Teachers in England will receive more early career support,
opportunities for flexible and part-time working, and a
reduction in their workload – in a new
strategy aimed at boosting the number of teachers
in the profession and making sure talent stays in schools
across the country.
Launching the government’s first-ever integrated strategy
to recruit and retain more teachers in schools – developed
alongside and welcomed today (28 January) by teachers,
education unions and leading professional bodies –
Education Secretary has set out plans to
attract and retain the next generation of inspirational
teachers.
The strategy will deliver on the Education Secretary’s
commitment to champion the profession and will build on the
30,000 classroom teachers the government aims to recruit
each year, support the 450,000 teachers already working in
schools in England, and boost outcomes for pupils by:
- Providing new teachers with the foundations for a
successful career – by creating the Early Career Framework,
the biggest teaching reform in a generation, backed by at
least £130million a year in extra funding when fully rolled
out. New teachers will receive a two-year package of
training and support at the start of their career,
including a reduced timetable to allow teachers to make the
most of their training. Extra investment will also be
pledged, through the £42million Teacher Development
Premium, to roll-out the Early Career Framework
- Extra financial incentives to encourage talented
teachers to stay in the classroom - Bursaries will be
reformed to include retention-based payments for those who
stay in the profession by staggering additional payments
throughout the first years of their career.
- Simplifying the process of applying to become a teacher
– introducing a new one-stop application system to make
applications easier for would-be teachers and making it
easier for more people to experience classroom teaching.
- Helping school leaders to reduce teachers’ workload –
helping school leaders strip away unnecessary tasks such as
data entry; simplifying the accountability system to
clarify when a school may be subject to intervention or
offered support; and working with Ofsted to ensure staff
workload is considered as part of a school’s inspection
judgement.
- Creating a more diverse range of options for career
progression – helping schools to introduce flexible working
practices through a new match-making service for teachers
seeking a job-share and developing specialist
qualifications and non-leadership career routes for
teachers that want to stay in the classroom, with
additional incentives to work in challenging schools.
The Education Secretary is calling on the profession to
work with the Department for Education to deliver the plan
and help meet the “shared challenge” of recruitment and
retention.
Education Secretary said:
When I took this job a year ago, I made championing
teachers my number one priority. Over the past year I
have worked with Ofsted and the unions to bear down on
workload. I think teachers work too many hours -
aggravated by unnecessary tasks like excessive marking
and data entry, spending more than half their time on
non-teaching tasks.
But those who choose to become teachers chose to do so to
inspire young people, support their development and set
them up for a bright future – not stay late in the office
filling in a spreadsheet.
This ambitious strategy commits to supporting teachers –
particularly those at the start of their career – to
focus on what actually matters, the pupils in their
classrooms. In a competitive graduate labour market we
must continue to ensure that teaching is an attractive
profession so we can train and retain the next generation
of inspirational teachers. Working with teachers, school
leaders, trusts and unions, this strategy will help to
support teachers to do what they do best – teach.
The priorities in the strategy have been defined with
leading education unions, who have co-signed a commitment
to help teachers and school leaders implement the strategy
so that it has maximum impact in schools. To deliver on
these priorities, and build on the 34,500 trainees that
joined the profession in 2018, the strategy also commits
to:
- support proposals in Ofsted’s new inspection framework,
including to focus on reducing teacher workload;
- introduce a new Ofsted hotline for head teachers to
directly report any breaches of its commitments around the
information schools do not need to provide to inspectors,
including internal assessment data;
- launch a new ‘Discover Teaching’ initiative to give
more people an opportunity to discover the joys of
teaching;
- Challenge Education Technology (EdTech) providers to
see how innovative timetabling solutions can help support
part-time and flexible working patterns;
- Call on head teachers and school leaders to embrace
flexible working in their schools;
- launch a new, digital ‘match-making’ service for
teachers looking for a job-share partner – helping more
people join or return to the profession; and
- invest £10 million to create regional centres of
excellence to facilitate sharing of best practice on
classroom and behaviour management.
