{"id":212480,"date":"2024-09-06T11:39:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T10:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=212480"},"modified":"2024-09-06T15:49:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T14:49:27","slug":"pledge-for-6500-new-teachers-may-not-be-delivered-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/pledge-for-6500-new-teachers-may-not-be-delivered-for-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Pledge for 6,500 new teachers may not be delivered for years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Labour\u2019s manifesto promise to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers<\/a> may not be delivered for years, and officials are also considering whether to loosen the pledge to include retention too, Schools Week understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party earmarked \u00a3450 million for the pledge, but still has not set out a timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During an interview with Times Radio on Monday, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said there would be \u201cprogress over the course of the parliament because that is a rather large number of teachers\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut that was a day-one priority because I am clear the way that we drive up standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department for Education would not confirm whether this meant the new teachers, who will be in shortage subjects, would be recruited over the course of parliament, the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would average just over a thousand new teachers a year. Last year, 13,000 fewer teachers than required were recruited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bridget Phillipson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Schools Week<\/em> understands it is one approach under consideration. Teachers would be recruited mostly over the next few years, but with enough time to report its success before the next election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also understood another option on the table is whether to loosen the target so that it also includes the extra number of teachers retained in the sector, as opposed to just new recruits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no final decisions have been made yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools Week<\/em> understands the Department for Education<\/a> has assembled a specific team to hit the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Worth, the school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, previously urged Labour to \u201creframe\u201d the target to be about recruitment and retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Labour could use the \u00a3450m<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Recent analysis modelled how Labour could use the \u00a3450 million on a combination of pay rises and financial incentives to boost teacher supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One option was to spend the full amount on a 3.3 per cent increase in teacher pay next year in an effort to reduce the supply gap by 4,000 by 2028. But just 600 would be \u201cnew\u201d teachers, with retention accounting for the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a lower pay rise (2.6 per cent), alongside \u00a32,400 retention payments for teachers in their third year and boosting bursaries by \u00a33,000 for most subjects, would slash the teacher gap by 7,000, although only 2,000 of these would be new appointees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But David Spendlove, professor of education and associate dean of the faculty of humanities at the University of Manchester, said this would be \u201cfiddling the figures\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be impressed. It\u2019s sleight-of-hand politics and the danger is they just simply adopt some of the bad practices of the previous government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillipson also announced in July that the Department for Education would \u201cimmediately resume and expand\u201d its flagship teacher recruitment campaign, Every Lesson Shapes a Life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the DfE still hasn\u2019t explained how this has been \u2013 or will be \u2013 done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spendlove said the 6,500 target was \u201calways a misleading figure, always a distraction\u2026something to appease the public\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of the public wouldn\u2019t know what 6,500 meant, to many people it would sound like a large figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, it was always a low target. It wasn\u2019t a well-informed target and, consequently, it\u2019s largely meaningless at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Government, be more ambitious’ <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

He called for a \u201cmore sustainable strategy to think about how they consistently recruit, retrain and develop teachers\u2026 what we need is a more sophisticated approach, not just a global figure\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Andrew Carter, the chief executive of the South Farnham Educational Trust, said any commitment to have more teachers was to be commended. \u201cI know there’s no money, but the secret of teacher training is to get schools actively involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"James
James Noble-Rogers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“We need more than that [6,500] and if it’s over five years it’s not even going to touch the sides. If all the providers were encouraged to have 5 per cent more we’d be there. If that was incentivised a little bit with some cash, that would be helpful.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Noble-Rogers, the executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said the government \u201cshould be more ambitious\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, options are still under consideration and no final decision has been made yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Department for Education spokesperson said: \u201cWork is already underway to help deliver on our pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers across schools and colleges, including getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackling retention issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are developing our approach and putting plans in place to achieve this, which we will share publicly in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special unit assembled in DfE to work on Labour’s manifesto commitment, but concern grows over speediness of plan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311204,"featured_media":212487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28,239,314,853,1109,236],"post-theme":[2393],"class_list":["post-212480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dfe","tag-education-policy","tag-labour","tag-recruitment","tag-retention","tag-teacher-training","post-theme-recruitment-and-retention"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t