TTR0070

Written evidence submitted by School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London

The current situation regarding teacher recruitment and retention

This submission comes from the School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London. King’s College London is an accredited provider of initial teacher education (ITE) and has PGCE programmes covering a range of secondary subjects (biology, chemistry, Classics, computing, English, geography, maths, modern languages, physics, physics with maths and religious education). We train around 150-180 secondary teachers each year, the majority of whom go on to take up ECT posts in London. We work in partnership with a large number of secondary schools across Greater London. Our commitment to rigorous, research informed ITE and to the healthy future of the teaching profession means we are obviously concerned about recruitment and retention.

As a provider of initial teacher education it is very evident that recruitment to ITE programmes is extremely challenging, and has been for some years. We have noticed this locally, but the national figures point to the problems in recruitment across the regions of England. Historically recruitment has been most challenging in STEM subjects, but it is noticeable that in more recent years the problems have affected secondary subjects that have traditionally had very strong recruitment.  The problem of retention is also very clear in  the data, for example that provided by the NFER dashboard. The NFER data also suggests that retention is a particular problem in schools with higher numbers of pupils on free school meals, which would indicate a particular impact on disadvantaged pupils in terms of the effects of teacher attrition. Pupil progress and attainment is affected positively by stability in the workforce – positive relationships between pupils and teachers take time to establish and are critical to learning. When the turnover of staff is high it is highly likely to have a negative impact on pupil progress.

There seem to us to be a number of factors leading to difficulties in recruitment and retention of teachers, including:

-          The perceived status of teaching as a graduate profession when set against other occupations such as medicine or the law. This affects its appeal to well qualified graduates

-          Issues to do with funding, notably teachers’ salaries but also school funding more widely

-          Workload issues which are not mitigated by recent policies that fail to address the many areas of teachers’ work that are seemingly ever-expanding

-          Accountability and inspection frameworks that negatively impact on teachers’ working lives and mental well-being, and which, when reported in the media, do little to encourage people to consider teaching as a career

-          The cost of training to those already in significant student debt and the unpredictability of bursary arrangements

-          The lack of professional autonomy granted to teachers as they seek to develop their careers and professional identities

-          Increasing restraints on the capacity of ITE providers to develop programmes that can properly respond to local needs and contexts

-          Capacity issues in schools with the increased demands on mentors’ time to work with ITE trainees and ECTs.

In the following sections we will explore some of these issues in greater depth.

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

This is a huge question and one that has many potential answers and dimensions. However, first and foremost it seems self evident that to attract the best entrants to the profession and to retain these teachers for significant periods of time, then there need to be some fundamental changes of policy in relation to education, schools and teaching. In some jurisdictions, teaching as a profession is seen to be on a par with, or have higher status than, professions like medicine and the law. When this is the case, it is unsurprising that young people aspire, and are encouraged, to be teachers. There is also strong evidence to link a high status teaching profession to improved pupil outcomes.

In England teaching does not have the professional status of other graduate employment. To change this is not simple, but there are things that can be done to raise the status of the profession. For example, reinforcing the professional status of teaching might begin with ensuring that initial teacher training is a masters level enterprise for all new entrants and that the expectation is that following initial training, or perhaps following a year or two of structured induction, all teachers are educated to masters’ level.

Financial reward is also clearly important, though evidence suggests there is not a clear link between pay and status.   It is evident from the failure of bursaries and increased starting salaries to solve the current crisis that money in and of itself is not the solution. Recent media coverage of teachers’ industrial action does give the impression that financial rewards are low, and it is certainly true that public sector salaries have stagnated; that teachers in other nations of the UK have recently been awarded more generous increases compounds this problem in England. There needs to be a proper pay settlement for teachers – funded from government, not existing school budgets – so that the public perception shifts to one that views teaching as a properly rewarded profession that values its members.

More however more needs to be done to increase teachers' sense of professional status and to thereby improve both recruitment and retention. Teachers’ sense of professionalism has in fact been eroded over years of policy intervention.

Workload is often seen as a reason for teachers leaving the profession. However, attempts to address this have arguably increased the sense of 'deprofessionalisation'. Offering teachers pre-prepared, centralised lesson plans and resources may ostensibly decrease workload, but it takes away professional autonomy, agency and creativity. Those entering teaching know that the job requires a substantial amount of work, but that this is something they are prepared for as they feel what they are doing is making a contribution and making a difference to young people's lives. Workload isn't a problem if the work is meaningful - i.e. taking action to address the needs of the pupils they teach and seeking to improve their own teaching. It is the pressure brought about by working to the demands of stringent accountability and inspection frameworks that arguably have limited educational purpose that causes problems. This is work that teachers see as burdensome, unnecessary and restrictive. 

