Government response
Summary
The Government is grateful to the Committee and all
those who gave evidence, for the time and effort they gave to
explore the critical issues of Recruitment and Retention.
Recruitment and retention has improved significantly
since the Committee first began this inquiry in the spring of
2003, and we are pleased to be able to record the progress and
success we have had in some areas that were more problematic at
that time.
The Committee has made a number of conclusions and
recommendations covering a wide range of factors which have an
effect on the retention and recruitment of teachers. But, before
getting into the body of the recommendations themselves, it is
worth reflecting generally on the progress we have made. The number
of new recruits to teacher training rose by 51% between 1999-2000
and 2003-04 and vacancy rates have fallen from a high of 1.4%
in 2001 to just 0.7% this year. Not only are the raw numbers of
recruits into teaching improving but so is their quality, whether
measured by their qualifications on entry to training, or the
proportion who successfully complete their courses and go on to
take up teaching posts. We believe we have come a long way in
addressing the recruitment difficulties in schools and Teacher
Training Agency (TTA) deserves much credit for this success.
On retention issues, too, we have much to feel positive
about with teacher numbers at their highest for 20 years. We need
to give the lie to the perception that significant numbers of
teachers leave the profession within a few years, never to return.
One of the great things about teaching is the opportunity it provides
people who want greater flexibility in their lives. Many teachers
will therefore take a break in service at some stage during their
careers, but we need to be clear that about three-quarters of
those who enter teaching are still in the profession 10 years
later. Looking towards the latter end of a teacher's career we
continue to build in greater flexibility again to enable those
who wish to change their working arrangements to do so with confidence.
Despite all of these successes we must not allow
ourselves to become complacent and the Committee's report helps
us guard against that. While we agree with the Committee that
there are now few serious problems with the recruitment and retention
of teachers, we also recognise that it is always possible to do
more in some areas.
· We
need to keep succeeding with our behaviour improvement strategies
as these are fundamental to keeping teachers in the classroom;
· Continuing
to challenge ourselves to raise the standards of leadership and
management in schools will also be critical and we will be helping
the NCSL to strengthen its position as a strategically focused,
powerful hub of school leadership; and
· With the TTA
we need to build our vision for a new teacher professionalism
to help teachers take greater responsibility for their careers
and development within a structured framework of standards, regular
reviews and rewards.
The Select Committee's conclusions and recommendations
are in bold text. The Government's response is in plain text.
Induction of newly qualified teachers and continuing
professional development
While the expansion of the Early Professional
Development Programme is welcome, the research which indicates
that the success of the induction process varies widely from school
to school is worrying. Most worrying of all is the evidence of
'rogue' heads and managers who may blight someone's career before
it begins. Training for the now mandatory National Professional
Qualification for Headship, which we discuss later in this report,
should emphasise the need to encourage and support new teachers,
and give guidance on how to do that.
Integration of the ending of training, the induction
year and subsequent support in the early years of a teacher's
career is also extremely important, and we recommend that the
Government and bodies such as the Teacher Training Agency and
the National Employers Organisation for School Teachers put together
a formal entry programme to bring these different elements together.
We recommend the introduction of a formal entry
programme integrating the end of training, the induction year
and support in the early years of a teacher's career. This could
reduce significantly the number of teachers who are no longer
teaching within five years of qualifying.
The Government believes the Committee is right to
focus on the importance of training and development of teachers,
particularly in the early years of their career. Our wish to bring
coherence and consistency to this area was a key reason behind
our decision to place the responsibility for initial teacher training
(ITT), induction and continuing professional development (CPD)
into the hands of a single organisation, the TTA. The Government
wrote to the TTA in September 2004 to extend its remit to cover
teachers' CPD, and specifically asked it to develop proposals
to provide guidance to schools on CPD and human resources. One
element of this is likely to be helping each school to understand
the need to invest in high-quality induction and CPD in order
to recruit and retain the best staff.
Another part of the TTA's new remit is to develop
proposals to bring greater coherence to CPD through professional
standards and progressive expectations. In developing its proposals,
the TTA will take into account the Committee's recommendation.
A representative of the Employers Organisation for Local Government
was co-opted onto the TTA Board as a non-voting member from August
2004.
The Government agree with the Committee about the
importance of teachers experiencing a continuum of support and
guidance throughout the early stages of their careers. The structured
support that they receive during their ITT, and then as a Newly
Qualified Teacher (NQT) through the induction support programme,
needs to be sustained and to continue throughout a teacher's career.
