New measures to enhance recruitment and retention in the teaching profession have been announced by the Department for Education.
The recruitment and retention measures include £1.5 million of new investment to deliver a three-year mental health and wellbeing support package for school and college leaders; providing professional supervision and counselling to at least 2,500 leaders.
The government is also committing to publish new guidance for schools – expected to be completed this spring – on how to prevent and tackle bullying and harassment of school staff.
The recruitment and retention measures have been announced after extensive consultation with school leaders and teachers around the improvements they believe will ensure that teaching remains an attractive and rewarding profession.
Separately, the Workload Reduction Taskforce – a cross-cutting group made up of unions, teachers, and sector leaders – has agreed early recommendations to help reduce teacher workload and encourage education staff wellbeing to support the department’s aim to reduce teachers’ and leaders’ working week by five hours within the next three years. The group will make final recommendations on how to address the wider causes of teacher and leader workload to government, Ofsted, and school and trust leaders in Spring 2024.
This builds on the Public Sector Productivity Programme led by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Chancellor, which is revealing huge opportunities to cut admin, safely harness Artificial Intelligence and deliver early interventions to relieve pressure on public services and help boost teacher recruitment and retention.
School Minister Damian Hinds said, “Great teaching is the key ingredient to academic success – and while we now have more teachers than ever before – it’s crucial that we continue to ensure that teaching remains an attractive and rewarding profession.
“That’s why we have announced new investment and reforms to support teacher wellbeing, ease workload pressures and tackle bullying and harassment of staff.
“Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils, standards in education have risen significantly since 2010, with nearly 90% of schools now rated good or outstanding.”