A failure to invest to “proactively manage the worsening recruitment position and declining competitiveness of teacher pay” will impact the quality of education, the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) has warned.
And the independent pay review body added it would be “more cost-effective” for the government to act “sooner rather than later” to boost funding to fix the “worsening” teacher recruitment crisis.
Yesterday, the Department for Education announced that it will award teachers a 6.5 per cent pay rise from September 2023, in line with the recommendations from the STRB, which were also published by the government yesterday.
Here are six things the STRB recommended to address the teacher recruitment crisis in its latest report.
1. Investment needed to ‘proactively manage worsening recruitment position’
In its report published yesterday alongside the government’s decisions on the teacher and leader pay awards for 2023-24, the STRB highlighted that the trend in recruitment of teachers is “worsening”.
The STRB flagged last year’s recruitment figures, which showed that the DfE missed its own targets for secondary teacher trainee entrants by 41 per cent, as the basis of its stark warning to the government.
The report said: “Investment is needed to proactively manage the worsening recruitment position and declining competitiveness of teacher pay. It will be more cost-effective to act sooner rather than later.
“The cost of failure is high: it affects teaching quality and adversely impacts on children’s education.”
2. Stop performance-related pay progression
The STRB recommended that “the existing obligation on schools to operate performance-related pay (PRP) progression should be withdrawn, pending further work”.
PRP aims to create a direct link between teacher pay and performance. Submissions to the STRB in past years have raised concerns over PRP creating “significant equalities concerns”.
The STRB concluded that “most consultees” believed the current model was not working and it appeared “the burden of administering it exceeds any benefit that it is achieving”.
3. More action needed to address workload
In its report, the STRB said: “Excessive workload persists in being the major concern of the profession and has been a theme of evidence from all consultees for some years.”
It noted that while there were existing initiatives, “more is needed” as the problem is “not being solved”.
The report added that “further collaborative action to deliver a meaningful reduction in workload is an immediate priority”.
In a statement yesterday, education secretary Gillian Keegan said the department would convene a workload reduction task force “to explore how we can go further to support trust and school leaders to minimise workload for teachers and leaders”.
The report added: “We want to build on previous successes and aim to reduce working hours by five hours per week.
“We also plan to reinsert a revised list of administrative tasks that teachers should not be expected to do into the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.”
4. STRB will consider recommending targeted pay
The independent pay review body said that the recruitment and retention situation was “more acute in some areas than others”, based on subject, role and setting challenges.
The STRB said that it had considered whether it would be useful to “include targeted payments for teachers where the shortfalls are greatest”.
However, it said that this year it had concluded that “the priority is correcting the general deterioration in teachers’ pay”.
“In future, targeting remuneration to address particular workforce challenges should be considered.”
5. Further work to develop career pathways urgently needed
The STRB said several consultees had claimed that a diverse range of career pathways did not exist in teaching and suggested pathways for teaching specialists, mentors and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) professionals.
In her letter to the STRB earlier this year, Ms Keegan also asked the pay review body for its initial views on work to “support a coherent and fulfilling career pathway for teachers”.
The report said that there is a need for “collaborative work with stakeholders on articulating career pathways and developing the supporting structures”.
“Further work to develop career pathways and supporting structures should proceed as soon as practicable.”
6. Call for annual report on detailed equality and inclusion data
The STRB said that it agreed with consultees on “the need for more frequent and detailed equality and inclusion data”.
It added: “Data transparency is a prerequisite for identifying and addressing inequalities and inclusion challenges and for securing stakeholders’ confidence in the department’s commitment to addressing these.”
