A former union leader will chair a new commission on teaching to draw up suggestions for the government to solve the recruitment and retention crisis.
Dr Mary Bousted today launched the Teaching Commission, which seeks to answer the question: “What must be done to recreate teaching as an attractive and sustainable profession?”
The commission will explore the causes of excessive workload, how to create positive working cultures, how schools can promote flexible working, and the competitiveness of teacher pay.
It will also examine the effects of the accountability system including inspection, the impact of the increase in child poverty and cuts to children’s services, and what the English education system could learn from overseas.
‘We can’t just rely on government’
In an interview with Schools Week, Bousted lauded the “serious intent” of the government’s pledge to hire 6,500 new teachers, but she warned: “We can’t just rely on government to come and sort this out for us.”
The commission will seek case studies of “schools which are succeeding in recruiting and retaining teachers. “What are the different models of flexible working? Where are the schools where teachers really feel that their voice is heard, and they’ve got professional agency?
“If we just carry on saying, ‘we can’t have flexible working in teaching’, that’s not a position which can stand any longer.”
Bousted, who stood down as joint general secretary of the NEU last year, said she was prompted to set up the commission “because the problem is so immediate and the consequences, particularly for disadvantaged children, of inadequate teacher supply are so big”.
Recruitment is “really important, but if we want to improve each supply, we have to really focus on retention”.
She added: “Vacancies have doubled. Teachers are just haemorrhaging from the profession. It’s now taking 10 newly qualified teachers to replace every six who leave.
“But, even more serious than that, it’s the fact that teaching is a very young profession, and we’re losing those teachers within six to 10 years’ experience, who are just at the point in their careers where they can be role models. We’re losing the ability to learn from more experienced colleagues.”
Trade unionists and sector leaders join commission
Bousted is joined in her endeavour by 15 fellow commissioners.
They include NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman and ASCL deputy policy director Sara Tanton.
Former head and NEU president Dr Robin Bevan, NEU executive member and teacher Jess Edwards and Nansi Ellis, a former assistant general secretary of the union, also sit on the commission.
But membership is not limited to trade unionists. Leora Cruddas, CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts, Education Policy Institute CEO Natalie Perera, Dame Alison Peacock of the Chartered College and former Ofsted chief Dame Christine Gilbert are also on board.
Bousted said unions had an “important place on the commission”, but “I looked very deliberately for a broad church, so that the accusation can’t be levelled, ‘oh, it’s just a union takeover’.
“It’s really important to have all those voices in the commission because, if the findings are going to have any traction, then they have to have buy-in from the education work workforce.”
Schools Week and its publisher EducationScape are partners of the commission, along with UCL Institute of Education, the NEU, NAHT and ASCL unions and The Key.
The commissioners
Prof. Mary Bousted
Chair of the Teaching Commission
Former joint general secretary, National Education Union
Angelina Idun
Director of School Improvement
SSAT
Jess Edwards
Primary Teacher
Chair of Policy, Research and Campaigns, NEU executive
Nansi Ellis
Commission Project Lead
Education Policy Consultant
Leora Cruddas CBE
Chief Executive
Confederation of School Trusts
Yamina Bibi
WomenEd network leader
Diverse Educators’ Associate
Paul Whiteman
General Secretary
NAHT
Prof. Caroline Daly
Professor of Teacher Education
Director of the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research, UCL Institute of Education
Dr Haili Hughes
Director of Education at IRIS Connect
Principal Lecturer at University of Sunderland
Dame Alison Peacock
CEO
Chartered College of Teaching
Dr Robin Bevan
Education Leadership Specialist
Former headteacher and NEU president
Natalie Perera
Chief Executive
Education Policy Institute
Russell Hobby
CEO
Teach First
Dame Christine Gilbert
Executive Chair, Education Endownment Foundation
Former Ofsted chief inspector
Helen Arya
Chief Education Officer
Oasis Community Learning
Sara Tanton
Deputy Director of Policy
Association of School and College Leaders
