Commenting on the Education Select Committee’s report on teacher recruitment, training and retention, NFER School Workforce Lead, Jack Worth said:
“We welcome the report which highlights the depth of the current recruitment and retention crisis in England and the need for urgent action to address the worsening shortages. It is encouraging to see recommendations informed by the latest robust research, particularly NFER’s evidence on the impact of teacher shortages on schools, value for money of bursaries, importance of flexibility working and teachers’ priorities for workload reduction.
“Recommendations, such as increasing pay to remain competitive, subsidising professional development programmes and attracting career changers, centre on the need for Government to invest more funding in measures which improve recruitment and retention. We welcome the suggestion that Government should prioritise resource in the next spending review to support a funded long-term strategy which reduces teacher shortages, including adequate funding for pay increases.”