Teaching is a highly skilled, demanding and complex profession and there are few others that can compare when it comes to the sheer pace and intensity of the role.

It’s partly this complexity that makes the job so special and, in many ways, unique. Teachers love the fact that no two days, two children or two classes are the same. They relish the challenge of finding different ways to connect with each child, to overcome barriers to learning and to help pupils succeed against the odds. People decide to become teachers because of this promise of variety and complexity, not despite it.

With the role of the teacher being as complex and demanding as it is, we have a duty to make sure that those who enter the profession are as well-equipped and prepared as possible. It stands to reason that the better prepared and supported teachers are in the early stages of their career, the more likely they are to be successful and happy in their roles and, in turn, the more likely they are to want to stay.

The evidence suggests we have much more to do in this area. The current rate of teachers leaving within the first five years of their careers suggests that something is not quite right in how we support teachers in the early years of their careers. 

Of course, there is not one simple solution to tackling such high attrition rates in the early stages of teachers’ careers. Tackling the excessive workload culture that causes so many to walk away is certainly part of the solution, but so too is the need for an entitlement to professional development and higher levels of support.

This is why I am broadly supportive of the government’s recent announcement that it wants to look again at how Qualified Teacher Status is awarded. The idea of a longer period between the completion of initial teacher training and the awarding of QTS, with better mentoring and support, sounds largely sensible to me. If it ensures that NQTs receive a higher degree of support and mentoring for a longer period of time and possibly even more non-contact time to work alongside other more experienced colleagues, then I would welcome such a move.

There are those who would argue that this will hold back or frustrate the high-flyers. I’m not so sure. Even the highest of high-flyers still has much to learn in their second full year of teaching. I don’t see how more support and time to learn will hold them back. The 10-year-plus training programme that surgeons go through doesn’t seem to be causing too much a problem for high-flyers in that profession.

‘It can’t be an excuse to pay people less’

There are a number of caveats, though. Most obviously, this must absolutely not be an excuse for paying people less in the first few years of their teaching careers. In the midst of a national recruitment crisis, this would be completely self-defeating and entirely unfair. So it’s welcome that the consultation proposes that all post-ITT teachers would be paid on the qualified teacher scale.

The government also needs to think carefully through the impact on schools and other teachers. Mentoring NQTs does not come without a cost. Most teachers I know find the mentoring role hugely rewarding but for the school it does mean additional release time and classes that need to be covered - put simply, this costs money and the more NQTs you have, the greater the cost. Too often new policy initiatives are not accompanied with the additional funding needed to make them work - let’s not make this another example. While it’s understandable that government wants to focus funding on challenging schools and disadvantaged catchments, this needs to be a funded policy for the whole profession. 

Equally, how this is presented to those considering a career in teaching is crucial. This needs to be seen as a guarantee of greater support, not simply a prolonging of what can feel like an overly bureaucratic process. While we are reviewing the NQT experience, it would be a good opportunity to reconsider the amount of paperwork that both NQTs and mentors are expected to produce; this is even more important if we are talking about extending it into a second year.

If the government handles this well, it has the potential to enhance the professional status of teachers and help those just taking their first steps into the classroom, and this may even be part of the solution to the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis.

James Bowen is director of middle leaders’ union NAHT Edge. He tweets @JamesJkbowen

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and Instagram, and like Tes on Facebook