TTR0030

Written evidence submitted by THE VENERABLE John Cox

I am currently Vice-chair of Governors and a Member at St Mary’s CofE Primary Academy Mildenhall Suffolk, Member of Debenham CofE High School, and Chair of the Suffolk SACRE.  After retiring as Archdeacon of Sudbury in 2006 I was for four and half years Diocesan Director of Education for the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.   Most of my experience has been with primary schools.

My contacts with schools in recent years has indicated that many have been facing a growing problem in recruitment and retention.  I offer reflections from my current experience as a Governor.

Since September 2022 St Mary’s Mildenhall has been seeking to recruit a new Principal.  We have advertised (nationally and locally) twice with a very limited number of applicants and with only one candidate whom we called for interview.  The candidate was not appointed. We are currently working with an educational employment agency and intend to interview short-listed candidates at the end of the month.  We have been warned that it is a very difficult time to recruit and although remaining hopeful we anticipate few candidates. It has meant we have had to make special arrangements for an interim Principal for at least the summer term

There appear to be a number of different reasons: a lack of people with the necessary experience and the willingness to take on the considerable responsibilities and demanding work-load of being a Principal, exacerbated by experienced teachers leaving the profession; the pressures upon budget which reduce the flexibility that as a stand-alone Academy we have, to increase the salary offered although it is above that normally offered for a school of our size (420 pupils); the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have had a general effect upon the readiness to relocate; locality may in part be an issue. Those people who have shown any interest at all have indicated that being a stand-alone academy has been an attraction rather than the opposite.

We have also experienced a very considerable problem in recruiting temporary teaching staff to cover such issues as long-term illness and maternity leave. The problem has meant increased pressure upon existing staff and this has in turn has had an effect upon retention, not least among the less experienced staff.  Pay is an issue for some people although teachers generally do not enter the profession expecting high salaries. ECTs appear to find a mismatch between their expectations of what teaching holds for them as a vocation and professional career and the reality of the demands of the classroom not least because of the increasing expectations placed upon teachers by society at large, by Ofsted and the DfE.  We are seeing increasing SEND and behavioural needs at a time when the support services from the Local Authority and NHS are inadequate with long-waiting times for diagnosis and support.  Again budget restrictions mean that it is not possible to employ the number of TAs really needed.  This is in a school that takes very seriously, and has a high reputation for, its care of vulnerable pupils and their families.

Teachers want to be able to teach and to provide the very best education they can for the children in their care.  The current situation frustrates many of them as they feel they are having to meet the challenges ‘dumped’ on them by a lack of provision in support services.  This is not just an education problem but one involving the wider lack of resourcing for the relevant support services, Because of historic local authority funding arrangements we in Suffolk feel this very keenly.

April 2023