Introducing a minimum “entitlement” to teacher development could prevent thousands from quitting the profession each year, new research suggests.

Offering teachers 35 hours of CPD each year, at a cost of £4 billion over 10 years, could “significantly improve retention” in the short term, and “generate a net societal benefit of around £61 billion” over the course of the decade, according to new analysis from the Education Policy Institute (EPI).

The think tank’s researchers also warn that England currently “lags behind other countries” when it comes to the time teachers spend on professional development.

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Secondary school teachers in England spend, on average, just 43 hours a year on CPD - well below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development international average of 62 hours a year, the report says.

And it is likely that the majority of CPD currently on offer is not of “high quality”, the EPI warns.

The researchers point to a recent pilot by Wellcome, which showed that just 11 per cent of CPD taken up by teachers met the government’s quality criteria.

Minimum CPD entitlement ‘would boost teacher retention’

The report says that, in the short term, a policy of CPD entitlement could “significantly improve retention, leading to up to an estimated 12,000 extra teachers remaining in the profession a year”.

As it stands, 40,000 teachers typically leave the job on an annual basis, the EPI says.

This means that the introduction of a new CPD entitlement could cut the workforce loss by up to 30 per cent.

James Zuccollo, author of the report and director for school workforce at the EPI, said: “Providing training and development to teachers is crucial to ensuring quality and stability in the profession, but teachers in England engage in far less professional development compared to other countries and many programmes fail to meet the government’s own quality standards.

“Our research shows that high-quality professional development could prove cost-effective. If the government can get the delivery and quality of the programme right, such an entitlement would significantly boost pupil attainment and future earnings.

“In the short term, the policy also has the potential to halt a large number of teachers leaving the profession.

“Government reforms to teacher training and the development of new professional qualifications are a step in the right direction, but it must continue to improve access to high-quality professional development to realise the benefits shown in our research.

“We hope that positive reforms to professional development are included in the government’s long-term education recovery programme.”

The Department for Education has been approached for comment.