There is already a formal entry programme in the
sense that each NQT is entitled to a statutory induction support
programme. This creates a foundation for teachers' careers and
an expectation for their CPD. We recognise that there is a job
for the Government, the TTA and others in helping those who have
a responsibility to NQTs to understand that entitlement and to
make sure all NQTs receive their due. That is one of the reasons
why new induction standards were introduced in September 2003
to provide a more coherent progression from the level of practice
required for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) to the completion
of induction. These were accompanied by revised induction guidance
to clarify the respective roles and responsibilities of all concerned
in the induction process, including headteachers, to ensure a
greater level of consistency.
Furthermore, as all the evidence indicates that the
role of the headteacher is crucial in ensuring that the whole
school is committed to supporting and developing its staff, the
revised national standards for headteachers emphasise the need
for headteachers to build a professional learning community within
their schools and that headteachers are knowledgeable of the relationship
between managing performance management, CPD and sustained school
improvement.
The Committee was specifically keen to ensure that
the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) recognised
the need for Head teachers to provide the necessary support to
new teachers. We believe that, within the training materials for
NPQH, there are already significant elements which focus on the
induction, retention and development of teachers. The training
modules are rewritten annually and the theme will be further developed
this year with increased focus on retention.
We hope the above measures will provide clarity,
coherence and leadership to the early professional development
of NQTs. However, each new teacher begins their career in a specific
school, with particular pupils, and each has their own priorities
for learning and development. It would be wrong to impose a uniform
support programme on all NQTs, when many already complain that
current arrangements are not differentiated enough.
We also need to be clear that it is not just teachers
in the early stages of their careers that need support and opportunities
for professional development. That is why, instead of expanding
the pilot Early Professional Development Programme (EPD) as previously
planned, we have decided to build on the lessons learned from
that pilot and devote its efforts towards building the capacity
of schools for effective CPD. In that way schools are being encouraged
to develop more systematic and structured approaches to professional
development for all their staff.
The Committee will also be interested to know that,
in partnership with the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE)
and TTA, the Government has commissioned a six year research project
('Becoming a Teacher') to explore teachers' experiences during
ITT, induction and early professional development. The project
began in 2003 and has collected data from trainees on a number
of ITT routes. It will track these trainees through their first
four years of teaching to explore the relationship between, and
impact of ITT, induction and EPD on retention and early career
paths.
Understanding these links more clearly will help
us to improve the quality of ITT, the induction year and subsequent
support in the early years of teachers' careers, and to increase
the impact they have on teachers' learning and development. It
will also enable us to target resources where they have the greatest
effect.
Finally, while acknowledging that 'wastage' from
ITT and from those in the early years of their teaching careers
needs to be reduced, it is important to dispel the myth that significant
numbers of teachers leave the profession within a few years, never
to return. About three-quarters of those who enter teaching are
still in the profession 10 years later.
Continuing Professional Development is clearly
very important in improving teachers' skills and morale and thereby
in helping to provide better education for pupils. We urge all
those concerned with the management of teachers to ensure that
CPD becomes an integral part of teachers' careers. We also recommend
that it looks for innovative ways of providing that development,
and in this context we welcome the plans for the Teachers' TV
channel for which programmes are currently being piloted with
a projected launch date of early 2005.
The Government welcomes and shares the Committee's
views on the importance of CPD in improving teachers' skills and
morale.
The Government's Five Year Strategy for Children
and Learners will provide the basis for a new teacher professionalism
that should help to ensure all teachers engage in and are supported
in their professional development throughout their careers. One
of the five key principles underpinning our strategy is a major
commitment to staff development. The strategy envisages CPD creating
stronger links between development and career progression and
having a central role in realising the transformation agenda.
This will help ensure that personalised learning is delivered
across the system, and will also enable schools to play their
part in responding to the Green Paper 'Every Child Matters'. It
will also encourage teachers, through a teaching and learning
review process, to take ownership of their own development. By
integrating CPD into performance management arrangements, it will
become a powerful lever for raising standards. It is also at
the core of the new work the TTA have been asked to take on under
their expanded remit for teachers' CPD mentioned earlier.
The Government agrees that innovative ways need to
be found to provide CPD. It is important that the profession recognises
that CPD is not just about going on formal training courses. Some
of the best CPD is delivered by practitioners. A recent review
of research by EPPI (the Centre for Evidence for Policy and Practice
Information) has demonstrated the significant impact that collaborative
CPD—working with colleagues in other schools, observing
one another, providing feedback about teaching and learning, engaging
and reflecting together on the art and craft of teaching, promoting
practitioner enquiry and research—can have on teacher practice
and pupil performance.
As the Committee have suggested, the introduction
of Teachers' TV will add to the range of innovative CPD provision.
