Teachers in key shortage subjects in the first five years of their career in the poorest schools are now eligible for “targeted retention incentive payments” of up to £6,000.
Previously called the “levelling-up premium payment”, this fund was doubled by the Conservatives in April 2024. Following its election victory, Labour opted to keep the payments although it has changed the name.
The doubling of the teacher retention payment fund came amid a spiralling recruitment and retention crisis, with the Department for Education missing its target for recruiting secondary teacher trainees by 50 per cent last year, and almost 44,000 teachers leaving the state-funded sector in the academic year 2021-22.
Who is eligible for the teacher retention payment?
Eligible secondary teachers in state-funded schools teaching the shortage subjects chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics will be able to claim the bonus.
The DfE, under Gillian Keegan, also expanded eligibility for next year to further education teachers teaching early years, building and construction, digital, engineering, manufacturing and transport engineering and electronics.
The previous government stated that the retention payments will be offered to teachers in the schools in the poorest areas with a high need for teachers, and those in an Education Investment Area (EIA) will receive the highest payment of £6,000.
Early career teachers who completed their initial teacher training course in the 2019-20 academic year or later will be eligible to apply for the payments from 2024.
How much can teachers get?
Eligible teachers will be able to receive two annual payments of up to £6,000 each, meaning a teacher receiving the maximum payment in both years will receive £12,000 in total.
Payments will be offered to teachers in disadvantaged schools nationally. The highest payments will be made to teachers in eligible schools in EIAs.
Teachers in the most disadvantaged 30 per cent of schools - based on the proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium - will receive the full annual sum of £6,000 in an EIA, or £4,000 if their school is outside an EIA.
Teachers in the next most disadvantaged 20 per cent of schools in an EIA will receive £5,000, or £3,000 outside of an EIA.
Teachers in a further 20 per cent of the next most disadvantaged schools in EIAs will receive £4,000.
The Department for Education stated that £200 million will be invested over the next two years to deliver on this pledge, and that it is committed to paying all teachers who are eligible.
When can teachers apply for the retention payments?
The DfE said that eligible teachers will be able to claim retention payments from autumn 2024 to 31 March 2025.
If successful, teachers will receive the payment in the same academic year that they apply for it, resulting in two payments in total if they are eligible and paid in both years.
When was the expansion of the offer first announced?
The doubling of the offer was announced as part of now-abandoned plans for an Advanced British Standard qualification, unveiled by former prime minister Rishi Sunak at the Conservative Party conference last October.
At the time the DfE said that as part of “laying the groundwork” for the new qualification, the government would invest in teacher recruitment and retention by providing payments of up to £6,000.
Why did the government double retention payments?
Gillian Keegan, when she was education secretary in the previous Conservative government, said the payments would ensure that schools and colleges “can support the recruitment and retention of dedicated teachers in high-priority subjects and in the areas that need them most”.
She added: “This will make a real difference to schools and colleges across the country, allowing them to provide world-class education for all ahead of the Advanced British Standard, whilst giving businesses the skilled workers they need to drive economic growth.”
‘Half-baked proposals’ will not fix supply crisis
In response to that initial announcement, school leaders said that while investment in the teaching profession was welcome, a much more radical approach was needed to fix teacher shortages.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “The government has tinkered around with a number of schemes that are supposed to improve teacher recruitment, including this one, but last year’s dire trainee teacher recruitment figures show that its half-baked proposals simply aren’t working.”
Mr Whiteman added that the expansion of the scheme could have “some localised benefits”, but it would be just a “sticking plaster approach” and ”does not begin to get to the bottom of the severe recruitment and retention crisis facing schools”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, echoed Mr Whiteman’s misgivings, and warned that the scheme was “an attempt to patch up a system that is already broken”.
Mr Di’Iasio was also concerned that such targeted approaches could ”further demoralise those who are not eligible for pay incentives, particularly those working in subjects where teacher shortages are just as severe”.
“Reactionary, short-term measures that appear to primarily be in service of the prime minister’s Advanced British Standard, are just not going to cut it,” he said at the time.
And Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, also argued that the scheme “does nothing to retain existing teachers”.
Earlier this year NEU members voted against moving to a formal ballot on strike action over pay and funding for 2024-25, with members of the country’s biggest teachers’ union opting to wait until a formal pay offer was made by the government. This pay offer was received in July.
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