TTR0056

Written evidence submitted by Kingston University

The current situation regarding teacher recruitment and retention 

What are the main factors leading to difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified teachers?

• Impact of the market review / re-accreditation process and implications from this that ITE/ITT providers are not currently providing courses of sufficient quality.
• Lack of high-quality candidates that we feel confident will stay in the English school system. We are getting high numbers of overseas applications that are not suitable to train to teach.
• Candidates’ and trainees’ perceptions of workload do not match the reality
• Perceptions of pay being low as reported in the media and industrial action is giving rise to anxiety and concern about entering the profession with negative coverage of the pay and conditions teachers face.
• Current ‘Get into Teaching’ campaign with the ‘hero’ teacher motif does not appeal to most candidates.
• Lack of flexible working / hours.
• Kingston University are in the highest 20% nationally for recruiting BAME trainees, however lack of bursaries for primary trainees means that those from more disadvantaged backgrounds are currently not choosing this as career option so numbers have fallen significantly.
• Additional costs eg travel to and from placement have meant some trainees have not been able to take up course offers, or have had to leave the course mid-point.
• Trainees need to take on additional debt to complete a PGCE in addition to there being a lack of bursaries for all subjects in Secondary (none in Primary) and the fact that they change year on year. We have seen trainees withdraw so they can return the following year at a higher bursary rate.

Which subjects are most affected?

• Science (Physics), English, Mathematics, and Primary (PGCE only)

Figures below show recruitment at April 23. The above subjects are recruiting at less than 50% of normal recruitment rate.

How does the situation differ across the country and across different types of schools and colleges?

• There does seem to be some regional variation, but we are seeing lower recruitment across all areas, coupled with high numbers of teachers leaving the profession, especially in the last two years across most of the London Boroughs that we work with.
• This is having significant impact on the ability of schools to offer placements for trainees, especially smaller schools/ departments where there may be limited capacity for mentoring and they are having to prioritise ECTs.

What impact does this have on pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND?

• Fewer subject specialists are trained, and this is resulting in increasing numbers of cover teachers which impacts negatively on the quality of provision for all pupils. 
• This will have a longer-term impact on recruiting teachers to some subjects in the future as it will lead to a reduction in the number of mentors/placements for future trainees.
• SEND/EAL pupils will be particularly affected if there are not sufficient subject specialist teachers who fully understand how to adapt teaching to meet pupil needs.
• The constrictions of the CCF are also impacting on the ability to ensure trainees who are interested in working within the SEND sector are able to meet all the CCF statements in a specialist setting.
• The strategies and techniques included in the CCF do not align with recent research on supporting children from disadvantaged backgrounds or with SEND, there is a lack of understanding and focus on the distinct requirements that these children have and how best to meet their needs. We are particularly concerned by this.

What action should the Department take to address the challenges in teacher recruitment and retention? 

• Remove the cost of training to be a teacher. Expecting candidates to take on large amounts of debt to work in a vital, but low paid job is not sustainable, as we can see from the current recruitment crisis

Or

• Consider paying back student loans once trainees have stayed in the English system for 3-5 years.
• Level the bursaries so that all to ensure that candidates from diverse backgrounds are able to apply to teacher training in all subjects. We have seen that the higher bursaries do not result in better applicants or trainees who stay in the system (many who are on higher bursaries will actually take an income cut if they go into teaching), and there is a high level of bursary ‘tourism’ in some subjects (maths/science).
• Salaries need to be attractive to attract graduates who may also be considering alternative career paths in industry.
• Trainees who have accessed a bursary should be required to remain within the state system for a minimum amount of time e.g., 3 – 5 years to stop an exodus from the state sector in some subjects particularly physics
• Consistency of bursaries – the changes of bursaries year on year does not allow for proper financial planning for candidates or teacher training institutions. Bursaries should be equal across all subjects and set for 3-5 years in advance.
• Funding provided to Universities to support trainees who are struggling with travel costs.

Pre-course requirements:

• Reinstate the expectation that applicants can be asked to spend 2 weeks in school prior to starting the course so that they come onto courses with realistic expectations of what the course involves and what it means to be a teacher in terms of workload and hours.
• SKE for science – any science subject trainee should be able to do a SKE in any other science subject. 
• Funding for SKEs should be increased.