Teachers' TV has the potential to be a major influence on the
CPD capacity-building agenda, providing opportunities for teachers
to learn and innovate and to progress. It will provide the ability
to open up the processes of classroom practice, teacher reflection
or coaching will offer a unique opportunity to teachers to observe
classroom practice on an unprecedented scale. This new innovation
has the ability to provide access to formal expertise through
lectures, training programmes and master classes; reduce the need
to travel to get access to training; create flexibility about
when teachers can undergo training, allowing individuals to have
access to content on demand so that they become 'leaders of their
own learning'; and reduce the cost of training, the cost of supply
cover and the uncertainty relating to the quality of supply cover.
Teachers from minority ethnic communities
It is clear that there is a need for more teachers
from minority ethnic communities, and a need to ensure that they
are able to make equitable progress in the profession. Addressing
the recruitment, retention and career progress of teachers from
minority ethnic communities must be a priority for the DfES and
the Teacher Training Agency.
The Government agrees that it is vital that we have
a more representative school workforce if minority ethnic parents
and pupils are to have confidence that their needs will be met
in our schools; and that teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds
will find teaching an attractive, worthwhile and long-term career.
This latter point is being addressed through the
programmes of the TTA and the National College for School Leadership
(NCSL). By November 2006 the TTA aims to increase the recruitment
of trainees with a minority ethnic background to 9% of all new
entrants. When this national target has been achieved, the TTA
will strive to sustain recruitment at this level for a further
three years.
The TTA has a number of initiatives in place to address
these issues. These include the Teaching Advocate Programme, which
enables those enquiring about teaching to ask questions of a serving
teacher, and where currently about 9% of teaching advocates are
from a minority ethnic background and more are being recruited.
Similarly, 22% of participants on the TTA's programme of taster
courses for those interested in teaching were from a minority
ethnic background. Currently over 16% of the enquiries received
about postgraduate teacher training are from people from a minority
ethnic background.
The TTA's 2003 census of new entrants showed that
2,637 trainees from a minority ethnic background were recruited
for this academic year. This is 8.7% of the trainees recruited
where the ethnicity is known and 1,009 (62%) more than in 2000.
In addition there are 679 trainees from a minority ethnic background
following an employment based route to QTS.
As the Committee has identified, there is a real
need to address the progression of minority ethnic teachers to
management and leadership roles, and the NCSL is already developing
innovative strategies to address the issue. Alongside their general
leadership support programmes are the 'Equal Access to Promotion'
and the 'Investing in Diversity' programmes which are specifically
aimed at ensuring minority ethnic teachers and senior managers
achieve their potential by taking up key leadership roles within
the profession.
Within the NPQH, figures relating to minority ethnic
candidates are now systematically gathered, and individual NPQH
centres are encouraged to take active measures to recruit from
under-represented groups and try to recruit tutors from these
groups as role models. Programmes such as Leading from the Middle
are attracting more teachers from minority ethnic groups and this
should lead to an improvement in recruitment from them to headship
in the longer term.
It is also important to note that the measures that
the Government is already pursuing to encourage teachers to remain
in the profession such as classroom behaviour improvement projects,
a reduction in workload via the National Agreements, increased
pay flexibility and, in some areas, the Key Worker Living housing
package, will bring equal benefits to all teachers including those
from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Workload
We hope that further progress will be made in
the current year on numbers of additional staff to assist in the
implementation of the agreement. The regrettable decision of the
UNISON conference in June 2004 to withdraw support for the agreement
is a substantial setback. Given the potential benefits of the
agreement the DfES should make it a priority to keep all parties
on board.
The DfES needs to do its utmost to keep the workload
agreement in place and to encourage those who are not participating
in it to do so.
The Government entirely agrees with the Committee
about the importance of the workload agreement and is absolutely
determined that it should remain in force. That is why we play
a key role in the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group. Working
with all our partners is important to us, and we are pleased to
report that UNISON has decided not to suspend its involvement
in the National Agreement but is consulting branches on the issues
raised at conference.
The Government recognises the Committee's hopes for
further increases in the number of staff working in schools. Over
the last few years this has been a key priority and there have
already been significant increases: schools now have 17,500 more
teachers and 54,000 more support staff than they had in January
2001—both figures are full time equivalents. There is no
doubt that the richer mix of skills being brought into schools
by these larger numbers of support staff has been crucial to enable
workforce reform to take place.
However, workforce reform is much wider than simply
employing more staff. It is about schools re-examining everything
they do, so that they can make better use of their existing time
and resources. Schools are supported in this process by guidance
provided by the National Remodelling Team (approved by the Workforce
Agreement Monitoring Group), and by LEA-based Remodelling Advisers.
Pupil behaviour
In keeping with our desire and that of the Government
to see evidence-based policy, we look forward to a proper evaluation
of the effects of the Behaviour Improvement Projects.
