offer that is integrated into the curriculum and its wider aims/vision.

  • A broad and well-rounded enrichment offer: a school or college provides children and young people with varied opportunities to engage in enrichment activities, including the minimum five enrichment categories (see above).

  • A well-communicated enrichment offer that celebrates participation and achievement: a school or college has an enrichment offer that celebrates participation and achievement, including recognising and recording this through certification and awards.

  • An enrichment offer shaped by the school or college community: a school or college has an enrichment offer that gives consideration to and is guided by the voice and choice of children and young people.

  • An accessible and engaging enrichment offer: a school or college has an enrichment offer that is designed to be accessible and engaging for all children and young people, i.e. including those with SEND, those in alternative provision.

  • An enrichment offer that works in partnership: a school or college has an enrichment offer supported by high-quality external partners (e.g. science centres, local sports clubs, museums), in addition to opportunities offered within the school/college.

  • An outcomes-focused enrichment offer: a school or college identifies and tracks the outcomes for children and young people that its enrichment offer aims to achieve

  • A continually improving enrichment offer: a school or college puts in place mechanisms to gather feedback and improve the quality and impact of its enrichment offer.

Whilst the advice states that enrichment should be ‘a core part of the school and college experience’ and connect to the curriculum or programmes of study, it is important to note that the expectation that schools and colleges provide an enrichment framework is not a legal requirement.

The advice from the DfE is non-statutory and merely acts as a tool to enable schools and colleges to audit their enrichment offer should they wish to do so.

From September 2026, however, Ofsted will consider enrichment under Personal Development and its inspection toolkit will assess whether any enrichment is purposeful and varied, having regard to the enrichment framework where applicable.

Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that the enrichment framework is just a planning tool and, as such, there is no Ofsted-approved approach to how your school/college offers any enrichment programme.

Ofsted’s June 2026 update states that:

‘We always recognise where guidance is new. We won’t expect you to have a perfect policy, perfectly enforced, as soon as the guidance changes – and we won’t hold you to account for reforms that haven’t happened yet.’

NASUWT is seeking further assurances from Ofsted on this point.

A strong, well-recorded approach to enrichment may feed into personal development, as well as provide evidence of the quality of education.

Enrichment activities and directed time for teachers

Whilst the advice from the DfE suggests that enrichment ‘may be delivered within timetabled lesson time or outside of it (e.g. lunchtime, before or after school), and that enrichment activities may be delivered by school or college staff…’, it is important to understand this in the context of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) and the 1,265 hours when you can be directed to work.

In England, local authority maintained schools operating according to the STPCD must open for 195 days, of which you can only be directed by the headteacher to work for up to a maximum of 1,265 hours over 195 days of the year. This is calculated on a pro rata basis for part-time teachers.

Of these, a maximum of 190 days involves teaching children and young people. The remaining five days are non-teaching days when you may be asked to undertake other duties related to your role as a teacher. These are often known as in-service training (INSET) days. These limits do not apply if you are paid on the leadership range.

You should be provided with a directed time budget at the beginning of each academic year based around the school day that identifies the number of hours during which you are being directed to undertake the professional duties of a teacher.

These include your timetabled teaching, as well as any meetings and duties such as parental consultations, planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time, leadership and management time (as appropriate), and meetings. See our Directed Time and the 32.5-hour Week (England) page for further details regarding directed time calendars.

Whilst schools have the autonomy to decide the structure and duration of their school day, including the start and finish times and school sessions and breaks, schools should continue to employ teachers in accordance with the provisions of the STPCD, including the provisions relating to teachers’ days of work, working time and duties.

Furthermore, directed time must be allocated reasonably throughout the days you are contracted to work. You do not have to be directed to work right up to the limit of 1,265 hours, so schools should not see this as aspirational in regard to looking to extend the length of the school day.

Once you have been provided with your directed time budget/calendar, you should not be directed to undertake other duties by your employer.

If you work in a local authority maintained school in England, the provisions around directed time are statutory and your school cannot choose to ignore them.

Some academies may operate terms and conditions which do not adhere to the STPCD. They are therefore able to set a different directed time calendar, specifying working time which may be in excess of the 1,265 hours and 195 days a year identified in the STPCD.

Sixth-forms

NASUWT has recently secured with the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) significant improvements in working conditions for sixth-form college teachers in England that provides them with contractual rights to workload protections on PPA, cover, workload and directed time as a result of successful negotiations.

The workload principles focus on how colleges can bring down workload by looking at a range of tasks that do not require the skills and professional expertise of a teacher, e.g. administrative tasks.

In addition, the principles emphasise the importance of consulting and publishing an annual calendar of when you can be expected to work, including open and parents’ evenings.

Furthermore, the directed time principles provide greater clarity on what should be included in your sixth-form college’s directed time calendar by detailing how it should be calculated based around 1,265 hours over 195 days of the year.

