New teacher recruitment strategy boosts early-career support

The government has launched a new teacher recruitment and retention strategy which includes more early career support, opportunities for flexible and part-time working, and a reduction in their workload.

An Early Career Framework, backed by at least £130 million a year in extra funding when fully rolled out, will be established. It will see new teachers receive a two-year package of training and support at the start of their career, including a reduced timetable to allow teachers to make the most of their training. Extra investment will also be pledged, through the £42million Teacher Development Premium, to roll-out the Early Career Framework.

There will be extra financial incentives to encourage talented teachers to stay in the classroom - Bursaries will be reformed to include retention-based payments for those who stay in the profession by staggering additional payments throughout the first years of their career.

The process of applying to become a teacher will be simplified. There will be a new one-stop application system to make applications easier for would-be teachers and making it easier for more people to experience classroom teaching.

There will also be measures to reduce teachers’ workload – helping school leaders strip away unnecessary tasks such as data entry; simplifying the accountability system to clarify when a school may be subject to intervention or offered support; and working with Ofsted to ensure staff workload is considered as part of a school’s inspection judgement.

The strategy also talks about creating a more diverse range of options for career progression – helping schools to introduce flexible working practices through a new match-making service for teachers seeking a job-share and developing specialist qualifications and non-leadership career routes for teachers that want to stay in the classroom, with additional incentives to work in challenging schools.