A reduction in the incidence of poor behaviour
in schools will help both teachers and pupils. If the Government's
strategies work, they should be pursued with vigour. If they do
not, alternatives need to be found. In any event, the evaluation
needs to be as thorough and as expeditious as possible. We cannot
afford to wait for years to discover whether or not the DfES is
on the right track.
The Government notes the Committee's recommendations
on pupil behaviour. The broad welcome for our policies for dealing
with violent and disruptive behaviour referred to in your report
is essential if we are going to succeed in helping all schools
tackle these challenges for themselves.
We are clear that our behaviour and attendance strategy,
which includes targeted and universal elements, concentrates on
what we know works such as: strong leadership (clear expectations,
consistently applied rules, skilled workforce, parental engagement
backed up by sanctions); intensive multi-agency support for schools
and pupils with the most serious problems; and schools working
together and with LEAs to ensure the right mix of provision for
pupils, both in and out of school.
To date there has been solid progress in helping
schools to promote good behaviour. A good range of measures are
in place to help them with the most difficult children, we have
taken strong action against bullies, and have strengthened the
hand of schools in preventing and dealing with violent incidents.
The Committee was also concerned to ensure there
was a proper evaluation of the Behaviour Improvement Projects.
The Committee will be pleased to learn that an evaluation of the
various strands of these strategies has either been completed
or is in progress including: a report on fast track to prosecution,
an evaluation of parenting programmes, the Behaviour Improvement
Programme (BIP) and of strategies at LEA, school and pupil levels.
We also receive regular feedback from our field-force and use
this information, combined with the more formal evaluations to
refine our strategies.
We are expecting the BIP evaluation to be completed
in the first half of 2005. But we have already learnt a great
deal from the interim evaluation report of its first year. Here
the London University Institute of Education reported significant
increases in primary school attendance across the first 34 participating
LEAs. There were also significant reductions in authorised and
unauthorised absences and in BIP secondary schools fixed-term
exclusions were 11% lower in 2002/03 than in the previous year.
The report also showed that where BIP interventions are working
well, they were having a substantial positive impact. Researchers
found that local programmes are providing a higher level of support
to individual pupils at risk, with potential to make significant
impact on their life chances.
Training teachers in challenging schools
We recommend that the Teacher Training Agency
in partnership with training organisations develops a similar
programme here to that of Center X to attract those who wish to
teach in challenging schools and provide them with the skills
and the network of post-qualification support necessary to succeed.
We consider that a programme to train teachers
to teach in challenging schools and to support them once in post
should be developed as a matter of urgency.
The Government agrees with the Committee that innovative
approaches are needed to encourage and develop teachers to work
in challenging schools. We can advise the Committee that there
are already several initiatives in place which either prepare
trainees to teach in challenging schools or contain strong elements
of this. These include:
· Teach
First—the
second cohort of this relatively new scheme is now teaching in
challenging London schools, and their energy, enthusiasm and professionalism
has been well received. The scheme is providing important lessons
about the impact of strong graduates in challenging schools and
about building an 'esprit de corps' which might be incorporated
into other programmes. There is scope for expansion of the scheme
to other cities.
· Mainstream
Initial Teacher Training with an urban element—a number
of ITT providers work closely with inner London Boroughs and other
urban areas to offer trainees the opportunity to undertake some
of their training in London; examples include the Urban Learning
Foundation which is working with a range of providers and in other
inner city areas. Some inner city LEAs are using this route as
a way of recruiting new teachers interested in working in challenging
schools.
· Graduate Teaching
Programme (GTP) —traditionally schools with recruitment
difficulties, including challenging schools, have used the GTP
as a recruitment tool. The TTA has facilitated work to improve
the quality of training offered by finding strong schools to take
overall responsibility for GTP training while the trainee works
in the challenging school. This is used extensively in challenging
schools throughout the country.
· Fast Track—all
Fast Track trainees do one of their teaching placements in a challenging
school and over 25% of these schools are in London. All Fast Track
teachers are expected to take at least one teaching post in a
challenging school.
· Trainee Heads
Programme—since 2001 strong deputies with the potential
to be heads have been placed in challenging schools under one
year secondments. This has been extended from 2004 to potential
deputies.
· To address
the London element specifically, London Challenge is working with
the Government Office for London Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Unit on a project aimed at encouraging teachers to teach in London's
most challenging schools. It will work with LEA recruitment managers
to identify vacancies in challenging schools in London, and will
broker applicants through a coordinated advertising campaign.
