Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the extent of departures of early career teachers from the
teaching profession; and what plans they have to address the
causes of such departures.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, retention of early career teachers is a priority. About
20% of teachers leave the profession in the first two years after
qualifying. We have addressed this through introducing the early
career framework—the most significant reform to teaching since it
became a graduate-only profession—backed by substantial extra
investment. This is a funded, two-year support package for new
teachers, providing them with the early career support enjoyed by
other top professionals.
(Lab)
I am thankful for that Answer. Yes, the Government’s own
statistics show that 20% of new teachers leave the profession
within the first two years of teaching, and 33% leave within the
first five years. I imagine that, far from being seen as a benign
approach to their induction into a school, the early career
framework could be regarded by teachers as a further burden. One
of the principal reasons why young teachers leave the profession
is their failure to secure permanent positions; they are
constrained to work as supply teachers for wages that are
diminished by the fees of the agencies and without the support of
sickness or holiday pay or pension contributions. Do the
Government intend to address those problems?
(Con)
I do not accept the noble Viscount’s assertion that this is going
to be seen as a further burden for teachers. We consulted
extensively on the early career framework; it has been evaluated
independently by the Education Endowment Foundation, and has been
warmly welcomed by teachers, head teachers, unions—and in time I
am sure will be by pupils as well. There is time carved out of
the early career teachers’ curriculum to get all the support and
extra input that they need.
My Lords, in the discussion around this question there may be an
assumption that we are focusing on key stages 1 and 2 and
secondary schools, but, given that the most significant years of
a child’s development are the early years, will the Minister say
what is being done to ensure that nurseries and preschools
attract, develop and retain vital key workers?
(Con)
The right reverend Prelate makes a good point. We are investing
£20 million to provide practitioners in pre-reception settings
with access to high-quality training to raise their skills, and
we are investing a further £10 million to support staff in
pre-reception settings. We announced in June of this year a
further investment of up to £153 million, as part of an education
recovery package, to train early years staff to support the very
youngest children’s learning and development.
(Con)
My Lords, is my noble friend confident that the Government have
in place the right incentives and programmes to attract—and for
that matter retain—the best teachers for the next generation?
(Con)
As my noble friend knows, teacher quality is the single biggest
determinant of pupil outcomes within a school. She is right that
it is vital we recruit the best and brightest teachers for our
schools. We have a range of initiatives, with significant
bursaries for subjects such as biology, geography, languages and,
of course, STEM subjects. We remain committed to introducing a
£30,000 starting salary for early career teachers and to
professional development throughout their careers.
The (CB)
My Lords, can the Minister say whether teachers with particular
professional qualifications are, for whatever reason, more likely
to stay in the profession? Do the Government have data on
this?
(Con)
I am very happy to check what data we have on the longevity, if
that is the right word, of teachers from different disciplines.
Certainly, in preparing for this Question and looking at the
experience of early career teachers, I know that there is
actually very little variation in their initial appointment to
teaching in a state school. Art and design and music, which I
know the noble Earl is interested in, are in the mid-70s, but
that is the same as chemistry, physics and a number of other
subjects.
(Lab)
My Lords, Ministers have stood at that Dispatch Box and praised
teachers in brightly glowing terms, but teacher workload
continues to increase from an already unsustainably high level,
as reported by Teach First and the National Education Union—the
early career framework may not help this at all—and their
salaries remain frozen. Even if the cap is lifted, their salaries
will probably actually reduce in real terms, and certainly in
terms of purchasing power. What plans does the Minister have to
address these issues, which account in large part for the loss of
teachers from the profession in their first five years?
(Con)
The noble Baroness will be aware that starting salaries for
teachers were increased last year by 5.5%. As I have already
said, our commitment to starting salaries of £30,000 remains.
That is important; in the research we did, we looked at both
public and private sector jobs and set the target at a level that
we believe is genuinely attractive in comparison with both.
(LD)
The Minister will know that teacher retention is often undermined
by high workloads and unsupportive working conditions. What does
the Minister think of the proposal from Teach First to reduce
teachers’ timetables by 1% in the most disadvantaged areas, often
staffed by the most inexperienced teachers, and then scale up the
policy if it has a positive effect? By the way, I am sorry I did
not give notice of that question beforehand.
(Con)
The department is very open to testing and exploring new ideas. I
will take that back and discuss it with colleagues. We are seeing
a lot of good practice, particularly in some of the larger
multi-academy trusts, in managing these issues. I genuinely think
that, through the pandemic, some of the strengths of that model,
and the pressure it has taken off teachers, is something we can
learn from going forward.
(Con)
My Lords, 80% of teachers who qualified in 2019 were still
teaching one year after qualification. If, perchance, I had ever
attained 80% in any school examination, I would have been
congratulated by a surprised, if not shocked, teacher. I
therefore congratulate my noble friend and her department on
these figures. I hope that the retention rates can be increased
further. How do these figures compare to the retention of new
recruits in the emergency or health services?
(Con)
I am sure my noble friend is being modest about his exam results.
The retention figures are relatively stable across public sector
professions. Retention of primary school teachers is somewhat
above the average, and retention of secondary school teachers is
marginally below the average. We are committed to making sure
teachers get support at every point in their career, and we have
committed the funding to deliver this.
(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Lord, , has just referred to a
suggestion by the organisation Teach First about disadvantaged
schools. That came from a report published by the organisation
last year, which also showed that, when teachers were asked why
they would resign from the profession, workload was the reason
most often cited. The Minister will know that, in 2018, the
Department for Education introduced the teacher workload
reduction toolkit, developed in conjunction with teaching unions
and Ofsted, to try to identify unnecessary and burdensome
practices in a teacher’s day-to-day workload. Yet the latest
figures on attrition among early career teachers show that the
figures have hardly changed at all. Do the Government retain
faith in that workload reduction toolkit? If so, what do they
propose to do to make it more effective?
(Con)
The noble Lord is right that the figures have been stubbornly
stable. The school workload reduction toolkit supports schools to
review and manage workload. It remains widely used; there were a
thousand downloads of the toolkit in September of this year. The
noble Lord will also be aware that, in 2019, we announced the
teacher recruitment and retention strategy. We have talked about
the early career framework and the national professional
qualifications. One of the encouraging signs we are seeing is
that applications for initial teacher training are up by more
than 20% this year, so that bodes well for the future.
of Cheltenham (LD) [V]
Teachers are the country’s most vital workforce and should be
rewarded and appreciated appropriately, not overworked to
breaking point. Rather than constant testing and pressure to
reach the Government’s targets, is not the role of teachers to
help each child become more self-confident and to find something
they are interested in, something they can become good at and
something they may be able to make a career out of?
(Con)
As we know, the list for teachers is a very long one, and all the
things that the noble Lord mentions are important. But we also
know that, without the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, it
is very hard to realise the aspirations which the noble Lord
rightly highlights, hence our focus on those subjects in
particular.
