DfE should set teacher retention targets

Charity Education Support's Commission on Teacher Retention has published its report on modernising the professional lives of teachers for the 21st century.

The report reveals the drivers pushing teachers prematurely out of their careers and makes recommendations that the government – and schools themselves – could make to improve the situation.

Polling of secondary teachers showed that 78 per cent of teachers would be likely to leave the profession if they were offered a job in another sector which promised a better work-life balance. This polled higher than better pay (64 per cent).

More than 1 in 5 (21 per cent) secondary school teachers said they were unlikely to be in the profession in five years’ time. And with teachers working specifically in challenging educational contexts, known as Education Investment Areas, that figure climbed to nearly one quarter (24 per cent).

72 per cent of secondary teachers said they were helping students with non-academic matters relating to mental health and cost of living issues, a data point that increases to 82 per cent in EIAs.

And 31 per cent said of teachers said their work-life balance was either bad or very bad.

The recommendations call for a national review of the pay and conditions of teaching including their pay structure and their contracted hours.

It calls for the Department for Education and its ministers to be held account for teacher retention data in the same way it is currently held account for teacher recruitment figures.

The report say: "The Department for Education (DfE) should be set new retention targets for the school workforce in England – including teachers, leaders and support staff – published annually. In the same way that there is a target number of trainees to start postgraduate initial teacher training, estimated using the Teacher Workforce Model, so too should retention be a Key Performance Indicator of the DfE."

There should be official guidance of what is and isn’t a school’s responsibility during the cost of living crisis and following the Covid era.

The report calls for a formal review of school accountability including the function of Ofsted, looking specifically at the pressure it places on teachers.

It also calls for the creation of a fully-funded specialist Human Resources advisory service for schools, tasked with promoting and supporting them with the implementation flexible working and part-time arrangements.

Other recommendations include facilitating a national conversation about the emotional and mental health needs among children and the additional pressure this places on teachers

Sinéad Mc Brearty, Chief Executive of Education Support, said: “Our school system does many things well, but it is antiquated and increasingly unattractive to those who have a choice in where they make their careers.

“Modernisation is not a political or philosophical preference: it is a pragmatic response to the data and to the evidence. Resetting the social contract between teachers and the state and restoring the status of classroom professionals are necessary conditions for retaining talent in the sector.

“If we can fix the retention crisis, we will also fix the recruitment crisis. We’re not just trying to rebuild the lives of teachers, we’re trying to rebuild the reputation of the profession.”