Memorandum submitted by the Secondary
Heads Association
A. INTRODUCTION
1. The Secondary Heads Association represents
11,000 members of leadership teams in maintained and independent
schools and colleges throughout the UK. Retention and recruitment
of secondary teachers are clearly of major interest to our members
at the institutional level and out of their concern for the education
system as a whole.
2. The age profile of the teaching profession
is very worrying:
— 50% of teachers are aged over 45;
— 22% of teachers are aged 35 to 44;
and
— 28% of teachers are aged 21 to 34.
3. The implication is that rates of loss
will rise significantly over the next 15 years, even if everything
is done to reduce the incidence of teachers leaving for other
professions or retiring early. More than half of the teaching
force of 2015 is not currently in teaching. The problem is not
distributed evenly between schools, between types of school, or
between areas of the country. Some schools experience much higher
turnover rates than others; some currently have a still higher
proportion of their key staff due for retirement within the next
10 years.
4. Of particular concern is the inevitable
loss of the large number of experienced and highly effective senior
teachers due to retire during the next 10 years. These staff will
be very hard to replace.
5. Some retention issues are common to all
age groups but there are particular concerns for particular age
groups.
6. There is some transfer of secondary teachers
into and out of the primary and tertiary sectors. Pay and conditions
have been particularly poor in the tertiary sector in recent years,
which has tended to favour the secondary sector. Recent initiatives
aimed at allowing college staff to catch up with schoolteachers
may further worsen the supply of secondary teachers.
7. We have organised our remarks as follows:
E. Conditions of service;
G. Recruitment and retention allowances;
H. Particular age groups;
I. Standing of the teaching profession; and
B. WORKLOAD
8. During term time teachers' working hours
are high by comparison with other public servants and the commercial
world. Although the holiday entitlement is good, teachers feel
that they need psychological recovery time because of the high-stress
nature of the occupation—even in schools with virtually
no behaviour problems.
9. The recent workforce remodelling agreement
is aimed at reducing the workload of teachers and enabling a greater
focus on their main role of teaching. This is welcome, but as
yet unproven in practice. Further, as teachers' workload is determined
principally by the number and size of the classes they teach,
present funding difficulties can only worsen these figures.
10. Teachers come into teaching because
they want to work with young people and to have a job that is
creative and challenging. Hard work is not a deterrent. Research
into the civil service showed that stress was not determined primarily
by workload but by the level of responsibility and insufficient
freedom to carry out the role. Initiatives aimed not at supporting
and developing teachers but controlling them are very unhelpful
in this regard. There have been too many such initiatives in recent
years.
C. BUREAUCRACY
11. People in all walks of life complain
about unnecessary and irksome paperwork, but teachers have experienced
a marked rise in this during the past 15 years. It is a factor
often cited by those leaving the profession.
12. The Ofsted inspection regime in particular,
though it has not been alone in this failing, has set unreasonably
high expectations of the extent of documentary "evidence"
required of teachers.
13. Emphasis on the progress of individual
pupils is right, but the role has changed; instead of being in
charge of one class following one, albeit differentiated, programme
of study, teachers now feel that they have to be prepared to describe
30 different programmes. This has been a major contributory factor
to teachers' dissatisfaction about workload.
14. Teachers rightly feel accountable for
raising standards and improving results. But they are often faced
with externally imposed and unattainable improvement targets with
cohorts of children who may be similar to or less capable than
last year's group.
15. The Secretary of State's recent announcement
in relation to primary education that schools should be able to
set their own targets is welcome, and SHA would hope that this
principle will be extended into the secondary sector as soon as
possible. If target setting began with individual teachers instead
of ending with them, they would have a much greater attachment
to the target, instead of resenting its imposition as they frequently
do at present.
16. None of this need undermine accountability
in its true sense; teachers and their leaders expect to be accountable.
Please see the recently published SHA paper Towards Intelligent
Accountability for Schools, attached as Annex A.[2]
D. POOR BEHAVIOUR
17. There have always been challenging pupils
in schools, but the very poor behaviour of a minority is widely
felt to be more burdensome on teachers, and indeed upon other
pupils, than ever before. This may reflect changes in society
as a whole. SHA welcomes the reduction of the number of pupils
in special schools and the trend towards inclusion, but it has
tended to be seen by successive national and local governments
as a cost saving measure, with the result that insufficient resources
have followed often challenging pupils into mainstream schools.
18. Retention of teachers is harder in schools
serving disadvantaged communities. Compensatory funding must be
adequate to support teachers in the difficult task of teaching
in these schools.
19. Targets to reduce exclusions, elaborate
procedures and intensive monitoring of short term exclusions have
undermined disciplinary systems in schools and the authority of
teachers and school leaders. Schools have been criticised for
the number of exclusions they report, even when they are reacting
with moderation to a large proportion of very difficult pupils.
