Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Paragraph: 25
Ensure sustained efforts to improve teacher recruitment and retention across all education stages.
Conclusion
Our evidence suggests that recruitment and retention issues occur at every stage of education, from primary school through to further education. However, the challenge increases as we move up the phases with more vacancies and a greater retention challenge in secondary than in primary and again in post 16. The Department must ensure that efforts are being made to improve recruitment and retention throughout all stages of education and that any demographic bulges are tracked, planned for and responded to right the way through the system.
Government Response Summary
The government stated it already accounts for pupil demographic trends and estimates demand for primary and secondary schools (including post-16 provision), explaining why the further education workforce is tracked separately and stating this separation will continue.
Paragraph Reference:
25
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Department already accounts for pupil demographic trends when estimating future teacher demand. As stated in the annual postgraduate ITT targets publication2, the Teacher Workforce Model (TWM) estimates future school teacher demand from a starting teacher stock, as measured by the School Workforce Census, by considering projections of pupil numbers and by estimating the national pupil: teacher ratios needed to meet demand as pupil numbers change. Additionally, the TWM already estimates demand for all state-funded primary and secondary schools, including nursery and post-16 provision within such schools, academies, and free schools. The Department estimates demand for the further education (FE) workforce but does so separately to the TWM. We will continue to keep the schools and further education estimates separate due to the differing factors determining both the demand and supply of teachers. The TWM is focused upon schools and is largely underpinned by data from the annual School Workforce Census. The majority of the workforce covered by the TWM are qualified teachers, trained via initial teacher training, that deliver a curriculum which is focused upon GCSE and A-level subjects. By contrast, the Department’s Further Education estimate for FE demand considers a workforce suited to different learner requirements who study a broader range of qualifications, taught in different settings (FE colleges rather than schools), teaching a larger percentage of adult learners, and is underpinned by a separate data collection reflecting factors that impact FE teacher supply, such as the part-time nature of many of the roles.