The Department for Education is to take over teacher recruitment functions from the National College for Teaching and Leadership, it was announced today.
The NCTL will be absorbed into the DfE, but its role in regulating the profession, including misconduct hearings, will continue in a separate agency known as the Teaching Regulation Agency. The new agency will begin work in April 2018.
Nick Gibb, schools standards minister, said: “There are now a record number of teachers in our schools - 15,500 more than in 2010 - and overall the number of new teachers entering our classrooms outnumbers those who retire or leave. We need to continue to attract the best and brightest into the profession and to support their development throughout their careers.
“Bringing these teams together within the department will enable us to build on the work already underway to invest in the profession and better support teachers in the classroom.”
The announcement today also comes after:
• The opening of the Institute for Teaching, a new specialist graduate school for teachers.
• The 25 areas which will be running a pilot programme to reimburse student loan repayments.
• The projects that will receive teaching and leadership innovation funding.
There has been growing concern about teacher shortages in schools and recruitment to teacher training.
Around 2,000 fewer people started training to be teachers in September 2016 compared with the previous year, with the number of new entrants into postgraduate initial teacher training falling from 27,761 in 2015-16 to 27,229 in 2016-17.
The numbers for recruitment in 2017 are due to be published on 30 November. But the government’s latest teacher supply model has already revealed that almost 1,400 more postgraduate teacher trainees will be needed in 2018 than in 2017.
Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and Instagram, and like Tes on Facebook