This has resulted in schools keeping pupils who should be educated
elsewhere. In many areas there is a lack of suitable alternative
provision. The development of on-site pupil referral units has
benefited the school where they are sited but they have not been
the useful area resources that had been intended.
20. Managing poor behaviour is the aspect
of teaching that most often causes young teachers difficulty and
ITT courses should tackle the problem much more fully. New teachers
still have to learn all their strategies for avoiding, containing
and reducing bad behaviour during their first years of teaching.
Many young teachers feel as if they are failures if they find
some classes difficult.
E. CONDITIONS
OF SERVICE
21. Like any other employees, teachers want
to work for successful, stable and supportive organisations. Inconsistency
of funding, leading to redundancies of teachers, has been damaging
in this respect. When longer serving teachers entered the profession,
redundancies amongst teachers were unknown; in the public sector
as a whole, security of employment and an excellent pension scheme
were seen as balancing the relatively poor pay and working conditions.
Although relatively few teachers are made redundant these factors
are no longer seen as compensatory.
22. Professional development is very important
to, and for, teachers and this should be available at all stages
of their careers. Recently training has often focused on the most
recent government initiative rather than the professional development
of the individual teacher. Funding difficulties in 2003-04 have
resulted in cutbacks to professional development.
23. Decrepit buildings and poorly equipped
classrooms are still too common in secondary schools, and are
instrumental in the decision of some teachers to find work in
other professions, where warm, dry, clean, quiet and properly
equipped workplaces are taken for granted.
24. Some heads report that increasing the
comfort factors for teachers has been helpful; for example better
staff room facilities, readily available tea and coffee, sandwiches
at meetings, and occasional social events in and out of school.
These are all good employment practice, but difficult for heads
to justify in some quarters when funding is tight. These quite
inexpensive moves help to give a fully professional experience
for young teachers in particular.
F. PAY AND
PENSIONS
25. Teachers still feel their salary levels
to be low in comparison with those of similarly qualified and
capable graduates who go into the world of commerce. Especially
in the South East there is a very serious concern about the cost
of house purchase, which is beyond many or most young teachers.
26. In the context of pensions problems
in other sectors the Teachers' Pension Scheme is an attraction
into teaching. It would bear improvement, or at least guaranteeing
in its present form, and should not be worsened. In particular,
it would be a mistake to raise the normal age of retirement. Whilst
this would keep some teachers working longer, they would be doing
so under sufferance, sickness levels would rise and there would
be more cynical and unhappy staff to tell potential teachers and
young teachers not to begin, or to leave whilst they have alternatives.
27. Young people are now thinking about
pensions to a much greater extent than in the past, and there
are benefits that could be highlighted. The scheme could be improved
in various respects.
G. RECRUITMENT
AND RETENTION
ALLOWANCES
28. Under the School Teachers' Pay and
Conditions of Service Document 2002 (STPCD), relevant bodies
have the discretion to pay teachers any of five recruitment and
retention allowances (RRAs). With effect from 1 April 2003 the
cash value of these has been as follows: RR1 £1,002, RR2
£1,971, RR3 £2,985, RR4 £4,158 and RR5 £5,415.
29. When in April 2001 the previous restrictions
on the use of recruitment and retention allowances (the third
and fourth allowances could only be awarded in Inner London and
in schools requiring special measures) were removed and a fifth
allowance was introduced, SHA was concerned about the impact of
such measures on schools' management structures, because a teacher
could in theory be awarded a recruitment and retention allowance
that was worth almost as much as management allowance 3. SHA was
also concerned about the impact on school budgets of spiralling
salary costs, due to the operation of market forces in the context
of a severe teacher shortage.
30. In practice such fears have so far proved
groundless. The data published in table 11 of the School Teachers'
Review Body's (STRB) Twelfth Report (January 2003) shows
that 2.9% of teachers were in receipt of RR1 in September 2002,
1.1% in receipt of RR2, 0.2% in receipt of RR3, a small number
in receipt of RR4 and that 95.9% did not receive a recruitment
and retention allowance at all.
31. The research study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers
for the STRB and published on 12 May 2003 broadly speaking confirms
the data provided in the STRB report. Relatively few headteachers
use RRAs outside London and the South East and even in these areas
payment seems to be concentrated in particular districts and particular
schools. Where RRAs were used, they were used more widely than
to address teacher shortages in particular subjects (that is to
address general recruitment and retention issues). The case study
research indicated that heads disliked using RRAs and felt that
they were divisive. As a result other devices tended to be used
for recruitment and retention purposes—for example, payment
for new teachers in July and August (an informal "golden
hello") and the award of management allowances. A starting
salary that is higher up the main scale than is strictly permitted
under the STPCD is another tactic that is often used (the advantage
of this and the award of management allowances is that they are
seen to confer status and advancement).
