4 in 5 school leaders struggle to recruit, says new survey
Almost four in five schools struggle to fill positions, reveals a new survey by the National Association of Head Teachers.
A high proportion (79%) of the 2,135 respondents who had advertised vacancies said recruitment was an issue, suggesting that the most problematic posts to fill were those with a teaching and learning responsibility payment (TLR) and Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs).
The survey findings come in the week that SCHOOLS NorthEast has written to Head Teachers announcing that a regional recruitment portal, Jobs in Schools North East, will go live in mid-January offering a dedicated North East jobs board for schools in the region. The portal aims to address recruitment and retention issues in the North East while also reducing the cost of advertising for schools.
The NAHT survey showed that schools are experiencing difficulties in recruiting across both primary and secondary sectors and that 20% of the respondents were unable to recruit at all.
More respondents reported this year that their struggle was down to the number of teachers leaving the profession in their area – the figure more than doubled over the last year, being cited by 33% of the respondents, up from 15% in 2014.
The report release coincided with an Education Select Committee evidence session with Schools Minister Nick Gibb and education professionals as part of its inquiry into the supply of teachers. The committee also heard evidence from the NAHT report.
During the session, NAHT General Secretary Russell Hobby reiterated that the biggest problem faced in the wake of a teacher recruitment crisis is that schools and the Government “don’t have a shared view of the situation”. Mr Hobby suggested that the Department for Education does not sample in the right way by looking at the number of vacancies available, explaining that many times schools compromise to fill the post with a candidate that might not be the perfect match. He said the best indicator towards a clearer picture is the number of times schools have to re-advertise.
The key recommendations of the report state that there is a significant difference between official statistics and the perceptions of those in schools: “recruitment difficulties are masked in the official data by the timing of information gathering and interim solutions put in place to keep schools operational. Headline figures also mask local, regional and subject variations. The DfE needs to work with key partners to develop more nuanced approaches to measuring recruitment.”
SCHOOLS NorthEast wants to know if the regional picture resembles the national one. Please take a few moments to complete our survey on teacher recruitment in the North East.
NAHT recruitment survey findings