As employers, how do we create the culture, climate and conditions that retain our staff?

This was the subject of our recently convened summit for chief executives of school trusts, which opened with a compelling provocation from Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive of Education Support.

We know that the current conditions of our school leaders, teachers and support staff are not sustainable: data from Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index (corroborated more recently by The Working Lives of Teachers) tells us that 78 per cent of all education staff report being stressed - and this rises to 89 per cent of all leaders and 95 per cent of headteachers. And 36 per cent of teachers report experiencing burnout.

This is contributing, significantly, to teachers, leaders and support staff leaving the school system.

Retention challenges in teaching

So, there is a problem we need to solve together. The government needs to help us pull the big policy levers to recruit more teachers, but the retention of our staff is a shared responsibility with employers.

And there is good evidence about what we can do as employers and leaders to stem the tide of colleagues leaving our school system.

Sinéad’s provocation was followed by a brilliant analysis from Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, of what the evidence says in this area.

There are three interrelated leadership approaches that contribute to staff retention:

• Prioritising professional development
• Building relational trust
• Improving working conditions.

Let’s take each in turn.

1. Prioritising professional development

The evidence on professional development is strong. The EEF’s rapid evidence review finds that there are some practices that contribute positively in particular to teacher retention:

• Providing constructive feedback to support teachers to innovate and work collaboratively to address specific challenges they may be facing.
• Giving teachers opportunities - and removing any barriers - to accessing professional development opportunities.
• Cultivating leadership potential by supporting early career teachers to innovate in their practice or take part in mentoring opportunities.

At our summit, Hilary Spencer, chief executive of the Ambition Institute, delved more deeply into this.

Hilary said that professional development is crucial - investing in teachers’ knowledge and skills is not only critical for children’s outcomes, but staff are happier, more motivated, and more likely to want to stay in their roles.

She reflected that professional development is most effective in a school culture in which teachers feel supported, valued, and trusted; where the purpose of the professional development aligns with the individual’s goals; and where leaders have thought carefully about how to protect the time needed to engage in professional development.

Of course, the early career framework and national professional qualifications make a huge contribution to this.

2. Building relational trust

It may seem self-evident that treating our colleagues as individuals and treating them with respect helps to make them feel valued. But this is exactly what the evidence shows. Leaders should consider teacher voice and incorporate that into decision-making.

The shift from transactional engagement to relational engagement is one which I want to explore more. I believe it is the basis of a new social contract not just with our colleagues in the organisations we lead, but also with pupils and parents.

3. Improving working conditions

We had a big debate at the summit about the difference between autonomy and agency. I believe that professional agency comes closer to the thing we are trying to describe.

In addition to supporting teachers’ professional agency, the evidence also finds said the following practices make a significant contribution to retaining our staff:

• Promoting collegiality, including inclusive participation in decision-making, mutual and reciprocal support, as well as shared power and responsibility.
• Developing an equitable support and recognition system that recognises colleagues’ efforts and contributions.
• Establishing an effective communication structure, including clear communication channels and a clear vision for your school or trust.
• Supporting teachers - particularly those in the early stages of their career - to manage pupil behaviour and enforce school rules.

On this theme, Dr Sam Sims gave a fascinating and amusing account of workload, and in particular the concept of ‘fluffload.’ These are pointless’ tasks that do not contribute to pupils’ education.

School culture, climate and structure

The EEF’s rapid evidence assessment also looked at the evidence to identify the characteristics of school culture, climate and structure that can support teacher retention.

Four key traits stood as particularly important for improving teacher wellbeing and turnover:

• A collegial culture that fosters trusting relationships, respect, mutual support and compassionate leadership.
• A positive climate for school discipline, where rules of schools and classrooms are consistently respected and complied with.
• A culture of intellectual stimulation that fosters experimentation, critical thinking and problem-solving.
• A fair structure of workload and support distribution, including equal access to professional development opportunities, fair recognition of contributions and achievements, and inclusive and transparent decision-making.

The trust as a protective structure

In addition to all of the above, a critical question we looked at during the summit was: how can a trust be a protective structure, mitigating the impact of adverse, high-stakes accountability by freeing teachers and leaders from the fear (and many of the adversative practices associated with) the regime of accountability in England?

The trust structure, if we so determine, can actively reduce or remove burdens from schools and teachers.

This is a duty of care we must exercise as a principle in its own right - the ethics of being a good employer. But it is also important because of the recruitment and retention crisis we face.

Leora Cruddas is CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts