If the government’s plans to hire 6,500 new educators were based solely on pay, it would be necessary for them to increase their salaries by nearly 10% per year over a period of three years.
According to a new analysis from the National Foundation for Educational Research, this will cost PS2.1bn more next year (2025-2026), and then PS4.9bn by 2026-27. Then PS7.7bn starting in 2027-28. In the report, it is stated that such expenditures are unlikely in the current economic climate. Therefore, the report highlights alternative options with lower costs.
These options could either be based on targeted spending for shortage subjects (such as bursaries or early career retention payment (ECRPs)), or non-financial methods such as reducing the workload or improving CPD.
In its manifesto for 2024, the Labour Party pledged that it would recruit 6,500 expert teachers in important subjects. However, this target was not defined or measured. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has committed to meeting the target during the 5-year Parliament.
The NFER report How To Recruit 6,500 Teacher? offers a detailed analysis of possible policy choices with estimated costs for the government.
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation funded the analysis that explores the role financial policy levers such as pay, bursaries, and ECRPs and non-financial actions such as workload reduction in meeting the target for teacher supply.
According to research, targeted actions aimed at subjects in shortage, such as Physics, could include a larger set of retention payment options that are available to more teachers. These payments, for example, could be available to teachers in secondary schools who teach shortage subjects and/or have more than five-years’ experience.
The study also states that the recruitment target will not be met without new policy. The current policies would not suffice to meet the target.
The increase in bursaries alone will not attract enough trainees for 6,500 new teachers, unless the levels are raised above starting salaries. ECRPs or broader retention payments can be used. However, increasing the value targeted bursaries or ECRPs may create huge disparities in pay among subjects.
The report recommends that the Department for Education publish a comprehensive plan for how they define and plan to reach the target and how this will be funded.
Jack Worth, co-author and school workforce leader at the NFER said that: “Our analyses show that substantial increases in teachers’ salaries could potentially deliver the needed number of teachers. However, it comes at a high cost which is unlikely to be achievable in the current financial environment.
“We await with interest the clarity of… how the target is defined, and how they plan to deliver and finance it.”
Jenni French is the head of STEM at schools for Gatsby Charitable Foundation. She said, “We welcome the ambitious policy commitments made by the new government on teacher recruitment and the opportunity to overlay insights from NFER’s modelling as part of Gatsby’s ongoing research in teacher retention and recruitment. This will ensure that the government receives as much information possible to make sure that its target are achieved.”
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