32. Despite the limited use of RRAs, SHA
remains very concerned about the potentially detrimental effects
of RRAs on school management structures and budgets and feels
strongly that recruitment and retention difficulties would be
better addressed by means of improved base pay and a far better
balance between base pay levels and discretionary payments than
is currently the case.
H. PARTICULAR
AGE GROUPS
33. Experienced Teachers
To reduce the numbers wanting to take early
retirement, there should be opportunities for timetable variation,
for part-time work without any detrimental effect on pensions,
and to become mentors or coaches for younger colleagues. Some
heads of department will eventually have the opportunity to become
consultant leaders and this should have a positive effect on the
morale of the group concerned.
34. We await with interest the outcome of
a project between the GTC and SAGA. It is imperative that teachers
with many years experience should feel that they want to continue
to make use of their skills, and that they should not feel dragooned
or tricked into doing so.
35. Decent working conditions and a reasonable
degree of comfort are likely to be significant for teachers in
this phase of their careers. See paragraph 21 above.
36. Middle Years
Some teachers in this age group feel resentful
because the only career development that they see is to apply
for senior posts on the leadership scale or as advanced skills
teachers. A more coherent and unified scale would be helpful in
this regard.
37. Opportunities for secondment or sabbatical
after a number of years teaching would be welcome, as available
in HE and for school teachers in, for example, Australia.
38. Decent working conditions and a reasonable
degree of comfort are likely to be significant for teachers in
this phase of their careers. See paragraphs 21 and 22 above. Those
with extra responsibilities in particular should have properly
equipped workstations with desk space, filing and a computer.
39. Teachers in this phase are also particularly
in need of a reasonable degree of secretarial support.
40. Young teachers
LEAs that have piloted special programmes for
teachers in their second and third years have indicated their
success. These should be developed nationally. Higher education
courses, such as a masters degree in teaching, may be beneficial
for teachers in their second year onwards, but those which begin
immediately after initial teacher training SHA would not encourage;
the first year of teaching is busy enough without this. It may
be helpful for newly qualified teachers to retain some link with
their ITT provider during the first year and this could lead to
a further degree later.
41. Decent working conditions (see paragraphs
21 and 22 above) are significant for young teachers too. Clearly,
social events are very useful in developing a sense of belonging
to the school and to the profession.
I. STANDING OF
THE TEACHING
PROFESSION
42. There has been a period of denigrating
the work of teachers that has been very damaging to morale. Teachers
feel that they are not well regarded by the public, though recent
research would suggest that this is not the case.
43. Further effort should be made, however,
to celebrate the excellent work of teachers and schools. Awards
for a few may have some good effect, but more opportunities should
be taken to praise the many.
44. In a much less deferential and increasingly
litigious society, parents are much more inclined to complain
about schools and individual teachers than they once were. This
may be right, but teachers need to be better prepared for it,
and schools should have the resources to deal with complaints
and if necessary defend their staff.
45. A period of managerialism in education,
emanating from central government, has undermined the sense of
teaching as a vocation. We need to try to recover that sense in
the profession; we can foster a sense of corporate vocation by
constantly highlighting the student-focused and person-focused
approach. Teachers need to feel that they work to help and support
children and do their best for them. This will not be possible
whilst they are subject to a top-down numerical target-driven
approach to accountability.
J. SUMMARY
46. Measures required to improve the retention
of teachers include the following:
1. Implementation of the Workforce Agreement,
signed by the Government, NEOST and unions on 15 January 2003.
2. An improved funding system, which delivers
increased funding equitably and transparently to all schools.
3. A reduction in the number of government
initiatives for schools.
4. A change in the target-setting regime
from top-down to bottom-up.
5. Implementation of the measures recommended
by SHA in Towards Intelligent Accountability for Schools.
6. Adequate resources to educate children
with special needs.
7. Appropriate levels of funding for schools
serving disadvantaged communities.
8. Further encouragement from the government
in support of good discipline in schools.
9. More attention to behaviour management
in ITT courses.
10. Improved working conditions in schools.
11. Improvements in the Teachers Pension
Scheme.
12. Maintenance of the existing retirement
age.
13. An improved pay structure for teachers,
with improved base pay and a better balance between base pay levels
and discretionary payments.
14. Absorption of the Recruitment and Retention
Allowances into the main pay spines.
15. Opportunities for timetable variation,
for part-time work without any detrimental effect on pensions,
and to become mentors or coaches for younger colleagues.
16. Better administration support for teachers,
as outlined in the workforce agreement.
17. More celebration of the excellent work
of teachers and schools.
May 2003
2 Not printed. Back
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