NCCD: Is red tape in need of reduction?
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 6, 5 September 2025, page no 4.
Given that reduction means to diminish or lessen, “red tape reduction” would obviously require education systems to stop doing things.
Any proposal for red tape reduction that uses verbs like “streamline” or “simplify” is likely to be nothing more than a departmental sleight of hand that will achieve little in the complex work of teachers and school leaders.
Recently, QTU members in schools have undertaken work related to the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD). Schools have been legally required to accurately report on NCCD since 2015, and the QTU recognises that this has resulted in a decade of incremental workload creep at both systemic and local levels, with practices being normalised.
The QTU position is that NCCD is an example of red tape that has sprawled beyond its original purpose, and therefore there is a need for de-implementation of NCCD processes.
There is hope, however.
Action 20 of the federal government’s National Teacher Workforce Action Plan
(NTWAP -https://www.education.gov.au/national-teacher-workforce-action-plan) commits education systems to consulting with unions on the development of workload impact assessments for all of the initiatives in the new Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (2025-34) (BFSA - https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/national-school-reform-agreement/better-and-fairer-schools-agreement-20252034). Clause 88(d)(iii) of the BFSA is a review, with primacy given to any impact on teacher workload of “national measures of access, participation and outcomes for students with disability to establish a better understanding of the education experiences and outcomes of schooling for students with disability.”
The QTU view is that this means state and federal governments must work with unions to understand the workload impact of measures like NCCD. As NCCD wraps up for another year, we are asking school leaders and Union Reps to support this Union work by completing a brief survey on their experiences with NCCD support, workload, and practices.
QTU members can access the survey here.