Labour鈥檚 manifesto promise to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers may not be delivered for years, and officials are also considering whether to loosen the pledge to include retention too, Schools Week understands. The party earmarked 拢450 million for the pledge, but still has not set out a timeline. During an interview with Times Radio on Monday, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said there would be 鈥減rogress over the course of the parliament because that is a rather large number of teachers鈥︹ 鈥淏ut that was a day-one priority because I am clear the way that we drive up standards.鈥 The Department for Education would not confirm whether this meant the new teachers, who will be in shortage subjects, would be recruited over the course of parliament, the next five years. That would average just over a thousand new teachers a year. Last year, 13,000 fewer teachers than required were recruited. Bridget Phillipson Schools Week understands it is one approach under consideration. Teachers would be recruited mostly over the next few years, but with enough time to report its success before the next election. It is also understood another option on the table is whether to loosen the target so that it also includes the extra number of teachers retained in the sector, as opposed to just new recruits. But no final decisions have been made yet. Schools Week understands the has assembled a specific team to hit the target. Jack Worth, the school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, previously urged Labour to 鈥渞eframe鈥 the target to be about recruitment and retention. How Labour could use the 拢450m Recent analysis modelled how Labour could use the 拢450 million on a combination of pay rises and financial incentives to boost teacher supply. One option was to spend the full amount on a 3.3 per cent increase in teacher pay next year in an effort to reduce the supply gap by 4,000 by 2028. But just 600 would be 鈥渘ew鈥 teachers, with retention accounting for the rest. However, a lower pay rise (2.6 per cent), alongside 拢2,400 retention payments for teachers in their third year and boosting bursaries by 拢3,000 for most subjects, would slash the teacher gap by 7,000, although only 2,000 of these would be new appointees. But David Spendlove, professor of education and associate dean of the faculty of humanities at the University of Manchester, said this would be 鈥渇iddling the figures鈥. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be impressed. It鈥檚 sleight-of-hand politics and the danger is they just simply adopt some of the bad practices of the previous government.鈥 Phillipson also announced in July that the Department for Education would 鈥渋mmediately resume and expand鈥 its flagship teacher recruitment campaign, Every Lesson Shapes a Life. But the DfE still hasn鈥檛 explained how this has been 鈥 or will be 鈥 done. Spendlove said the 6,500 target was 鈥渁lways a misleading figure, always a distraction鈥omething to appease the public鈥. 鈥淢ost of the public wouldn鈥檛 know what 6,500 meant, to many people it would sound like a large figure. 鈥淭o me, it was always a low target. It wasn鈥檛 a well-informed target and, consequently, it鈥檚 largely meaningless at the moment.鈥 ‘Government, be more ambitious’ He called for a 鈥渕ore sustainable strategy to think about how they consistently recruit, retrain and develop teachers鈥 what we need is a more sophisticated approach, not just a global figure鈥. Sir Andrew Carter, the chief executive of the South Farnham Educational Trust, said any commitment to have more teachers was to be commended. 鈥淚 know there’s no money, but the secret of teacher training is to get schools actively involved. James Noble Rogers “We need more than that [6,500] and if it’s over five years it’s not even going to touch the sides. If all the providers were encouraged to have 5 per cent more we’d be there. If that was incentivised a little bit with some cash, that would be helpful.” James Noble-Rogers, the executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said the government 鈥渟hould be more ambitious鈥. However, options are still under consideration and no final decision has been made yet. A Department for Education spokesperson said: 鈥淲ork is already underway to help deliver on our pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers across schools and colleges, including getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackling retention issues. 鈥淲e are developing our approach and putting plans in place to achieve this, which we will share publicly in due course.鈥
Rubjna Darr 6 September 2024 At the core of recruitment and retention is support and guidance. Talking to those interested in a career in education is key. I am interested in encouraging a more diverse workforce that reflects wider society. In my experience hands on publicity, small focus groups, in the communities in which future teachers may live is key. From my conversations with young people and Early Career Teachers they need step by step guidance on how to manage the responsibilities in the classroom before going on to wider career opportunities. We are always excited to nurture the next generation, this passion has no bounds!!! A dedicated mentor is key who has the time to do this important work at a steady pace.
Vicki 7 September 2024 I believe the pressure on recruitment is made worse due to lack of focus on retention. The previous government has 鈥渇lattened鈥 the pay scale by repeatedly raising the pay at M1 and M2 by a much greater percentage than at M6 and UPS1-3. Many experienced teachers feel less valued than RQTs. Pay is obviously important but so is workload. Many teachers leave after a few years due to the intense workload. Having protected PPA time has been a step forward but 10% simply isn鈥檛 enough. In Secondary, this equates to 1 hour PPA for 9 hours teaching, or 6-7 minutes PPA for every hour teaching. Most lessons include a 15-20 minute presentation to a group of teenagers who are often not particularly interested in the subject matter. Then, of course, there is marking, meetings, parents鈥 evenings etc to be squeezed in. Increasing PPA to 20% (over a number of years) would go a long way to making the job more manageable and, in my opinion, would have a huge impact on retention. For context, I have been teaching Maths for 30 years and work in an 11-18 state school.
AJAJAJ 8 September 2024 The money will not materialise. Not from VAT on PS fees anyway. It will raise nothing like the amount promised and could easily cost money overall. Utterly pointless exercise in envy politics, disrupting the education of 10000s children in north the state and private sectors. Funding should be available but it won鈥檛 come from this.
JP 11 January 2025 Theres an opportunity for DfE to bring in much needed ‘industry experienced/expert’ teachers who are currently only able to remain within FE, removing the disparity between PGCE and PCE(PCET) allowing those experienced and in many cases more mature teachers, to gain QTS and be employed by mainstream schools. Teaching in mainstream is no easy job particularly in secondary education. It takes a strong person to handle a class of 25-30 teenagers who don’t want to be there and i’m inclined to believe that this, together with a high percentage of behaviour issues contributes to many NQT’s moving on. An excellent report for Welsh Government by Dr. Steve Bell recommends… ‘the development of a means to address the long-standing disparity of opportunity for practitioners with a PCET ITE award who are not qualified to teach in schools, whereas their colleagues who have completed school ITE and attained Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) are qualified to work in further education colleges’.