Additionally, there are also a number of ITT and
CPD programmes already in place that prepare teachers to work
in challenging schools, and the importance of this to urban renewal
and community building is central to the mission of a number of
training colleges - such as University of Manchester, Sheffield
Hallam University, and an important part of the work of some rural
colleges—such
as St Martin's College and the University of Gloucestershire.
To ensure that we address all aspects of this complex
issue, the Government will also address the related issue of schools
that are asked to take on large numbers of hard-to-place or disruptive
pupils. We will expect groups of schools and colleges, including
Pupil Referral Units and special schools, to take collective responsibility
for the education of young people in their area, through clear
agreements which set out systems for managing excluded and seriously
disruptive pupils.
Shortage subjects and teaching outside of specialisms
We do support the principle of using financial
incentives to remedy teacher shortages in specific areas, but
we are aware of the possibilities of unintended consequences (for
example, physics trainees changing to mathematics to take advantage
of financial incentives) so the effects will need to be closely
monitored.
Problems with the designated shortage subjects,
and with others, need to be closely monitored to make sure that
policies to encourage people to teach in these subjects are effective.
More information is needed on the numbers of teachers
in secondary school teaching outside their specialist subjects
and the reasons why they are doing so, and we welcome the fact
that the DfES is commissioning a research project into the deployment
patterns of mathematics and science teachers.
Since 2000, a range of special financial incentives
has been offered to trainee teachers in priority subjects like
maths and science. This has helped to secure increases of 50%
and 21% respectively in the numbers of trainee teachers of maths
and science as well as a halving of the number of unfilled teacher
vacancies in these subjects since 2001. Nevertheless, as the studies
which the Government commissioned from Sir Gareth Roberts and
Professor Adrian Smith have made clear, the challenge of ensuring
better teacher supply in maths and science remains great. That
is why the Government has already acted to build on what has been
achieved since training bursaries and Golden Hellos were first
introduced.
In summer 2004, the Department for Education &
Skills' response to the Post-14 Mathematics Review announced a
package of new measures to promote better teaching and learning
of maths. These include increases in the value of the financial
incentives on offer to prospective maths teachers; more places
on school-based training programmes for maths graduate career-changers;
and the recruitment of a whole new cadre of subject-specialist
Higher Level Teaching Assistants to provide better support for
maths teachers in the classroom. Shortly afterwards, the Government's
10-Year Science and Innovation Framework announced parallel measures
to improve the teaching and learning of science.
With the help of strategies like these and with the
continuing support of the TTA, the Government's aim is to eliminate
the undershooting of its annual recruitment targets for maths
and science by 2007/08.
Besides training bursaries and Golden Hellos, recruitment
to shortage subjects is also benefiting from subject-enhancement
courses which have been piloted by the TTA. These are designed
primarily for people who already hold degrees which include a
component of maths, physics, chemistry or modern languages, but
who do not have the full degree-equivalence in these subjects
that is required for entry to a specialist PGCE course or the
GTP. Subject-enhancement courses last between 3 or 6 months and
are open only to those who already hold a conditional offer of
a teacher training place. These are making a valuable contribution
to shortage subject recruitment and make it possible to bring
into the profession people who might otherwise be lost. Independent
evaluation of the pilot courses has been very positive and the
Government has already announced the national rollout of enhancement
courses in maths and science from next year.
The Committee has drawn attention to the need to
guard against any unwanted consequences from offering additional
financial incentives for one subject area over another. We do
recognise the issue, but in the example offered by the Committee,
the concern is unnecessary as both physics and maths teachers
are considered to be in the same category of shortage subject
and therefore attract the same incentive package.
The Government collects a large amount of data on
teacher flows in order to monitor teacher supply in all subjects
and phases, and this enables timely measures to be introduced
to address teacher recruitment difficulties and helps to inform
teacher supply decisions. The Committee's specifically makes
mention of the additional research being undertaken to consider
the deployment patterns of mathematics and science teachers in
secondary schools. This research project will start in November
2004 and will provide detailed information about who is teaching
these subjects, including their qualifications and experience.
It will also help us understand more about teachers in these
shortage subjects, particularly in terms of their professional
development, motivation to teach and aspirations for the future.
This in turn will help inform effective policies to encourage
people to teach, and remain teaching, these subjects. It will
also collect evidence about how teachers and support staff are
deployed to deliver the curriculum in mathematics and science
in secondary schools.
Pay and allowances
The hostility to recruitment and retention allowances
appears so entrenched that there seems little prospect of their
current very limited use being expanded. Different approaches
are needed, and the DfES, governors, heads and LEAs, should explore
alternative ways of rewarding teachers working in challenging
circumstances.
Where there are persistent problems of recruitment
it is surely right in the interests of children's education that
financial incentives are available to attract teachers. They have
worked well in encouraging more people to train as secondary teachers,
and could make a significant difference. We look forward to seeing
the School Teachers' Review Body's recommendations following its
consultation.
