15th November 2017
Scope of the inquiry
Schools spend approximately £21 billion on their teaching workforce. Despite an overall increase in the number of teachers in state schools between 2010 and 2016, the number teaching in secondary schools has dropped by 4.9%. In 2016 alone nearly 35,000 teachers left their jobs.
In its report into retaining and developing the teaching workforce, the National Audit Office found that more teachers are leaving the job before retirement than five years ago, and schools are struggling to fill posts with the quality of teachers they need. The biggest strain on teachers is workload, with some working 54-hour weeks.
The report also found that variation between regions of the UK facing teacher shortages is high, with 26.4% of schools in South East England reporting vacancies, compared with 16.4% in the North East. Whilst the Department for Education spent £555 million on training and support for new teachers in 2013/14, it only spent £35.7 million on programmes for developing and retention in 2016–17, or which only £91,000 was towards improving teaching retention.
The Public Accounts Committee will hear from teachers and former teachers about their experiences of teacher development and retention. The Committee will then ask officials from the Department for Education what they are doing to improve retention and ensure the teaching workforce is sustainable in the years ahead.
Questions from Gillian Keegan MP
Q23 Gillian Keegan: As someone who was educated in Knowsley, I share your pain in terms of the social deprivation. One thing I am struggling with is that job satisfaction is usually linked to results, and the results in terms of good or outstanding schools and social mobility are actually better than they have been. I know that they are not perfect, but they are better than they have ever been. Usually, that would give some sort of satisfaction. What is the disconnect between the results and the morale?
Alan Henshall: It is to do with the point that I made first: the difference between what teachers know to be the good job that they need to do, because they are trained to do it, and the amount they can do with the amount of people in their class and the amount of students that they are working with.
Q24 Gillian Keegan: So the confidence that they could do even better is what is creating this disconnect.
Alan Henshall: That is right. It is the knowledge that, “Give me the right resource, give me a bit more time to prepare my lessons, give me a slightly lower class size and give me some time to breathe, step back and do some professional development on the job, and we will be much more satisfied with the job that we are doing every day.”
Q25 Chair: Briefly, Ms Hartley, because I do want Ms Moran to come back, but if you have something to add—
Holly Hartley: It is not just about exam results either. Teachers get results in a whole range of other ways. It might be getting students to go to university. It might be getting students to engage with schools.
Q26 Gillian Keegan: But they are related to exam results.
Holly Hartley: Yes they are, but for teachers who work in the most challenging schools it is not always about the exam results. There is so much more to it.
Caroline Flint: Yes, but it shouldn’t be an excuse.
Q27 Gillian Keegan: Good or outstanding is about measuring the teaching quality, isn’t it?
Alan Henshall: It is, but an Ofsted grade is not a measure of teacher wellbeing.
Gillian Keegan: No, no.
Alan Henshall: It is a measure of the standard of the school and the standard of the results they are getting.
Gillian Keegan: The children’s outcome.
Alan Henshall: Yes, exactly. It is a lot better to work in a school that is graded good or outstanding, but frankly that is not what drives a teacher. What drives a teacher is being able to help a child as well as they can do.