The leaders of teaching unions and professional bodies have
today welcomed the plans.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said:
Teachers are the lifeblood of our schools but far too
many currently leave the profession too early in their
careers, and we simply must do more to put the joy back
into teaching.
The Early Career Framework has the potential to be a
game-changer. By providing teachers with support and
development during the first few years of their career
and helping them to flourish in the classroom, it can
help to raise the status of teaching to where it deserves
to be: as a life-enhancing vocation.
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National
Association of Head Teachers, said:
Teaching is a hugely rewarding career, but the first few
years can often be challenging. The Early Career
Framework has the potential to transform the reality of
teaching in England. Delivered well, this programme of
mentoring and support will help new teachers to build
their confidence and hone their skills, providing the
foundations for a successful career in teaching, and
creating the school leaders of the future.
This Strategy will also see positive changes to the
accountability system, removing the floor and coasting
standards and making requires improvement the single
trigger for an offer of support. This will free school
leaders to concentrate on what matters most, and that’s
delivering for pupils.
Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said:
We wholeheartedly support the government’s Recruitment
and Retention Strategy, and want to play our part by
ensuring teaching is a career people want to join and
stay in. Our new inspection framework supports this aim,
and we believe it will reduce teacher workload.
Ultimately, this will mean teachers can focus their
energy on giving pupils a good curriculum that is well
taught.
Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First commented:
We all expect to be able to juggle work and life.
Teachers are no different. It can be challenging for
schools to balance flexible working around the school
timetable. But with the right support it’s achievable and
we’re pleased to see the Department for Education
supporting schools on this area. An important step in
continuing to attract the best and the brightest to
teach.
The Early Career Framework could be transformational in
setting strong foundations as teachers develop in their
careers. Teaching can be as challenging as it is
rewarding and our experience shows that two years of
quality, structured, development can enable people to
flourish into highly effective teachers and leaders. It’s
right that this investment is focused on schools in
challenging circumstances where the greatest difference
can be made to young lives.
Professor Dame Alison Peacock, Chief Executive of the
Chartered College of Teaching, said:
The Chartered College has worked closely to support the
development of the Early Career Framework and believe
that it is rooted firmly both in the evidence of what
works, but more importantly in the evidence of what is
needed.
Early Career teachers deserve the sort of support that
new entrants to comparable professions enjoy, and the ECF
and the extended induction period create the potential
for a transformation of the early career experience for
new teachers. This will in turn improve teacher retention
and the quality of teaching that children and young
people enjoy, and start teachers on the journey of
career-long professional learning they deserve.
Today’s announcements follow the Education Secretary’s
commitment made last year with the teaching unions and
Ofsted to strip away unnecessary workload for teachers –
where he made clear that neither the government nor Ofsted
require teachers to spend time filling out templates for
individual lesson plans, or “triple marking” every piece of
work.
It also follows the £508 million teachers’ pay grant , and
forms part of a drive led by the Education Secretary to
trust the best school leaders to make decisions in their
staff and pupils’ best interest.
The Department for Education has also today provided more
information about the extra £400 million for schools
announced in last year’s Budget. On average, primary
schools will receive £10,000, while secondary schools will
receive £50,000 to invest in improvements to buildings or
facilities, including IT equipment.
Alongside this, the allocations that every council will
receive for capital projects supporting pupils with special
educational needs and disabilities have been published,
from a £100 million investment announced in December. Part
of the wider investment the government is making to raise
education standards, this additional money will pay for
more specialist places in mainstream schools, colleges and
schools for children with special educational needs, or
facilities like sensory rooms or equipment.
In the coming weeks the Department for Education will host
a series of regional roadshows across the country to seek
more views from teachers and school leaders on the strategy
to identify how they can work together to deliver on its
aims.
