Accountability is never far from the headlines; however, the beginning of this year has seen a flurry of new announcements and changes. We’ve seen some key developments – not only in terms of changes to Ofsted inspections of schools (and soon, it would seem, trusts); but also key developments around teacher appraisal guidance and teacher pay. All of this feels like a step in the right direction. The new government is already making its mark.
Indeed, its intention appears to be a noble one – to make the system less high stakes, and more supportive. The new Secretary of State, Bridget Phillipson, when asked about accountability in the run up to the election said that she wanted the system to be more informative for parents and families, less high stakes for teachers. This really matters, and here’s why…
Only 59% of teachers remain in the profession a decade after qualification. The numbers of individuals undertaking Initial Teacher Training (ITT) has been falling. The research group TeacherTapp’s work has underlined this, showing that teachers in their first five years of teaching are typically more susceptible to leaving the profession. Among this group, intentions to remain a teacher have dropped the most, plummeting from 72% in May 2022 to 55% today.
And here’s the crux – we know that the high stakes accountability system has played its part in putting people off. It’s impacted on headteachers’ and school leaders’ wellbeing – with the well-documented case of Ruth Perry being such a deeply tragic example; and it’s significantly contributing to workload too. According to the Education Policy Institute, the most cited reasons for ‘leaving’ teaching in the state education sector were similar to those seen among those ‘considering leaving’: High workload (80%) and stress or poor wellbeing (74%) were again the two most commonly cited most important factors. It’s sadly not unusual to hear teachers, such as this one quoted in the Guardian in 2022, saying: “I am desperate to get out of education due to workload, constant monitoring and paperwork,”
This underlines that the pay award this Summer – whilst being positive recognition – is not going to be enough as a single strategy, we need to do other things. As the data shows – this isn’t the main driver for people leaving the profession. It’s also fundamentally about workplace culture and support, as well as the influence of the accountability system. The tone of the new appraisal and capability guidance will help. The appraisal guidance includes new language which states the process “should be intrinsically supportive and developmental, conducted within a school culture that values openness and fairness” and that “reducing unnecessary workload” should be an overarching consideration during the process. The new guidance for the capability procedure includes an instruction that notification of formal capability meetings “should never come as a surprise to the teacher concerned. Informal support and a performance improvement plan should mean that the teacher is fully aware”.
We will need to see how much the government’s reforms are going to mitigate some of these issues, whilst being realistic that in post-covid world – where big financial challenges and with a legacy of under investment in public services continue – that pressures on leaders and teachers will still remain. We need to work together – as a recent paper from a Forum Strategy group of CEO system leaders highlighted – to rebuild the sector to be one where wellbeing, manageable workload, flexibility, and professional development – as well as high standards of practice – define our sector.
Satis Education is determined to support and work with all those trusts and schools who are committed to this and, importantly, to help you make the case to great new teachers and leaders to consider working with your trusts and schools. To get the right people through the door – and to hold onto them – we need to look at recruitment and retention in the round, and that means having a deep appreciation of the factors that make a difference. Thankfully, it looks like we have a Secretary of State who’s going to help us, not hinder us, in that task too.
Satis Education are sector leaders in executive recruitment and bring their expertise to support trusts and schools with leadership recruitment, teacher recruitment, and interim leadership. www.satiseducation.co.uk
