Archived decisions

Children and Young People Select Committee

2 July 2008

Review of Recruitment and Retention of Teachers and Headteachers

Scoping Document.

1. Introduction

1.1 As part of its 2008 Work Programme, Hampshire County Council's Children and Young People Select Committee opted to review the issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of teachers and headteachers in Hampshire schools. National focus on this issue has been growing over many years, with much media attention on the rising trend of teachers leaving the profession adding to pressure to understand the reasons for teachers opting to leave teaching or to pursue alternative careers.

1.2 A snapshot from the 2007 Hampshire Joint Area Review shows that there are approximately 309,000 children and young people aged 0-9 with over 172,000 pupils in 541 maintained schools in Hampshire. The area is a mix of urban and rural population with areas of affluence and significant areas of deprivation with three areas in Havant ranked as among the 10% most deprived in the country.

1.3 Pre-16 education is provided by:

    · Three nursery units

    · 430 primary schools

    · 71 secondary schools (nine with 6th forms)

    · 27 special schools

    · Three nursery schools

    · Seven pupil referral units (PRUs)

2. Rationale

2.1 National background

2.1.1 Information from the Department of Children, Schools and Families relating to teacher supply and demand shows that teacher vacancy rates have fallen nationally in recent years. However, in 2005-6 over two-thirds of entrants into full-time teaching in England were new to teaching. Over two-thirds of teaching posts are now filled by women and more than 2 in 5 full-time teachers are aged over 45 with 1 in 5 being under 30. The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) claims that the decline in the number of teachers in their late 30s to mid-40s suggests that a shortage of headteachers could occur in the near future.

2.1.2 The NCSL asserts that, while problems in recruiting and retaining headteachers are national issues, they require local solutions devised by those people who best understand the local context.

2.1.3 The recruitment and retention of teachers and headteachers are key issues facing school managers. Schools and their governing bodies are responsible for recruitment and retention and for managing budgets relating to this activity. There is therefore a certain degree of competition between schools in securing the best staff.

2.1.4 Guidance from the Department of Children Schools and Families (DCSF) highlights the need for schools to work with each other, and with their local authorities to develop recruitment strategies and plan for future problems.

2.1.5 Certain subject areas are more difficult to recruit to than others, with Maths, Science and English in particular shortage nationally.

2.1.6 A range of initiatives has been put forward to strengthen recruitment and retention of teachers - from `golden hellos' for newly qualified teachers to toolkits for developing sustainable schools - although emphasis is put on retention as being the best long-term solution. Whilst teaching as a career has an excellent retention record, most teachers leaving the profession cited unhappiness with management as being their reason to quit.

2.1.7 The General Teaching Council's 2007 annual independent survey of the views and experiences of the teaching profession concludes that the results `do little to allay the concerns about retention within the teaching profession. The findings point to the challenges of retention per se, and also suggest that a number of teachers may be disillusioned in their current employment. In view of the importance of these issues and the value to children's education of promoting high levels of job satisfaction among teachers, it would seem crucial to take account of the trends reported [...] as well as the reasons for the possible disaffection of some members of the teaching profession.' A summary of the issues and trends from the GTC survey are presented in the following paragraphs.

2.1.8 It is interesting to note that the response rate to the GTC survey was very low, meaning that the views and attitudes expressed by respondents may differ from non-respondents. A significant under-representation of teachers in the 30-39 age group, men and secondary school teachers and over-representation of teachers in the 50-59 age group, women and primary schools should be highlighted.

2.1.9 Key findings relating to teachers' career development projections show that 83% of teachers expect to continue to develop in their current role. About 9% of teachers anticipate becoming an advanced skills teacher and the same number expect to gain excellent teacher status. 32% can see themselves moving into a leadership or management role other than headship while 5% expect to become a headteacher. 9% think it likely that they would take the National Professional Qualification for Headship. Men are more likely than women to pursue school leadership posts and are more than twice as likely to envisage becoming a headteacher.

2.1.10 Amongst those teachers expecting to leave the profession within the next 5 years, 29% plan to retire, 15% plan to seek alternative employment and 12% plan to take a career break. More than half of the headteachers who expect to leave the profession within 5 years expect to retire.

2.1.11 In terms of professional development, 30% felt that their needs had been fully met over the previous 12 months whereas 17% felt that their needs had not been met. Higher proportions of women, 30-49 year olds and secondary school teachers felt that their professional development needs were not being met. Teachers with 3-5 years experience of teaching were also more likely than their colleagues with less than 3 years experience to say that their needs were met. Common reasons for why teachers felt their professional development needs had not been met were that they were not offered the opportunity to attend sessions, lack of funding and shortage of time.

