the trillion £ question: how to make the most of school staff?

@LouisMMCoiffait @ReformThinkTank

The trillion £ question:

How to make the most of school staff?

Presentation at: https://goo.gl/b2Zt9U

11.50-12.30, session 3, room M211

ResearchED 2017 National Conference #rED17

Louis Coiffait

Head of Education

Reform – an independent, non-party think tank


Agenda

1 The research project

2 Why teachers matter

3 Workforce challenges

Three solutions:

4 National: reforming teacher training funding

5 Regional: Workforce Boards

6 Local: growing more schools groups

7 Q&A


The research project

1 Interviews with forty-one experts

2 Roundtable with nineteen

3 Analysis of existing data and research

4 Report over fifty pages long

5 A comprehensive new vision for the workforce

6 Fifteen recommendations (just three shared here)

7 Out in full later this month…


Why teachers matter

Maintaining a vital public service

1 Single biggest impact on pupil outcomes

2 With benefits to both pupils and the country

3 Schools spend 70-80% of their budgets on staff

4 Over a trillion £ invested in current workforce

5 A company with such an asset would invest in

constant maintenance and upgrades, instead…


Current approaches to our trillion pound asset?

A) Over-emphasis on recruitment not retention

B) Blunt, short-term, opaque national approach

C) Unfair playing field for some schools


Workforce challenges

Trouble brewing

1 Rising vacancies

2 Especially some regions and ‘core’ subjects

3 +19.1% secondary pupils by 2026, +2.2% primary

4 Workforce Census data inaccurate

5 Disadvantaged students more likely to be taught

by unqualified and inexperienced teachers

6 7-year EBacc delay, mainly from workforce issues

7 Two decades of policy on standards, structures

and accountability – but consequences for staff


Total vacancies and as a proportion

of teachers in post

Vacancies growing overall


Vacancies as a proportion of all teachers

in post, in four subjects

Vacancies particularly acute in EBacc subjects


Proportion of teachers without a relevant

post A-level qualification, in five subjects

Some subject specialists in short supply


Vacancies or temporarily filled posts as a

proportion of all teachers, by region

Vacancies vary between (and within) regions


Trends in number of secondary teachers

and pupils

The approaching tidal wave…


Three (out of fifteen) solutions…

(see Karen; cake and saltatorius, as promised…)


National: current ITT funding

Focus on recruiting and training (not retention)

1 Vacancies mean focus on quantity not quality

2 Agency costs rising +27% to £1.3 billion

3 Compete with alternative careers in each subject

4 Attract more and different people

5 Nearly £1billion of recruitment bursaries DfE’s

only answer in recent years

6 But poor evidence of value for money, with risk

of ‘deadweight’ (people applying anyway)

7 All the money spent on recruitment, not retention


National: Mean bursary level and annual exit

rate by subject (2015-16)

Higher-cost recruitment has lower retention

Subject

Mean bursary level

(1st, 2.1 and 2.2) Annual exit rate

Sciences £19,571 10.4%

Mathematics £25,000 10.3%

Languages £25,000 10.2%

Technology £7,000 10%

English £6,000 9.7%

Art, drama and music £4,333 8.4%

Humanities £4,333 8.5%


National: reforming teacher training funding

From recruitment bursaries to retention rewards

1 All bursary money currently spent to recruit

2 Phased retention rewards would help retention

e.g. £25k becomes five annual £5k payments

4 Helps get people past tough first five years

5 Helps discourage (or turn) ‘bursary tourists’

6 Less risk than ‘service periods’ with sanctions


Regional: current picture

Who’s accountable for the workforce?

1 Multiple overlapping / opaque programmes,

often micro-managed from the centre

2 Bureaucratic caps and allocations

3 Partial and ad-hoc regionalisation

4 £1.43m National Teaching Service recruited … 24

“Nick Gibb can’t be responsible for filling

every teaching vacancy!”

Interviewee


Current centralised picture (acronym bingo)

Unclear if spending effective

DfE

9 N/RSCs

8 HTBs

32 SRIBs

NTS

£1.43m

HEIs

Recruitment

marketing

£16.7m

SCITTs

Regional

infrastructure

/ delivery staff 12 OAs

Bursaries /

scholarships

£1bn

TLIF

REP

NPSS

SSIF

MPTSP

Intl. recruiting

£10m


Regional: Workforce Boards

Funding and decisions devolved to each region

1 Tinkering not working, a new vision needed

2 A more tailored approach to the workforce

3 A single workforce funding pot for each region

4 New Boards decide regional workforce strategy

5 Respond to local needs, develop solutions

6 New Brokers win contracts to deliver the strategy

/ help with solutions e.g. impartial brokering /

advice for staff in the region


Regional Workforce Boards

Bringing all regional stakeholders together

Board –

decides

strategy

Broker –

helps deliver

strategy

Single

workforce

funding pot

Chartered

CollegeHEIs SCITTs

Teaching

schools

Reps for all

schools

LEPs / Metros

/ Mayors

Regional Workforce Board

RSC (Chair)


Local: growing more schools groups

All harder / impossible for stand-alone schools

1 Distinctive career offers to staff

2 Greater capacity for development / progression

3 Succession planning and leadership training

4 Secondments and shared posts

5 Centrally employed / deployed staff across group

6 Centralised support services e.g. HR, recruitment

7 Negotiate better agency and CPD contracts

8 Capacity and data for workforce planning


Local: growing more schools groups

MATs and federations hold more cards

1 Clear benefits of groups, especially for staff

2 True of both MATs and ‘hard’ federations

3 Stand-alone schools struggle to compete

4 But two thirds of schools not in such a group

5 Need to understand and share benefits better

6 DfE should be agnostic about group type

7 Federations the ‘gateway drug’...


How our trillion pound asset should be treated?

A) Incentives to retain (not just recruit) staff

B) A clear and tailored regional approach

C) A fairer playing field between schools


Thank you! Questions?

Our research report on the school

workforce is out later this month