FINAL GPSJ Summer edition 2024 ONLINE VERSION.2pdf - Flipbook - Page 32
GPSJ
EDUCATION & LEARNING
A ticking time bomb: poor
teacher recruitment and retention
By Carole Lamb, Head of Education, Integra Education
are still falling. Any increase in leaving
rates affects the DfE’s recruitment
targets, which will have to rise even
more to compensate. In May 2024,
Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary
of the NASUWT, said: “The teaching
profession is in the midst of a crisis
of recruitment, retention and morale,
with 40,000 teachers leaving in the
last year alone.”
So what’s happening, and what
are the key factors causing teachers
to leave?
Low pay and higher workloads
Carole Lamb,
Head of Education,
Integra Education
Teacher recruitment is now at
such a critical level that it could
impact the future quality of
education in our schools. That’s
a key finding of the 2024 report
from the National Foundation for
Educational Research (NFER).
In 2023, England failed to meet
targets set for initial teacher
training (ITT) recruitment in both
primary and secondary schools.
Secondary school recruitment
was particularly poor, reaching
only half of the target figures
overall.
A report from the cross-party UK
Parliament Education Committee
in May 2024 also emphasised the
need for programmes to boost
teacher recruitment, training and
retention. There’s an urgent need
for prompt and effective action: our
children are our future, but that future
is looking increasingly gloomy.
A lack of recruitment
Each year, the Department for
Education (DfE) sets targets for the
number of trainee teachers needed to
ensure schools are fully staffed. Since
the pandemic, recruitment has fallen
to its lowest levels in relation to these
targets. And the number of teachers
leaving has increased. Combined
with ever-growing class sizes, this
is causing even greater pressure on
those teachers who remain.
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The changing face of teaching
There are some initiatives aimed
at improving recruitment in certain
secondary subjects, including
bursaries and the international
relocation payment (IRP) scheme.
These have made some impact
but much more needs to be done,
as future recruitment looks set to
continuing failing to meet the targets.
Other recent developments could
influence recruiting levels. Early
Career Teachers (ECTs - previously
Newly Qualified Teachers) now have
to complete an induction period of
six terms rather than three to gain
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
However, with teachers being
overworked, ECTs aren’t receiving
the support they need to provide the
best levels of education and to help
them deal with pupil behaviour and
development.
Meanwhile, the temporary
education market has been attracting
more teachers, with benefits
including a fixed contract, greater
motivation and job satisfaction. This,
along with flexible or part-time work,
could help to boost recruitment
and retention, also opening further
opportunities for teachers who then
may want to look at more permanent
staffing roles.
Lack of retention
Another issue is why retention rates
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL SUMMER 2024
Teachers generally feel under-paid,
under-valued and over-worked. The
NFER report stated that teachers’
pay has effectively deteriorated since
the pandemic. Meanwhile, they’re
having to cope with increasingly
large classes and a huge amount of
pressure relating to both admin and
results.
The recent Conservative
government prioritised the reduction
of teachers’ working hours, with
the easing of planning, admin
and marking pressures producing
some initial successes. Despite
this, teachers’ working hours rose
significantly last year. There are some
signs of progress on the pay front,
but much still needs to be done to
reduce workloads.
More disruption and less
support
A key reason for teachers leaving is
the growth in disruptive behaviour
from pupils. In primary schools, low
funding has often led to a lack of
teaching assistants, so teachers
spend much of their time dealing with
poor behaviour rather than teaching,
which in turn increases their
workload. In the NFER report, the
areas highlighted most frequently as
a high priority for workload reduction
were behaviour management and
pastoral care.
According to University College
London’s Institute of Education,
teachers are effectively becoming
social workers, having to support
pupils with mental health issues due
to ‘inadequate’ capacity in social
and mental health services. Similarly,
research by the charity Education
Support found that 33% of teachers
reported having to help resolve a
family conflict.
Conclusions
So, those are just some of the
issues, but what are the solutions?
The NFER report states that, given
the scale of the challenges facing
teacher recruitment and retention,
policymakers need to consider
radical but cost-effective actions
The most pressing need is to
reduce teacher workloads. One of
the main recommendations of the
NFER report was: “Government
should set up an independent
review focussing on how to reduce
teachers’ workload related to
behaviour management and pastoral
care, which should consider the role
of external support services.”
The Chair of the Parliament
Education Committee, Robin Walker
MP, agrees: “For many current
teachers, excessive workloads,
rather than pay, was the biggest
factor pushing them to leave… We
also heard that ‘overspill’ from wider
social problems is heaping extra
stress on teachers.”
We fully support the NFER
recommendation and believe that
a long-term strategy of reducing
workload by offering flexible work
options and focusing on high-quality,
condensed education will improve
teacher recruitment. Our teachers are
one of our most valuable resources.
We must ensure they have all the
support they need. Without their
expert help, our nation’s children will
be unable to meet their full potential.
And that, in turn, will be a disaster for
our nation and our society.
Integra specialises in education
recruitment. Carole Lamb is a brand
ambassador who promotes Integra’s
core values of integrity, passion,
quality, and compliance. She has
over 24 years of experience in the
recruitment industry and specialises
in Education.
Please visit:
https://integraeducation.co.uk