The Government agrees with the Committee that incentives
are helpful in addressing recruitment and retention issues. The
Committee's report notes that recruitment and retention allowances
were little used in the majority of schools (though their application
was significantly greater in the London area). In April 2004
these gave way to the long-standing provision for schools and
LEAs to pay recruitment and retention incentives and benefits.
This was to encourage schools and LEAs to think more flexibly
and creatively about the incentives and benefits they wished to
offer, to deal with specific barriers to recruitment or retention
in their school or area. To these incentives and benefits may
be attached whatever conditions they choose, for example to attract
teachers they consider being of high quality. As well as giving
cash sums they may also support specific costs such as travel,
housing or childcare. It is too soon to assess the extent and
manner in which schools and LEAs are using these flexibilities
now that the flat rate allowances have ended, but we strongly
support and will continue to encourage their use.
The Committee was also concerned about ensuring individual
schools had the opportunity to address persistent recruitment
problems. We too share that concern which is why schools already
have other flexibilities within the pay system to reward teachers
in particular circumstances, including challenging ones. This
applies, for example, to the setting of pay ranges for members
of the Leadership Group and Advanced Skills Teachers, for which
governing bodies have the flexibility to take account of factors
such as recruitment, retention and the particular challenges of
the post.
The Government anticipates further recommendations
next year from the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) about the
wider use of local pay. We have addressed a number of issues with
the STRB's March 2004 proposals in our evidence to the STRB of
September 2004, which was produced jointly with our pay partners.
In particular we set out the criteria we believe were important
to achieve a successful local pay solution. These criteria were
that any changes to the current system should:
· help
to overcome persistent recruitment and retention difficulties;
· help to move
away from sharp 'cliff-edges' where neighbouring schools in different
LEAS pay their teachers differently;
· not jeopardise
the stability we have achieved over school budgets;
· be capable
of being managed within existing funding levels;
· support moves
we have already made towards greater local flexibility over pay;
and not overcomplicate the pay system.
The proposal for local pay was originally made to
increase schools' flexibility to make decisions at local level
to meet their particular needs. The proposals within our (September)
evidence would increase schools' flexibility to make decisions
to address local need in a national framework.
Leadership
We are not convinced that training for the National
Professional Qualification for Headship emphasises adequately
that the way in which a head teacher manages a school can be decisive
in persuading teachers to remain at that school. The impact of
the retention of high quality staff on improvements in pupil achievement
needs to be emphasised and good practice on retention issues needs
to be explicitly included in the training.
The Government shares the Committee's view that the
way a headteacher manages a school can be decisive in persuading
teachers to remain at that school. We need leaders (and leadership
teams) who can combine the ability to manage all the people in
schools, and money, with the creativity, imagination and inspiration
to lead transformation. That is why we are pleased that leadership
and management in schools continues to improve. In their 2003
report on school leadership and management, Ofsted reported that
in secondary schools, the proportion of leadership and management
judged to be good or better has increased from 56% in 1996-97
to 84% in 2001-02.
While we note the Committee's concern about the training
for National Professional Qualification for Headship, we are confident
that it will continue to provide the changes and improvements
in leadership that will both retain staff and improve pupil achievement.
The programme includes a number of elements including face-to-face
training, online work, networks to support and share good practice,
tutoring, school-based work and self study materials. The latter
materials include 32 units which are rewritten each year, and
the Committee will be pleased to learn that the next set of materials
will include further work on recruitment and retention.
It is important to note that the theme of retention
draws heavily for effectiveness on a number of skills which run
throughout the whole NPQH programme and include work on developing
positive relationships, teamwork and sharing leadership, developing
a positive ethos, emotional intelligence, making the most effective
use of all resources, including staff and continuous staff development.
We do place great importance on schools retaining
highly effective staff. The recently revised National Standards
for Headteachers set out the knowledge and professional qualities
expected of an effective headteacher, and provide that they should
'recruit, retain and deploy staff appropriately' and are committed
to 'the sustaining of staff motivation'. Furthermore, the school
governing body sets head teachers' objectives within the context
of the school development plan, and these must be linked to pupil
performance.
Mature entrants/age profile of the profession
Given the need to continue to recruit in the region
of 30,000 trainees a year into Initial Teacher Training, it is
essential that the Teacher Training Agency should aim to recruit
people from the widest possible pool—mature
entrants, those from minority ethnic communities, those seeking
part-time work and those returning to the profession amongst others.
More varied careers are likely to become the norm
in all fields of work and teaching will need to adapt to accommodate
that trend and facilitate flexibility to allow people to move
in and out of the profession.
