Ministers aim to improve diversity in teaching and access to flexible working as part of their plan to boost the size of the workforce by 6,500.
The government has this week published the delivery plan for its years-old pledge to recruit additional teachers.
While progress on the goal appears promising, experts have warned better long-term thinking is needed to address entrenched workforce issues.
The boost was a manifesto pledge for Labour; ministers have since faced repeated criticism for moving goalposts and failing to explain how it would be achieved.
Pledge ‘on target’
The pledge initially promised 6,500 “new teachers in key subjects”, but the metric later changed to measure overall workforce growth, including retained teachers.
The Labour government said recruitment will target areas “where the need is greatest”, including shortage subjects and disadvantaged areas.
Progress will be measured against a baseline of 245,805 full-time equivalent teachers, working in secondaries, special schools, pupil referral units and FE colleges in 2023-24.
The government says it remains “on track” to deliver its pledge. The secondary and special school workforce had grown by 2,346 by 2024-25, while FE teacher data is due in May.
Boosting recruitment through equality
Much of the plan to boost recruitment includes work already under way, and work to specifically grow the FE workforce. One goal is ensuring the schools workforce “reflects the diversity of our communities”.
A recent NFER report highlighted “significant ethnic disparities” in ITT rejection rates among UK applicants. This was not explained by differences in applicants, suggesting “discrimination has a role”. The NFER said neutralising this could see about 2,000 more teachers trained a year.
The government will pilot “anonymised” teacher trainee applications, increase transparency by publishing more recruitment data, and improve how it collects information on ethnicity and disability in schools to “monitor and address disparities”.
The Office for Equality and Opportunity’s race equality unit will research “improving the recruitment, retention and progression” of ethnic minority teachers.
Allana Gay, founding member of BAMEed, said diversity should be more closely monitored at ITT provider level. She urged the government to move away from “the gimmicks of ‘blind’ recruitment’” and instead ensure ITT providers “are mandated to connect with those from diverse… backgrounds”.
NFER lead economist Jack Worth said he was “pleased” by the equality focus, but warned anonymised applications must be carefully piloted and evaluated, noting “a lack of rigorous evidence about what works”.
Retention drive
Retention is another central element of the 6,500-teacher plan, which concedes “too many” find teaching “difficult and unsustainable”.
A policy trailed ahead of the white paper is doubling full maternity pay from four weeks to eight.
The DfE will fund a programme giving schools training, resources and peer support “to normalise flexible working and manageable workloads”. This will be “aligned to the wider school improvement strategy and promoted through RISE”, and will include a focus on staff returning from maternity leave.
The plan cited changes being worked on to help tackle retention, such as tackling pupil behaviour, improving pay and increasing support for leaders.
Professional development
The third prong of the 6,500-teacher plan is developing staff through “career-long development opportunities”, to ensure a pipeline of “high-quality” teachers and leaders.
A new teacher training entitlement – another much-anticipated election pledge – “will provide every school with access to high-quality continuous professional development (CPD)”, says the report. But the development appears focused primarily on SEND and leadership.
Gareth Conyard, chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust, said he is “unconvinced” by the proposals, adding they remain “top-down, with too little account taken of the importance of local context and teacher agency”.
“We worry that these proposals do little to address that or to create a permanent expectation around professional development,” said Conyard.
‘Must not rest on laurels’
Worth said “important progress” had been made on recruitment, with economic trends “driving us towards…a better place on teacher supply”. But he warned the government must “not rest on [its] laurels”.
“Things can rapidly change again if you’re not careful, keeping an eye on things like keeping pay competitive and workload manageable,” he added.
Emma Hollis, CEO of the National Association of School-based Teacher Trainers, said while efforts to boost recruitment are “always welcome”, retention and workload “will remain the critical issues if the system is to deliver on its wider ambitions”.
She said there are “some really positive proposals” aimed at tackling this, but they must be “implemented in a thoughtful, joined up and time-sensitive way”.
‘Big gaps’ in plan
Louis Barson, director of science, business and education at the Institute of Physics, said there are “big gaps” in how the plan will address staffing issues in shortage subjects.
A recent IOP report estimated England has a shortfall of 3,500 physics teachers.
“The government needs to set out how far this plan is expected to address [this] shortfall,” said Barson.
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