Teachers: Labour Turnover

(asked on 4th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the (a)workload of teachers, (b) retention rate of teachers in that profession and (c) reasons for which teachers leave that profession.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 9th June 2021

Teacher retention and workload are key priorities for the Department. The latest teacher workload survey, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-workload-survey-2019, showed that the average total self-reported working hours in a given week for classroom teachers and middle leaders in primary and secondary schools in England was 49.5 hours, down by 4.9 hours compared to the 54.4 hours reported in 2016.

The most recent annual school workforce census, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2019, showed that of the teachers who qualified in 2018, 85.4% were still in service one year after qualification. This retention rate was slightly higher than the previous year when the one year retention rate was 85.1%. The November 2020 school workforce census will be published on 17 June 2021.

Whilst workload has been consistently cited as one of the main reasons given by teachers for leaving the profession, recent evidence suggests that it is the relationship between workload, job satisfaction and teacher autonomy that influences teacher retention.

The Department is therefore taking action to make sure that teachers are supported to stay in the profession. In May 2021 we published the education staff wellbeing charter. Developed in partnership with the sector, this sets out a range of commitments on the Government and employers in schools and colleges on wellbeing. The Charter is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.

The Department’s school workload reduction toolkit, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit, developed alongside school leaders, is a helpful resource that is being used by schools to review and reduce workload in their unique context.

We are ensuring teachers have access to high quality training and development, from initial teacher training (ITT) through to school leadership, by creating an entitlement to at least three years of structured support and professional development for teachers at the start of their careers. Underpinning this is the new ITT Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework. The Department is also launching new National Professional Qualifications for teachers and school leaders at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts.

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