More than nine in 10 teachers have reported facing barriers preventing them from accessing continuing professional development (CPD), a major new survey reveals.

The Department for Education’s school snapshot survey report highlights the cost of CPD and a lack of time to take part in it as the biggest obstacles facing the teaching profession.

The new figures have been revealed as the government has launched a new recruitment and retention strategy and an early career framework to better support teachers to stay in the job.

Data published today by the DfE shows that, in the survey, 91 per cent of teachers said they had faced barriers to accessing CPD.

This was despite the government urging school leadership teams to make this area a priority.

The survey of more than 1,000 teachers, carried out last summer for the DfE, highlights the barriers that staff face in accessing CPD.

• Some 70 per cent said the problem was the cost of CPD.
• 51 per cent said they did not have the time to take up professional development courses.
• And almost a third (32 per cent) said they did not have time to look for CPD.
• 29 per cent of teachers said there was a lack of good quality CPD locally.
• And 14 per cent said there was a lack of good quality CPD in their school.
   

The findings also showed that 11 per cent had not accessed it because they had not found CPD helpful in the past.

Teachers missing out on CPD

And 4 per cent of teachers mentioned that a lack of cover for lessons was a barrier.

The DfE report also reveals that, compared with female teachers, male teachers were less likely to say that cost was the main barrier (65 per cent compared with 72 per cent), but more likely to report they had not found CPD worthwhile in the past (15 per cent vs 9 per cent).

Teachers aged between 55 and 64 were more likely to report a lack of support from senior managers as a barrier to CPD than any other age group.

And teachers at academy schools were more likely than those at non-academy schools to say they had not found CPD worthwhile in the past (15 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.)

The DfE published a “Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development” in 2016.

This said that CPD needed to be a partnership between school leaders, teachers and providers of professional development expertise.

The department said that for it to be successful, CPD should be focused on improving and evaluation pupils’ outcomes; it must be underpinned by robust evidence; and should include collaboration and expert challenge.

The department also said that CPD must be prioritised by school leadership.