It makes clear that meaningful consultation should take place on the calendar in the summer term and it should not be altered or added to other than in exceptional circumstances.

As such, any proposals for enrichment activities must now be seen in this context and assessed against the points raised below.

Colleges

For those working in further education or colleges not covered by the SFCA agreement, you will need to look at your contract carefully to check whether there is any contractual expectation for you to provide or participate in enrichment activities as part of your role.

Irrespective, the Union believes that it is good practice for your college to consult and negotiate, with a view to seeking agreement on any enrichment proposals, and assess them against the points below.

Compulsory vs voluntary

Schools and school leaders will therefore need to be cognisant of this if seeking to develop and mandate a compulsory enrichment programme that is delivered by teachers in their directed time.

Indeed, advice and guidance (pdf) produced by the DfE regarding the expectation that from September 2024 schools would operate a 32.5 hour week makes it clear that schools should take into account your contract of employment, which should define your working time and should not be varied without consultation and agreement.

Furthermore, the same guidance makes it clear that maintained schools ‘must have regard to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. In particular, teachers in maintained schools can only be directed by the headteacher for a maximum of 1,265 hours per year. Any additional teacher time needed to deliver a longer school week will need to be incorporated into a school’s directed time allocations.’

As such, any contractual expectation for a teacher to provide enrichment would, depending on the nature of the contract, require a school/college to consult and negotiate with a view to seeking agreement on any enrichment proposals.

This should include the school being asked to undertake an equality impact assessment to show that any proposals do not have a disproportionate impact on certain groups of staff or pupils with protected characteristics.

Any plans to change the length of the school day to accommodate a compulsory enrichment programme should be workload impact assessed to ensure they will not result in increased workload burdens for teachers and leaders.

This assessment must include an evaluation of any potential implications in respect of directed time. Any changes that are likely to have adverse workload implications will not be acceptable to NASUWT.

In addition, an expectation to teach enrichment in addition to your normal core role will have impacts on the calculation of your Planning Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time, as well as Early Career Teacher (ECT) induction time.

Furthermore, under the provisions of the STPCD, you are entitled to a daily break of a reasonable length either between school sessions or between the hours of 12 noon and 2pm, e.g. lunch break.

During your break, you cannot be directed by your school/college and the Union does not recommend that you carry out voluntary, extracurricular activities during the lunch break, although this advice does not preclude these if it is something you wish to continue on a voluntary basis without any expectation you will do it as part of directed time.

Given this, NASUWT maintains that schools and colleges should adhere to a voluntary approach in regard to extracurricular and enrichment activities that permits teachers to make their own professional judgement about volunteering freely to undertake such activities/enrichment, something that the Union knows many of you already enjoy doing.

As such, it should be a matter of personal choice and should not form part of your contract of employment, as it falls outside the scope of those professional responsibilities for which you can be directed, as specified in the STPCD (section 50).

As a voluntary activity, this should not be something against which you are assessed for the purposes of any performance management or appraisal system used by the school.

In addition, if a voluntary activity attracts an additional payment, then the Union maintains that this should be subject to a separate contractual arrangement to that for which you are employed as a teacher.

If you are unsure whether or not an enrichment activity falls within the range of tasks and duties that you can be directed to undertake, you should apply the following tests set out above, namely:

  • Does it require the professional skills and expertise of a teacher?

  • Does it form part of my directed time calendar/timetabled teaching week?

  • Is it within scope of those professional responsibilities for which I can be directed, including:

    • planning and preparing lessons for pupils;

    • delivering lessons to pupils;

    • assessing the development, progress and attainment of pupils; and

    • reporting on the development, progress and attainment of pupils.

Upper pay range (UPR) and enrichment activities

Whilst appreciating the fact that those looking to progress to the upper pay scale may be assessed against the fact that they are highly competent in all elements of the relevant standards and that their achievements and contribution to an educational setting or settings are substantial and sustained, NASUWT does not believe that it is appropriate to place an expectation on a teacher to undertake enrichment activities as part of a substantial and sustained contribution unless it forms part of their substantive contract.

Teachers or external providers

Crucially, the advice from the DfE makes it clear that schools and colleges would need to consider whether or not teachers are best placed to deliver an enrichment framework, making reference to ‘external providers’ who may be in a much better position to support an enrichment framework.

Many schools and colleges already bring in qualified outside providers to offer enrichment opportunities and NASUWT welcomes confirmation that external providers are an invaluable source of enrichment provision that sits outside the scope of specified work that a teacher can be directed to undertake.

If your school is seeking to change the school day or introduce an enrichment programme without adhering to the advice and guidance contained within this briefing, or you are unsure whether a limit applies to your working time, please contact your School Representative or Local Association who will be best placed to address the issue with your school in the first instance.