2.1.12 In relation to recruiting and retaining headteachers, there is strong national focus, with a range of guidance and tools available to assist in developing future school leaders. Headteachers are in short supply nationally and it is generally acknowledged that strong school leadership is vital in maintaining standards in schools. The National College of School Leadership (NCSL) has found that difficulties in filling headteacher vacancies vary across the country, with no clear reasons as to this variation. However, certain types of school are experiencing particular difficulties: faith schools, small rural schools and schools with falling rolls. The NCSL anticipates that the headteacher shortage will come to a head in 2009-11.

2.1.13 Difficulties in recruiting headteachers are linked to a variety of factors including negative perceptions of headship, the length of time normally taken to achieve headship, a lack of `talent management' of potential leaders earlier in their careers, and a lack of collaboration between schools in managing succession planning in their areas.

2.1.14 Key issues arising from a national perspective therefore include:

    · Age profile of the teaching profession.

    · The importance of having sound local solutions to the problems of recruiting and retaining teachers and headteachers.

    · Collaboration between schools in an area.

    · A lack of real clarity regarding the reasons for teachers' unhappiness in their profession.

    · Incentives to teachers in being recruited to, or progressing within, a teaching career.

    · Certain groups being particularly difficult to recruit and retain: men, 30-45 year olds, secondary school teachers, women in leadership roles including headship.

    · Levels of satisfaction with professional development.

    · Problems in recruiting headteachers to certain types of school.

2.1.15 Other national issues which may be worth considering within a review would include pupil behaviour and the impact of the 14-19 curriculum on teachers and school managers.

2.2 Local background

2.2.1 In the 2007 evaluation of the Hampshire Children and Young People Plan, progress with the recruitment and retention of teachers was summarised as follows:

    Teacher vacancy levels over the past 5 years have reduced from over 2% to 1.4%. Hampshire's school recruitment and retention strategy has supported national initiatives to achieve this reduction through the development of a range of key activities including a `teach.hampshire' branding and website; taster courses; returner courses; Graduate Teacher Programmes and promotion of national housing initiatives. Recruitment campaigns have targeted hotspot geographical and subject areas, and supported special school and newly qualified teacher (NQT) recruitment in particular. The latter has increased from 600 to 700 new recruits over the past 5 years. Retention of NQTs is around 70% [...] Re-advertising rates for headteacher appointments remain fairly high at around 20%, but have shown a slight decrease in the last 5 years. Hampshire headteacher age profiles reflect national trends with projected figures for recruitment levels peaking in 2009 when around 7.5% of current Hampshire headteachers will reach the age of 60. In order to address this, the Authority is taking part in a national pilot for school leadership succession planning and is developing a range of local strategies to support talent management and a systemic response to the development and appointment of future leaders.

2.2.2 Recruitment and retention of high calibre people, and succession planning, is a key aim of Hampshire County Council's Human Resources Strategy. A framework for the development of senior staff in schools forms part of plans to maximise retention of quality school staff.

Information from HCC's Education Personnel Services shows that the recruitment and retention of teachers is indeed an issue in Hampshire - reflecting the national picture. Statistics show that the level of teacher vacancies from September 2007 until end of May 2008 are already higher than the totals for the whole of 2007. This particularly applies in the Basingstoke area.

2.2.3 Hampshire undertakes various strategies to attract new teachers, although certain pockets of the County - notably Basingstoke and Deane - remain very difficult to recruit to. There is a strong sense that greater innovation in devising methods to attract teachers is needed. Whilst the reasons for recruitment difficulties are not always clear, some commonly cited reasons include pay (particularly when higher salaries can be achieved in the London area nearby), the condition of school buildings being unattractive as work places, and the red tape imposed by certain Government policies and initiatives.

Particular subjects prove particularly difficult to recruit to in Hampshire, notably Maths, Science and English, but also modern foreign languages, ICT, Drama and PE.

2.2.4 Initial investigations into the reasons for the difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers highlight some concern with the standards required by some teacher training providers. Hampshire County Council and Hampshire schools have also been interested to note the variation in levels of preparedness for the classroom of teachers who have been through different training routes - from the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) to one year conversion courses.

2.2.5 Hampshire is aware of the need to identify future school leaders early in their careers and has set in place initiatives such as the Leadership Development Centre - an assessment centre for existing deputy headteachers to identify ongoing development needs to achieve headship. Whilst the first pilot of this scheme was successful, no evaluation of the scheme was undertaken and so the outcomes and next steps with this initiative are unclear. The numbers of teacher participants in the scheme in subsequent rounds have also dropped significantly.

2.2.6 A new process called the `Talent Management Scheme' - which acts as a pre-cursor to the Leadership Development Centre by identifying teachers earlier in their careers as future leaders - may help to boost numbers attending the LDC in future. The TMS has been designed to complement the requirements of the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers which will become compulsory from 2009.

