Commenting on Local pay and teacher retention in
England, a report published today by the Education Policy
Institute (EPI), Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary
of the National Education Union, said:
“The EPI report rightly highlights the severe teacher recruitment
and retention problems, and the significant gaps between teacher
pay and the pay of other graduate professions. Changes to pay at
a local level, suggested in the EPI report, will not however help
with the recruitment and retention problems. Effective action to
tackle the teacher supply problems requires urgent improvements
to teacher pay across education including the restoration of a
national pay structure to support fairness and transparency.
“A sticking plaster approach of recruitment and retention
incentives, or other pay adjustments limited to certain groups of
teachers, is no substitute for the holistic solutions we need.
The problems are system-wide and we need improvements to pay for
all education staff.
“The EPI report argues that there is too little differentiation
in teacher pay, when there is in fact too much. Further pay
flexibility or regional pay would damage and not improve teacher
supply. The dismantling of the national teacher pay structure
since 2010 has removed the fairness and transparency needed to
attract and retain the teachers we need, so further dismantling
would take us in completely the wrong direction.
“The recruitment and retention problems are deeply rooted. The
problems extend across the country and across the curriculum.
They have not been solved by the short-term impact of the
pandemic. It is a travesty that teaching can only recruit to
target when there is a national crisis such as the pandemic. Any
recent improvements will be short-lived unless there are urgent
and significant improvements to teacher pay and conditions across
education. Instead, the Government plans to freeze teacher pay.
On top of which, workload continues to rise – this is another key
driver behind teachers leaving the profession, and in significant
numbers within the first five years of starting teaching.
“The NEU continues to press for the teacher pay levels and
national pay structure that are essential if we are to tackle the
recruitment and retention problems.”