Impact of Market Review Quality Requirements

• Reconsider the requirement in the Market Review of ITE, that all mentors need 20 hours of mentor training and the requirements for Lead Mentors. We are seeing reduced offers of placements for schools because of the burden of the ECT mentor training. Adding in a large amount of mentoring for ITE students will greatly exacerbate this problem and local Head Teachers have already stated that this will impact on their ability to offer placements.
• Reconsider the ITAP weeks in their current forms. Partner schools are reporting that they may not be able to continue to work with if we implement these weeks, due to the added workload this will create for staff.
• Review the timescale for the ITTMR requirements and the way in which this is being managed by the DfE. Currently working on a bottom up approach (e.g submitting individual session slides for scrutiny) rather than allowing time for a cohesive curriculum to be developed.

What has been the impact of the new bursaries and scholarships announced in October?

There appears to have been no positive impact on recruitment to date.

How well does the current teacher training framework work to prepare new teachers and how could it be improved? 

What has been the impact of the Early Career Framework implemented in September 2021?

• ECT feedback suggests that much of the first year of the ECF is repeating learning from their ITE/ITT training.
• The ECF has also created additional workload pressures for both mentors and trainees, and this is impacting on schools’ ability to offer places for trainees as well as the wellbeing of school staff and ECTs.
• It would be helpful if the DfE could consider ways in which schools are supported and encouraged to consistently (every year) take trainee teachers for placements in order to ensure the teacher supply chain.

Are there ways in which teacher training could be improved to address the challenges in recruitment and retention?

• The focus on high quality mentoring and teacher development across the first three years in the profession is positive, but the practicalities of delivery are challenging for both school partners and ITE/ITT providers. 
• The additional workload created for mentors means that schools are often unable to commit to trainee placements, or working more collaboratively with providers on aspects of training such as curriculum development / planning and delivery of sessions.
• Requirements and structure for mentor training need to be reviewed in order to remove barriers for schools working with providers.
• The current CCF framework is dated and limited in its evidence base. The approaches suggested are not always appropriate when working with children from a diverse range of backgrounds or with diverse needs. The DfE needs to recognise that Teaching is an intellectual activity in which practitioners are required to respond to complex scenarios, and not a set of techniques to be learnt and applied.

How does teacher training in England compare internationally, and what are the benefits and disadvantages of the English system?

• There is an increasing lack of professional autonomy in teaching in England. This is due to a range of factors including the rise of multi-academy trusts some of whom are making curriculums very prescriptive.   
• There is concern that the prescriptive, and often outdated, research outlined in the CCF /ECF suggests there is one ‘correct way’ to train teachers and leading to a lack of professional autonomy and criticality in teacher training and education.
• Teaching is seen as less of a profession and more of a ‘vocation’ than in other countries
• Inspection is deemed much more collegiate in other countries in the UK than it is in England where it has a punitive element and ITE is often not inspected by those with relevant experience.
• The curriculum is becoming more politicised. England is one of the only countries who does not have a politically independent Education Committee to advise the government. We would strongly support the creation of such a committee to avoid the curriculum and funding swings that we see with changes within and across Governments. Our Education system should not be at the mercy of personal agendas and opinions of individual politicians or civil servants.

How do challenges in teacher recruitment, training and retention compare to those being faced in other professions/ sectors of the economy, and is there anything that can be learned from other professions/ sectors of the economy? 

 There are comparable issues with other public sector professions in terms of morale, pay and workload as we can see from the current levels of industrial action.

What particular challenges exist in teacher recruitment, training and retention for teachers from different demographic backgrounds? 

• Challenges are usually financial or linked to caring responsibilities (this could have a financial dimension). We have noticed that this is particularly relevant for our BAME and mature students or those who have immigrated to the UK and may not have a support network in the UK.
• There are also some challenges around understanding the English school system, if they have not been schooled here themselves. Again, the ability to ask applicants to complete up to 2 weeks in school prior to the course starting would help with this.

How well does the demographic makeup of the teaching workforce reflect that of the pupils they teach?

• Kingston has always been proud of the diversity of our ITE and Education cohorts which we feel have reflected the pupils that they teach.
• However, retention of trainees, in particular young Black women, is not always successful, often due to unconscious bias that exists within schools. It needs to be recognized that there is systemic racism within the Education sector if we are to retain these trainees and ensure that they are able to see a future and progression in the Education sector.
• Retention of trainees from less affluent backgrounds (which often intersects with ethnicity) would be supported if training was paid for / had an accompanying bursary. 

April 2023