The Department for Education should ensure support staff pay rises are factored in and funded in school budgets, according to an MPs’ report.
The Commons Education Select Committee also calls on the government to “redouble” efforts to promote the flexible working toolkit and to launch a strategy to “monitor the extent to which schools are offering flexible working” for teachers.
The report into teacher recruitment and retention warns that more research is needed into the implications of flexible working arrangements on school budgets.
It comes amid an ever-increasing teacher recruitment and retention crisis after the government missed its target for the recruitment of secondary teacher trainees by 50 per cent last year.
Committee chair and former schools minister Robin Walker has warned that the population “bulge” arriving at secondary school will mean the shortfall of staff in key subjects will “deepen”.
Mr Walker told Tes that the government needs to “pull on all of the levers” possible, but warned that the jury is still out on the impacts of retention initiatives such as the Early Career Framework (ECF).
Here are the Commons Education Select Committee’s eight main recommendations:
1. MPs want review of current support staff funding system
The committee raises concerns about pressure on school budgets and urges the government to review the impact of “excluding funding for support staff pay increases from school funding allocations”.
It also calls for the wage growth of support staff to be factored into school budgets. The MPs add that the department “must allocate sufficient funding to schools to cover the growth of support staff salaries”.
Despite schools’ increasing concerns over recruiting and retaining crucial support staff, leaders have also warned that pay awards for those staff are likely to “further exacerbate the funding pressures that so many face”.
Last year, school support staff received a pay rise of £1,925, equating to 9.42 per cent for the lowest-paid employees.
This year, employees have been offered a pay increase of at least £1,290, which equates to 5.77 per cent for the lowest paid, from 1 April 2024. This was announced yesterday but the union Unison has said this falls short of their claim and that it will now decide on its “next steps”.
2. Monitor schools’ flexible working offer
The report also calls for the DfE to develop a strategy to monitor the extent to which schools are offering flexible working.
The committee says: “The department should redouble efforts to promote the flexible working toolkit with school leaders, with flexible working ambassador schools playing a central role in this.”
Last year, a poll by Teacher Tapp found that just 4 per cent of senior leaders had looked at and found the DfE’s flexible working toolkit useful.
The committee also says that the DfE should commission research looking at the impact flexibility has on teaching and learning for pupils as well as teacher retention.
The report adds: “Further research is also needed into the resource and financial implications of flexible working arrangements on the school budgets.”
Mr Walker told Tes that while flexible working is important, he didn’t think it was a “golden bullet” in and of itself.
3. ‘Jury out’ on impact of ECF
Speaking to Tes as the report was published today, Mr Walker said that the “jury is out” on whether retention initiatives such as the ECF will make a difference.
The DfE recently unveiled changes to the training framework after concerns were raised about the workload and lack of flexibility of the programme.
The committee recommends that the content of the ECF be reviewed annually.
4. Introduce bursaries for career changers and returners
The report also calls for the department to create a bursary specifically for career changers and those teachers returning to the profession.
Commons Education Select Committee MPs recommend that the DfE review how returning teachers can be used to address current teacher shortages.
The report also criticises the decision to axe funding for a recruitment programme aimed at career changers and calls for the DfE to “urgently rethink”.
A recent poll found that an increased bursary of £30,000 and a higher career-change bonus would persuade more people to switch to teaching.
The government currently offers a number of bursaries - up to £28,000 - in 2024-25 for those training to teach in different subjects.
However, the committee urges the DfE to introduce lower bursary offerings for shortage subjects where there is no existing offer.
5. Ministers should ‘rethink short-sighted cuts’
The committee also criticises recent cuts to programmes such as the international relocation payment (IRP) and subject knowledge enhancement courses.
On the IRP, the report urges the department to “work closely with universities to ensure that no students on their way to qualify as teachers in shortage subjects are lost as a result of this”.
Mr Walker told Tes: “Ministers need to rethink the recent, short-sighted cuts to programmes that promoted career development and different routes into the profession.”
6. Publish workload reduction task force recommendations ‘without delay’
The committee also calls for the DfE to publish the final recommendations from the workload task force, which was set up after the teacher pay deal last summer to look at how to cut five hours from teachers’ working week.
The DfE has said that the final recommendations from the task force “would follow [the publication of initial recommendations] in spring 2024”.
The committee also urges the DfE to “increase myth-busting efforts around Ofsted to reduce accountability-related workload”.
7. Use upskilling to tackle teacher shortages
The report also calls for “upskilling” to mitigate against those subjects experiencing teacher shortages.
Teachers can upskill to teach a subject in which they are non-specialists in order to plug shortages.
The committee says the department should work with subject associations where there are current teacher shortages to “coordinate support and funding efforts with the aim of developing upskilling opportunities”.
8. Expand behaviour hubs programme
In its report, the committee states that worsening pupil behaviour in schools has been highlighted as an issue.
Earlier this year, the National Foundation for Educational Research called for the government to set up an independent review focused on how to reduce teachers’ workload related to behaviour management and pastoral care, after teachers said that pupil behaviour is “driving higher workload”.
The committee calls for the DfE’s behaviour hubs scheme, launched in spring 2021, to be expanded - something the cross-party MPs think could “help teacher retention”.
Tes revealed last year that the findings of an evaluation of the programme had been delayed.
Findings on whether a flagship government scheme to improve pupil behaviour is working have been delayed until 2024.
A DfE spokesperson said that the department offers bursaries and scholarships and is “taking steps to support teachers’ wellbeing and ease workload pressures, including plans to support schools to reduce working hours by five hours per week”.
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