2.2.7 In terms of the age-profile of Hampshire headteachers, a study by Hampshire's Education Personnel Services showed there to be 536 headteachers in Hampshire in 2005, the majority of these being aged between 46 and 55. From 2009 onwards the projected number of retirements increases significantly. Primary heads were shown to have the widest age range and a higher percentage of younger heads than either secondary or special schools. The most notable feature of the special school headteacher age profile was that almost a third (32%) of special school heads are over 55. This is significantly higher than both primary (where the figure is reduced to 23%) and secondary (where the over 55's represent only 17% of heads).

2.2.8 In drawing conclusions from this study, the Education personnel Service found that a relatively healthy pattern of succession planning exists in Hampshire schools, with a steadily increasing number of younger headteachers year on year. However, if the number of young headteachers continues to increase, there will be an ever increasing need for appropriate retention strategies and development opportunities in order to increase the likelihood of younger heads continuing their headship career in Hampshire. In addition to this, robust strategies are also required to encourage a higher percentage of headteachers to remain in post until (or beyond) standard retirement age, reducing the headteacher turnover rate and decreasing the level of headteacher recruitment activity.

2.2.9 Key issues arising from a local perspective therefore include:

    · Teacher vacancy numbers, particularly in the north of the County.

    · Identifying the reasons, and possible solutions, for teachers not being attracted to certain parts of the County.

    · Issues in recruiting teachers in certain subject areas.

    · The impact of different initial teacher training programmes on recruitment and retention.

    · Understanding the effectiveness of Hampshire school leadership and management programmes.

    · Issues associated with the age profile of the teaching profession in Hampshire.

3. Other scrutiny work in this area

3.1 A 2003 enquiry into teacher recruitment and retention in the secondary sector by the Commons Education and Skills Select Committee sought to investigate concerns over systemic problems in the teaching workforce in secondary schools: too many teachers were resigning from their posts, a third had expressed a desire to leave the profession over the following five years and recruitment had declined dramatically. However, the enquiry did not produce any evidence of endemic problems with retention and recruitment, but did uncover a number of specific problems. These included:

    · Varying success of teacher induction programmes and the impact of `rogue' heads and managers who can blight a NQT's career before it begins.

    · The importance of integrating the end of training, induction training and ongoing development and support for new teachers

    · The importance of continuing professional development.

    · Particular issues around the recruitment, retention and ongoing training of teachers from black and minority ethnic communities.

    · Teacher workload.

    · Pupil behaviour.

    · A lack of training for teachers specific to working in challenging schools.

    · Quality of school leadership.

    · Schools with persistent labour shortages not being able to offer higher levels of pay to potential teachers

    · Shortages of teachers in particular subject areas and teachers teaching outside their area of specialism.

    · The ageing profile of the teaching workforce.

    · A shift in perceptions that teaching is no longer a career for life.

3.2 A review of recruitment and retention of teachers in North East Lincolnshire in 2005 found that there was no general shortage of staff in primary schools, but that there were problems in recruiting to particular subjects in secondary schools.

3.3 Birmingham City Council's 2006 scrutiny review Recruitment, Support and Retention of Teachers highlighted the following issues:

    · Pupil behaviour.

    · The decline of teaching as a career of choice.

    · The ageing profile of the teaching workforce.

    · A shortage of headteachers to fill vacancies.

    · Imbalances in the workforce profile in the teaching profession regarding male entrants into primary teaching and black and minority ethnic entrants across the board.

    · Work-life balance issues.

3. Key points arising for scrutiny

3.1 Members may wish to consider some of the following in their scrutiny of this subject area:

    · The range and effectiveness of Hampshire's locally devised solutions to the problems of recruiting and retaining teachers and headteachers.

    · Difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers from particular social groups: men, 30-45 year olds, secondary school teachers, women in leadership roles including headship.

    · How the age-profile of Hampshire teachers impacts on recruitment and retention methods.

    · The reasons for teacher vacancy numbers, particularly in the north of the County.

    · Issues in recruiting teachers in certain subject areas.

    · Understanding how teachers view their teaching career path in Hampshire and the incentives that would encourage them to begin, or progress with, a teaching career.

    · The effectiveness of collaborations between schools in recruitment and retention initiatives.

    · The effectiveness and importance of Professional Development for teachers.

    · The impact of different initial teacher training programmes on recruitment and retention.

    · Understanding the effectiveness of Hampshire school leadership and management programmes.

    · Problems in recruiting headteachers to certain types of school.

5. Proposed approach

It is proposed that a `select committee' style review is undertaken, inviting evidence from a range of stakeholders. These stakeholders may include:

    · Teachers and headteachers of Hampshire schools from target social and age-groups.

    · Hampshire County Council Education Personnel officers.

    · Hampshire school governors.

    · Past and present participants on the Hampshire Leadership Development Centre and Talent Management programmes.

    · Representatives of Hampshire School Improvement Partnerships.

    · Teaching union representatives.

    · Other local authorities

6. References