What is needed is a good balance within the teaching
profession; those who have long-term careers in teaching, those
who teach and then move on to another career and those who come
to teaching as a second or third career.
The Committee will be interested to know that amongst
its successes in recent years the TTA has attracted a greater
proportion of people over 25 into teacher training. For instance,
in 2001-02, 51% of all trainees were over 25 and 21% over 35.
These people are often in their second or third career and they
bring a range of valuable skills and experience into schools.
Most of them are training to teach secondary shortage subjects
such as mathematics (35%), ICT (30%) and science (26%). The Government
therefore entirely agrees with the Committee's comments and is
glad that the excellent work the TTA is doing to recruit from
a much broader base is being recognised. This will of course
continue.
Teacher training institutions and schools are growing
increasingly reliant on mature entrants and returners; valuing
the skills they bring to the teaching profession. The rapid growth
in the GTP has been an effective way of attracting older, career
changers into the profession and improving its age profile. Traditional
routes will continue to be the main way into teaching for most
people, but employment-based routes will make a significant contribution
to teacher training and recruitment and reflect the need to ensure
that a range of routes are available to would be teachers whatever
their starting position.
It is also important for mechanisms to be found
to encourage those coming towards the end of their career to stay
in teaching in some capacity for as long as possible so that their
expertise is not lost. The age profile of the teaching profession,
with 50% aged over 45, could have serious implications for staffing
in our schools over the next ten to fifteen years unless the situation
is managed properly.
The DfES, National Employers Organisation for
School Teachers and the Teacher Training Agency need to develop
a managed approach to retirement to ensure that there is no sudden
exodus of half the profession, and that adequate numbers of new
recruits are brought in to the profession over the next decade.
The Government acknowledges the point the Committee
makes about the importance of managing the expected number of
retirements anticipated from the profession over the next few
years.
Flexibilities already exist in the Teachers' Pension
Scheme (TPS) which allow teachers to manage the last years of
their careers in a number of ways, including a move from full
to part time working while having their pension benefits calculated
using their full time equivalent salary. There are also arrangements
that allow them, with the support of their employers, to 'step
down' from a post of responsibility during the years leading up
to retirement and protect their pension benefits from the consequences
of the reduction in salary that is associated with this.
Our proposed changes to the TPS will allow people
pursuing more than one career within a working life, taking career
breaks or otherwise seeking improved work life balance, to do
so and still build greater pension benefits in the TPS in ways
that are more flexible than under the existing arrangements.
The Government's consultation on the modernisation of the TPS
specifically refers to challenges which will be faced by employers
in the future and asks for ideas on how they can be resolved.
It also suggests changes which would provide enhanced flexibilities
and allow teachers to manage working patterns towards the end
of a career or to work beyond normal retirement age to receive
enhanced pension benefits. These changes should help to spread
the effect of retirements, help employers plan and enable schools
to retain the expertise of teachers who would be prepared to continue
working but in a different pattern.
Furthermore, as part of its package of reforms of
the taxation regime that governs occupational pension schemes,
the Government proposes to allow members of occupational pension
schemes to draw some or all of their occupational pension benefits
from the age of 55, without the requirement that the individual
has retired completely from that employment.
Both we and employers have recognised that there
will need to be adequate human resource (HR) management capacity
to meet the needs of a workforce, shaped to maximise the capacity
of the institution to meet its objectives, and we are encouraging
institutions to consider how their existing HR arrangements could
be adapted to optimise the match between these arrangements and
pension flexibilities.
But is not of course all about increasing the flexibility
for our older teachers. We also need a firm grasp of our requirement
for new teachers over the coming years. The Government's teacher
supply model is used to inform the allocation of teacher training
places for future years and therefore to ensure that there are
adequate numbers of NQTs in future. The model takes into account
a range of factors including the age profile of current teachers,
as well as projected trends in pupil numbers and projections of
wastage from and entry to teaching. As was detailed in our evidence
to the Committee in mid-2003, the TTA is currently pursuing various
successful recruitment policies to provide sufficient teachers
during the coming years, particularly in shortage subjects.
Wastage from training and qualified teachers who
do not enter teaching
Concerns about the high level of drop-out from
initial teacher training could be addressed by seeking to expand
the employment based routes.
Any expansion of employment based training must
include appropriate support for trainees and for their schools.
The Government shares the Committee's view that unnecessary
wastage from ITT should be reduced wherever possible. While it
continues to be a concern, the problem has to be seen within the
context that about three-quarters of those who complete ITT in
England each summer take up a teaching post in a maintained school
in England by the following March. Others find their first posts
in other parts of the UK, or start their teaching careers later.
