DfE offers £10k ‘relocation premium’ to attract overseas teachers

The government will offer overseas languages and physics teachers a £10,000 “relocation premium” to work in England under a new trial.

It would be open to both trainee and established teachers working outside the UK, and would be paid at the end of their first term. The money would not need to be paid back.

The Department for Education said the trial could support up to 400 people to relocate, meaning it would cost £4 million.

The plans were first announced last year by then education secretary Nadhim Zahawi.

They will “make teaching here even more attractive to the best teachers from around the world”, the government said in its white paper.

Ministers have missed their secondary teacher recruitment targets for all but one of the past ten years. Last year, they fell 40 per cent short.

Just 17 per cent of the required physics teachers and 34 per cent of the required MFL teachers were recruited last year.

Recent analysis by school workforce expert Jack Worth shows this year’s recruitment is actually looking worse, with a big drop in primary trainees.

Former government adviser Sam Freedman called this year’s recruitment numbers “disastrous”, adding: “Serious teacher shortages incoming.”

Guidance published today said the international relocation payment would also cover the costs of visas and the immigration health surcharge. It can be paid alongside bursaries or scholarships too.

The pilot will run next academic year and launch in the autumn. Those training to or teaching any secondary school language other than English are eligible. This includes both modern and ancient languages, DfE said.

The government had already been offering “acclimatisation” support as part of a pilot.

‘I want to attract the very best teachers’

Announcing plans for the new pilot in March last year, Zahawi said: “Because teaching is an increasingly global profession, I want to attract the very best teachers across the world,” he said.

“That is why we will also introduce a new relocation premium to help with visas and other expenses for teachers and trainees moving here from abroad.”

The white paper also proposed a new digital service to recognise international teaching qualifications. A future contract for that was published in August, but nothing has since been announced.

Government recently announced reforms to make England “the most attractive place in the world” to teach, including widening the main QTS application route to more countries by the end of this year.

But Schools Week revealed in December the reforms to get more overseas teachers working in England would fill only a sixth of the shortfall in EU recruits since Brexit.

A DfE spokesperson said the trial was part of its work to “attract the best teachers to ensure our children have the best education possible”.

Languages and physics were chosen because their recruitment challenges are “most acute”.