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How to recruit 6,500 new teachers?
Addressing the Teacher Recruitment Challenge: Insights from NFER's Analysis
The Government’s commitment to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects is a bold pledge aimed at alleviating longstanding teacher supply issues. However, new research by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, outlines significant challenges and cost implications associated with this target.
The research suggests that achieving an additional 6,500 teachers through pay increases alone would require a 9.55% annual pay rise per year for three years and cost an additional £4.9 billion annually by 2027/28. Despite its potential in improving recruitment and retention, this strategy is unlikely to be feasible in the current fiscal climate.
The report also emphasises the importance of alternative, cost-effective strategies, including:
- Bursaries and Early Career Retention Payments (ECRPs): Increasing bursaries and retention payments for teachers in shortage subjects, such as physics, could help bridge the gap. These payments could extend to teachers with over five years’ experience or to those in all secondary schools.
- Non-financial measures: Initiatives like reducing teacher workload by five hours per week or reintroducing funded Continuing Professional Development (CPD) have a role, but are unlikely to be sufficient in isolation to meet the target.
Combining policy measures
The research recommends a combination of financial and non-financial measures. Moderate pay increases, coupled with targeted incentives for shortage subjects and systemic workload reductions, could achieve the target at a lower overall cost.
Key Recommendations
The Government should:
- publish a detailed plan outlining how the 6,500-teacher target will be defined, achieved, and funded. This plan must balance financial incentives, targeted support for shortage subjects, and systemic improvements.
- invest in robust research to evaluate the impact and costs of non-financial measures such as workload reduction and CPD.
“The Government faces a considerable challenge to meet its 6,500 teacher supply pledge and many choices about how to deliver it. Our analysis shows that substantially increasing teachers’ pay could possibly deliver the required number of teachers, but it comes at a very high cost that is unlikely to be feasible in the current fiscal environment. Achieving the supply target will require new policy measures. We wait with interest to get clarity from the Government on how the target will be defined and how it plans to deliver and fund it.”
“The shortage of new teachers coming into the profession continues to be a barrier to delivery of the high-quality education our children and young people deserve, and the skills boost we need to deliver sustainable economic growth. We welcome ambitious policy commitments on teacher recruitment from the new Government, and this opportunity to overlay the insights from NFER’s modelling, as part of Gatsby’s ongoing research into teacher retention and recruitment, so that the government has as much information as possible to ensure that its targets are achievable.”
A path forward
As the Government prepares to address this recruitment challenge, it is vital to strike a balance between ambition and feasibility. A well-rounded strategy, incorporating insights from this research, is essential to ensuring every student in England has access to quality teaching in key subjects.
For more detailed analysis, read the full NFER report: How to Recruit 6,500 Teachers? Modelling the Potential Routes to Deliver Labour’s Teacher Supply Pledge,