Enhancing teachers’ professional status by fostering higher levels of autonomy and professional self-direction is difficult to talk about without considering the general funding of schools. There is ample anecdotal evidence that underfunding of education is resulting in a lack of both human and material resources in schools. Without the appropriate funding to support children’s mental and physical health and without funding to provide classroom resources, teachers are finding that they are increasingly having to take on additional roles, even to the point of being the suppliers of basic materials like pens and glue sticks. Proper funding of schools would allow teachers to concentrate on their core business and to focus their energies on developing their own expertise as practitioners.

In summary the Department should:

• Commit to an expectation that teaching is a masters level profession and deliver this through accredited ITE and ECT induction
• Review the funding arrangements for ITE. ITE courses are expensive to operate and providers need to be adequately funded. However potential applicants are not encouraged by the thought of a further year accruing additional student debt. The Department could fund courses by paying the student fees directly to the provider, or there could be a commitment to write off the debt accrued during training for those teachers remaining in the profession for a minimum number of years. The latter suggestion might address both recruitment and retention.
• Secure appropriate funding for the education section so that teachers can be properly renumerated for their work, but also so that schools have the funding to provide the support staff and services and the classroom resources that are required to offer a high quality school experience to all pupils in England’s schools. Lack of support staff in classrooms, and lack or provision for children’s mental health and well-being have impacts on teachers’ working lives that greatly increase the demands and stresses of the job and lead to attrition rates increasing
• Ensure policies allow teachers to have some say over the development of their own career trajectories and identities.
• Reform accountability and inspection frameworks so that systems work to support teachers to perform to their best ability rather than subject them to such stresses and pressure that they are forced from the profession, or, indeed, suffer worse consequences.

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

Experienced providers of initial teacher training are experts in the design and delivery, in partnership with schools, of effective training programmes. Historically, such programmes have been responsive to local needs and sought to cater for particular circumstances and contexts. Whilst the introduction of the Core Content Framework as a ‘minimum entitlement’ for all trainees is not unwelcome, the recent Market Review of ITT threatens the independence of providers to design the kinds of bespoke training that is most effective and most appealing to new entrants. The ongoing reaccreditation process that is requiring all providers to design new programmes for 2024 has the potential to be highly restrictive in the way that ‘fidelity’ to the CCF is being judged. Creating a ‘one size fits all’ system, where all ITT programmes are ‘encouraged’ to be as similar as possible is not the best way to promote recruitment or retention. Providers should be allowed the academic freedom to design programmes that, whilst covering essential core content, reflect local contexts and partnerships and which are attractive to prospective teachers from diverse backgrounds.

In some ways the introduction of the ECF was a positive move, in that in theory it seeks to provide two years of induction, which could help to raise the status of the profession and support retention. However, the reality is that the ECF is not meeting its theoretical promise. Again, the essentially ‘one size fits all’ approach of the ECF means that the kinds of personalised CPD that new teachers need is difficult to provide. There is evidence that the ECF training is burdensome – for ECTs, their mentors and their schools – and that it can be repetitive of the training provided as part of ITE. The demands made on mentor time by the ECF and by the new ITE courses resulting from the Market Review may well mean schools are forced to choose between involvement in ITE or employing ECTs. This will create further difficulties in the training and supply of new teachers.

Some key improvements in this area would be:

-          Allowing ITE providers greater autonomy to design, market and deliver training programmes that are responsive to local contexts and needs. The effectiveness of such programmes should be judged by Ofsted in terms of the quality of new teachers graduating from the programmes, rather than by the adherence of these programmes to statutory curriculum frameworks

-          Ensuring that the first two years in teaching provides a structured programme of CPD and induction that is responsive to the needs of individual teachers as they begin their career journey. Such CPD and induction should cater to teachers’ specialist subject where appropriate (and not be generic) and should also address areas such as teacher professionalism and identity. It should lead to enhanced professional qualifications (eg a masters degree). Greater involvement of initial training providers in the delivery of such CPD might well enhance transition and strengthen retention

-          Training and development of teachers should continue throughout their careers. Sabbaticals at regular intervals (perhaps every five years) should be available to teachers to pursue CPD and/or qualifications in areas of priority for themselves and their schools. This would contribute to the status of the profession and enhance retention

-          Schools should be properly funded to support their work with both ITE trainees and ECTs

April 2023