New research investigating
the extent to which teacher attrition (leaving) rates differ
between England and Wales finds the retention rate among
secondary school teachers is higher in Wales, but it is the
reverse for primary school teachers.
According to the analysis, the leaving rate among secondary
school classroom teachers is 0.6 percentage points higher in
England compared to in Wales, while among primary school
classroom teachers, there is a difference of 0.6 percentage
points in leaving rates, with a lower leaving rate in
England. For context, the leaving rate in Wales in 2020 was
6.7 per cent among both primary and secondary teachers. Leaving
rates were lower in 2020 compared to previous years in both
countries, due to the effects of the Covid-19
pandemic.
Twenty years of devolved education policymaking in Wales has led
to a significant divergence in approaches to policy in England
and Wales. This approach in Wales has been characterised by
academics as being more supportive of the teaching profession,
especially on curriculum development and the use of school
accountability.
The study, conducted by the National Foundation for Educational
Research (NFER) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, aims
to test the hypothesis that teacher retention rates are higher in
Wales than in England as a result of the different education
policy approaches taken. However, the
research suggests that the different approaches to
education policymaking taken in England and Wales since
devolution do not appear to be associated with a significant
uniform effect on teacher retention rates.
Using newly available teacher census data to make robust teacher
retention rate comparisons between the two countries, the study
compares the retention rates of teachers in Wales with the
retention rates of teachers in schools in areas of England that
have similar economic and contextual characteristics to Wales,
such as unemployment rates, wage levels outside of teaching and
levels of pupil disadvantage.
The research highlights that there are some groups of teachers
for whom retention rates are higher in Wales than in similar
schools in England, but equally, there are groups for whom
retention rates are lower.
The research also finds:
- Retention rates for teachers with more than 20 years of
experience in Wales are higher compared to their counterparts in
comparator primary and secondary schools in England.
- Comparable data on teacher working hours and perceptions of
working hours in the two countries show that teachers in Wales
work fewer working hours per week on average and have slightly
better perceptions of their working hours compared to England.
However, it is important to note that teachers in both countries
report high working hours and many teachers in both countries
report preferring to work shorter hours.
- Part-time teachers have significantly higher retention rates
in Wales compared to comparator schools in England, and the fact
that substantially more of the teaching workforce in Wales works
part-time suggests that greater attention is paid in Wales to
making part-time working opportunities available for teachers.
Recent policy work in England aimed at encouraging part-time and
flexible working in schools may benefit from exploring and
understanding further why part-time working appears to be more
widespread and better supported in schools in Wales.
Co-author of the report and NFER School Workforce Lead,
Jack Worth, said:
"Given the different approaches taken by education policy makers
in England and Wales since devolution, we might reasonably think
that teacher retention rates could be higher in Wales compared to
England. However, newly available data that allows us to make
robust comparisons of retention rates seems to show that it is a
lot more complex than that.”
Josh Hillman, Education Director at
the Nuffield Foundation, said:
“With ongoing challenges with teacher recruitment and retention
issues, this new research gives policy-makers food for thought.
By comparing England and Wales, the research also offers a
valuable contribution to our understanding of the different
approaches to teacher recruitment and retention across the UK.”
Commenting on the National Foundation for Educational
Research (NFER) comparison between teacher leaving rates in
England and Wales, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“This is an interesting piece of research and the finding that
teacher leaving rates between England and Wales are not uniform
in one direction deserves further analysis to better understand
the underlying reasons.
“However, what is certain is that in both jurisdictions the
overriding reasons for teacher attrition are similar – pay and
workload. Teacher pay has been eroded over the course of the past
decade by government-implemented below-inflation pay awards which
have made salaries increasingly uncompetitive.
“At the same time, school funding is wholly inadequate in both
England and Wales and this means schools cannot afford the number
of staff they need which impacts on workloads.
“In other words, staff are being asked to do more for less. This
is a completely unsustainable situation.
“Teacher pay and school funding must be improved to encourage
recruitment and retention and ensure that schools have enough
money to pay for the staff they need.
“Teachers are the lifeblood of education. It is crucial to
education standards in both jurisdictions that schools are able
to recruit and hold on to teachers in order to give their pupils
the full range of educational opportunities and support they need
and deserve.”
