Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted
Assess effectiveness and value-for-money of teacher pay against other recruitment initiatives
Conclusion
The Department recognises pay as important in recruiting and retaining teachers, but is less clear on how it considers pay alongside other initiatives and how schools and colleges can afford pay rises. Pay is important in recruiting and retaining teachers. The Department’s influence on pay differs between schools and colleges, for schools, it sets pay ranges and then provides schools a funding package to be used, by schools, on pay and other areas of spend – it has assumed schools will make 1% efficiency savings in 2025–26 to afford pay rises. Colleges do not have a pay review body, setting their own salaries from the funding received. Schoolteachers have received a 17% combined pay increase from the last three pay awards. The Department has reduced its teacher trainee targets as it expects 2,500 more teachers to stay because of the most recent 5.5% pay award. The Department recognises college teachers continue to receive less than those in secondary, who earn around 7 £10,000 more, and those in industry where, for example, IT professionals can earn over £11,000 more. The Department has assessed the relative value for money for some of its financial incentives but has not assessed the extent to which increasing pay has a similar impact. It is unclear how important the Department considers pay over, for example, the Early Career Framework in retaining teachers. It is also worth noting that teachers benefit automatically from a defined benefit pension scheme, a hugely valuable yet easily under-sold perk of the job. recommendation The Department should assess the effectiveness and relative value-for-money of pay against other recruitment and retention initiatives, to make an explicit decision on whether it needs to do more to ensure teachers are paid the right amount. 8 1 The Department’s approach to considering teacher recruitment and retention Introduction
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and continues to assess the effectiveness and value-for-money of pay against other recruitment and retention initiatives. It details specific ongoing analyses, including existing assessments, workforce surveys, and evaluations of various programs and incentives, which it will continue over the next year to inform its approach.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. inform which actions best ensure schools and colleges have sufficient high-quality teachers. Evidence suggests that pay can be an effective lever at scale; for example, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) estimates that a 1% improvement in competitiveness of school teacher pay increases recruitment by 2% and retention by 1.5%. Meanwhile evidence is growing on the effectiveness and value for money of specific targeted financial measures, like bursaries and retention payments, and for non-financial interventions. The department continues to assess the balance of interventions to provide the best value for money in addressing recruitment and retention issues, such as subject shortages, alongside other government priorities and context such as labour market trends. School teacher pay decisions follow the statutory pay review process: setting out its view on the appropriate level of pay award and providing evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to formulate recommendations. While the department does not set or recommend pay in FE, it uses a range of data to monitor the impact of funding decisions on pay, recruitment and retention in the sector. The department will continue strengthening its evidence base and capability for assessing the relative merits of financial and non-financial recruitment and retention interventions, including through: building on existing assessments of the relative value for money of school teacher recruitment financial levers; analysis of the FE Workforce in England statistics and the annual Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders survey exploring factors affecting recruitment and retention; analysing the effectiveness of the Flexible Working Ambassador Schools programme; analysis of Early Career Framework retention building on the evaluation report published in May 2025; and evaluating the National Professional Qualifications and Targeted Retention Incentive. Over the next year, the department will continue to look at indicators available in its published data sets, independent programme evaluations, and external assessments (undertaken by bodies like the NFER) and use these to examine the value of these interventions and the wider impact of pay on the sector.