Many teachers will take a break in service at some stage during
their careers—for example, to have a family—but about
three-quarters of those who enter teaching are still in the profession
10 years later.
Part of the solution is to make sure that trainees
are aware of the realities of the profession before they start
training. For some, teaching will not be the right career, and
it is important that they are counselled out of the profession
or fail to gain QTS. The TTA has an extensive range of career
exploration opportunities to enable potential applicants to find
out about training to teach and teaching as a career before committing
themselves to training. These include open schools visits and
3-day taster courses. Regional careers advisers are available
to give impartial advice and guidance to career changers so they
can make informed choices about their suitability for teaching
and the most appropriate route to QTS. These services are likely
to reduce the small number of people who gain QTS but do not enter
teaching.
To provide information that will help us understand
why trainees drop out, the TTA has commissioned a study to examine
the wastage rates between gaining QTS and entry into the teaching
profession. The initial findings certainly suggest estimates
of wastage that are too high, but the research does also seem
to show that most trainees gaining QTS eventually engage in teaching
or some other work in the education sector. The picture is complex
but training colleges also support this view, and the TTA will
disseminate the findings to the sector and discuss further action
as appropriate. The 'Becoming a Teacher' project is also exploring
reasons for drop-out from ITT and for non-take up of teaching
posts on completion of training. Around 87% of the secondary trainees
surveyed as part of the study in 2003-04 indicated that it is
'very likely' that they will enter teaching on completion of their
ITT programme with only 1% feeling it to be 'fairly unlikely'
or 'very unlikely'. The project will be looking at the actual
take up of teaching posts later this term. We will of course
consider what if any further action is needed in light of these
findings.
The Committee is right to draw attention to the positive
affects of employment based routes into training. Demand for places
on employment based training remains high and the number of trainees
starting has increased considerably in recent years. For instance,
in 2003-04, there were 4,200 trainees starting on the GTP, Registered
Teacher Programme or Overseas Trained Teacher Programme, an increase
of more than 1,000 trainees compared with 2002-03. This compares
with a total of just 440 trainees on these routes in 1999-2000.
The TTA plans to expand the number of places available to be
able to respond to this demand. However, as the Committee makes
clear, it is important for trainees to have access to support
while training and the Government considers it is essential that
schools provide a strong, supportive, learning environment for
trainees, with school based mentors. Training providers therefore
have to ensure that trainees are only sent to schools where there
are good support mechanisms.
The government's five year plan
As part of its five year strategy, the Government
must develop a plan for the structure and strategic management
of the teaching profession which addresses the specific issues
we have identified; without sufficient appropriately qualified
and experienced teachers, all plans for improvements in school
provision will come to nothing.
The Government agrees with the Committee that without
sufficient appropriately qualified and experienced teachers all
plans for improvements in school provision will come to nothing.
We believe we have come a long way in addressing recruitment difficulties
in schools and the TTA deserve much credit for this success. But
we must not be complacent and the TTA will continue to gather
data and review access to teacher training from the widest range
of prospective teachers to ensure they continue to get it right.
We anticipate them bringing the same drive and determination to
their new remit for CPD which they will be pursuing alongside
their extended remit on occupational standards, HR principles
and training and development plans for school support staff. Increasingly
we see the TTA evolving to become the focus of HR expertise and
guidance to support improvement and modernisation in schools.
We are also clear that the quality of leadership
and management in schools will be critical to helping them overcome
these challenges. Following the recent review of the NCSL, we
will be helping the College to strengthen its position as a strategically
focused, powerful hub of school leadership, supporting the overall
strategy.
Beyond that the Committee is right to highlight our
Five Year Strategy as the mechanism for developing the structure
and providing the strategic management of the teaching profession.
The Strategy sets out our vision for a new teacher professionalism
and envisages teachers taking greater responsibility for their
careers and their development within a structured framework of:
· standards
that clarify what is expected of teachers at different stages
in their careers—from
QTS to Excellent Teacher Status—and
provide a range of career pathways;
· regular reviews
that are focussed on teaching and learning—both effective
classroom practice and learning outcomes—and that inform
decisions about professional development so teachers can make
progress in their careers and improve their practice; and
· a system of
rewards that reflects teachers' contribution to teaching and learning
and their commitment to professional development—both to
their own development and to the development of other school staff.
We believe that the greater clarity about expectations
and standards, the emphasis on teaching and learning, the opportunities
to learn skills and progress, and rewards that recognise the contribution
made to pupil attainment and to developing the expertise of others,
will all enhance the attractiveness of teaching. It will also
help to raise the status of the profession, especially when taken
forward alongside the ongoing remodelling of the workforce and
the reform of the teachers' pay scale.
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