Teachers: Incentives

(asked on 5th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to offer teachers any recognition or rewards for their work during the covid-19 outbreak in order to help retain teaching staff.


Answered by
Robin Walker Portrait
Robin Walker
This question was answered on 14th January 2022

The COVID-19 outbreak has shone a light on the life-changing role that teachers play in children’s lives. I recognise and am grateful for the extraordinary efforts that school leaders and staff have made to ensure pupils get the best possible education throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.

Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply and quality, and we are taking action to support teachers to stay in the profession and thrive. Over two-thirds of teachers who started 5 years ago are still teaching today, and of those who started 10 years ago, nearly 3 in 5 are still teaching. However, we recognise that more needs to be done.

The department is creating an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support and professional development for all new teachers, to bring teaching into line with other prestigious professions such as law, accountancy, and medicine. Underpinning this is the initial teacher training (ITT) Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework. These ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least 3 years of evidence-based training, across ITT and into their induction.

We have also published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. These include the staff wellbeing charter and the workload reduction toolkit, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter and here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.

This year's remit to the School Teachers’ Review Body reiterates the government's commitment to raising teacher starting salaries to £30,000 and seeks recommendations for pay awards in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic year. This will give schools the opportunity to better plan their budgets as we make the uplifts required to progress towards a £30,000 starting salary.

We are looking to deliver this through balanced pay uplifts across the entire workforce, with investment targeted as effectively as possible to address recruitment and retention challenges and, ultimately, ensure the best outcomes for pupils.

Additionally, we will be offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for maths, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in years 1 to 5 of their careers. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

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