Up to two-thirds of schools using the government’s free teacher vacancy website are still paying to advertise jobs elsewhere, five years after the service, which aimed to transform the way roles are publicised, was set up.
Teaching Vacancies (TV) is a free, national service for searching and listing teaching, leadership and support roles at state schools.
When it was launched in April 2019, then-education secretary Damian Hinds said it could help schools to save up to £75m annually on job adverts – a sum that could instead be invested in teaching.
Use of Teaching Vacancies has grown steadily since its launch. More than 87 per cent of state schools are now signed up to use the site, figures obtained by Schools Week show.
Last year, just under 78,000 jobs were advertised – with an average of 380,000 unique jobseekers per month this year.
But, despite this, figures from a sample of schools who use the website show that most are still also paying for job adverts elsewhere – suggesting that the service is still not “the first port of call” for jobseekers.
While schools have saved money, Schools Week analysis also suggests that the yearly saving is less than a quarter of what schools may be forking out on adverts.
Government says website has saved schools millions
There is no national data on how much schools are spending on job adverts. A 2016 PwC report estimated that schools were spending up to £75 million a year on adverts alone. Up to £140 million was also spent on recruiting via agencies.
In an FOI response, the Department for Education estimated that adverts cost, on average, just under £1,000 each. This was based on “research and school feedback”.
Based on this, and the number of schools exclusively using Teaching Vacancies to advertise, the DfE estimates the site saved schools between £13.7 million and £18.4 million last year alone.
Over the past five years, the site has helped to save schools between £47.3 million and £60.7 million, the government estimates. However, the DfT does not keep figures on the number of adverts placed that lead to a successful recruitment, nor if schools relist the job.
The rate of adverts being posted for more than 30 days on the website has risen to 15 per cent, up from 8 per cent in 2020-21.
Data collected by TeachVac, a teacher job board which scrapes adverts from school websites, found there were nearly 82,000 job adverts in 2021-22.
This would mean schools spent around £80 million in that year alone on adverts. Recruitment numbers have also got worse since then.
Subscriptions ‘cost almost £50k a year’
Schools say the amount they are spending on advertising is “significant”. So why aren’t more using the free service?
One trust said its subscription to a popular jobs website costs more than £12,000 a quarter – almost £50,000 a year.
They said this was “not sustainable at all for schools and MATs”, but added that the site is “too well-known and well-used for us not to have this platform”.
They said the trust also pays for sponsorship or boosts on free-to-list job boards, which cost “over £200” per vacancy.
Meanwhile, more specialist roles are listed on professional association sites, where monthly costs range “anywhere between £250 and £2,000 an advert”.
In 2019, Hinds urged schools to switch to Teaching Vacancies, to avoid “excessive” advertising fees, and “maximise” their budgets.
The government has also spent more than £4 million in contracts to PR and digital agencies to boost the use of the site.
Contracts seen by Schools Week in 2021 revealed a three-stage plan to create a “behaviour change” and persuade schools and jobseekers to use the site, culminating in MATs “ultimately ceas[ing] to enter into expensive commercial contracts”.
But this does not appear to have yet happened.
‘Behaviour change’ has not happened
Liberty Academy Trust CEO Dr Nicola Crossley said that, while her trust uses the Teaching Vacancies website, “it’s not the first port of call and not something that is naturally used”.
Its reach is “limited” making it “less effective” and leaving trusts to “rely on [paid platforms] to attract a wider pool of candidates,” she added.
Liberty instead uses other, paid-for websites which have “a better reputation and use”.
“It’s definitely a significant expense,” Crossley told Schools Week. “For example, our last [annual] contract with a paid-for provider was around £20,000.”
This sum included unlimited adverts and access to a database which helps to streamline the application process, allowing candidates to store and reuse their information.
Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust (ODST), which runs 43 schools across Oxfordshire and Berkshire, said its schools favour using paid-for jobs sites because adverts on Teaching Vacancies do not get a strong enough response.
“The feedback we’ve had is that… the level of response to adverts placed there hasn’t been strong, and there are alternative platforms that offer better functionality and the ability to ‘sell’ the school to potential staff,” an ODST spokesperson said.
More promotion needed
Sian John, recruitment and talent project lead at E-ACT, a large MAT responsible for 38 academies, said it uses Teaching Vacancies to advertise all jobs, including support staff roles.
Yet just 4 per cent of its roles were filled through the government site last year, and E-ACT also has an annual contract with a paid-for jobs site.
John said she feels the government service “needs to be promoted more to teachers”.
Meanwhile Ark, a MAT which runs 39 schools, said it advertises on both free and paid-for platforms “so we can reach as many candidates as possible”.
The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT), which runs 45 schools in southern and eastern England, said it uses Teaching Vacancies, but also pays for adverts “to try and get as good a field as possible”.
It has its own paid-for vacancies website or application tracking system (ATS) through Hireful, and schools sometimes advertise with local news outlets.
Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust (BWCET), a MAT that supports 48 schools in the North- East, does not use the government’s website.
“We have an ATS system that we currently use, which we feel gives us adequate coverage and attracts good candidates,” Lisa Grainger, HR operational services manager, said.
Schools ‘need to show leadership’
Crossley said the government site is helpful for advertising standard teaching vacancies, but is less used for “more varied” vacancies.
The website was expanded to include support staff vacancies in March. It also hosts leadership and teaching assistant roles.
Last year, just under half of the vacancies were for teachers (48 per cent). The next most popular category was “teaching support” (32 per cent), then support staff (8 per cent).
But Crossley added: “A one-stop shop for recruitment is an appealing idea, but it would need to cover every role, including those beyond teaching, like therapeutic staff often recruited from the NHS.”
She suggested changing the site’s name to “School Vacancies” and increasing marketing in other sectors to help attract a broader range of jobs and applicants.
Endeavour Learning Trust, which runs six schools in the North-West, uses Teaching Vacancies to advertise all its roles, but Mollie Fairhurst, the human resources manager, said it tends to use paid-for sites for “hard-to-fill” positions such as leadership or executive roles.
“I just wish more people, both within and outside of the education sector, were aware of [Teaching Vacancies] as it’s much easier to navigate than other job boards,” she added.
But Jonathan Simons, partner at Public First consultants, said: “This needs leadership from schools to stop unnecessarily paying for adverts and take advantage of the free service – they can drive the behaviour change.”
Job scraping trial not rolled out
In 2022, the DfE launched an “ATS integration” trial, where it scraped job listings from the website of United Learning, the country’s largest trust.
The aim was to make it quicker and easier for schools to bulk upload vacancies from their own vacancy sites.
The scheme was not rolled out more widely, but the DfE said that trusts can request the service – but would not say how many had.
A spokesperson added that recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers in classrooms was “the single biggest drive of high standards in school”.
The government has pledged to recruit 6,500 new teachers over the course of this parliament, but has yet to reveal more details about the plan.
“Teaching Vacancies was set up following demand from schools for a free listing service and we are delighted to see more and more schools are making use of it,” a DfE spokesperson said.
“We will continue to work on improving and expanding the service to help schools recruit the best and brightest in teaching.”
The service is also now automatically listing roles on the Department for Work and Pension’s findajob.gov.uk website.
Transparency note: Schools Week’s publisher EducationScape runs an education jobs board.
