The recruitment and retention crisis in Education is hitting the region’s schools leading many School Leaders to express their frustrations.
Two thirds of NE Schools struggling to Recruit
In the DfE’s most recent ITT census, all regions saw a decrease in new entrants in 2021/22. The greatest decrease in entrants was the South East (31%), while the smallest was in London (17%). The North East saw a 21% decrease in new entrants to the profession.
In Schools North East’s Spring 2023 ‘State of the Region’ survey, around two thirds of schools said they are struggling to recruit permanent staff. For 70% of these schools, recruiting teaching assistants and classroom support staff is the main challenge. On retention of current staff, just over 30% of responses said they were struggling. Two thirds of these schools had difficulties with retaining teaching staff. 30% of schools said that they had more vacancies than in pre-pandemic Spring terms.
Financial Hole to Fill
A Head Teacher from the North East told Schools North East:
“I am absolutely lost… we are currently heading into September short of 16 hours of teaching… there is nothing left to squeeze. We have been handed a huge financial hole to fill in the unfunded pay increases this year (heaven knows what happens next year). We have two staff out on an interview in Maths today… on the final day of term. If both get a job; we will have 80 hours of Maths teaching to fill for September – with no chance of recruiting as the deadline day is Wednesday next week.
I have seen a Trust this week offering £9k for a second in English position… how are smaller schools meant to compete with this… With over 60% of schools with a Maths vacancy.. this is not a crisis… it is a terminal sentence for Maths students in schools!”
The House of Commons Education Select Committee has recently begun an inquiry into teacher recruitment and retention. Schools North East held a roundtable in April to inform a written evidence submission. The submission highlighted the current challenges in the employment environment, the significant workload pressures and responsibilities schools have taken on (especially since the pandemic), and the lack of trust in the education profession.
As well as this broader crisis in recruitment and retention, schools face contextual challenges. Schools working in high levels of disadvantage and those in rural areas have additional difficulties in attracting the right staff. Too often, these obstacles are not adequately acknowledged, if at all, in education policy.
Jobs in Schools North East
The Schools North East dedicated, ‘not for profit’, regional jobs platform ‘Jobs in Schools North East’ has seen sharp increases in jobs advertised across the region. In January we saw an influx of Teacher and Pastoral roles, however by May Subject Leads became the role posted the most in the North East.
If you are interested in joining Jobs in Schools North East please click here.
To help support schools in Recruitment and Retention, Schools North East offers free webinars to Partner Schools. Non Partners can also join at a small cost. Please look out for announcements about our next Recruitment and Retention Webinar. If you’d like to find out more about our Partner School Programme click here.
We love to hear good news from North East Schools, to share your news with Schools North East please tag @SchoolsNE on Twitter or apply here.
