With declining numbers of teachers choosing to stay in the profession and new recruitment unable to keep pace, retention is at a tipping point. To address this, a group of academy trust CEOs are proposing a bold new approach: a sector-wide retention promise.
This retention promise, outlined in a paper by this year’s CEO system leadership group, aims to unite the sector under a shared commitment to ensure teachers feel valued and supported throughout their careers.
The promise focuses on areas such as access to professional development, creation of positive and inclusive work cultures, supporting effective workload management and offering safe and flexible working conditions.
By articulating these consistent expectations, the promise would seek to create a consistent, supportive experience for educators, regardless of where they work.
However, time is of the essence; teacher retention levels are already at their lowest in over a decade. Currently, only 59 per cent of teachers remain in the profession ten years after qualification. The number of new entrants is dwindling, and intentions to stay in the profession have dropped significantly, especially among early-career teachers.
The situation is even more alarming for teachers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, who face higher turnover rates, which only exacerbates workforce inequalities.
The paper suggests that a large part of the solution lies in effective system leadership – a coordinated, collaborative approach that builds on and goes beyond efforts by individual schools and trusts.
System leadership can bring together stakeholders across the education sector and beyond to tackle the retention challenge collectively. It focuses on three critical areas:
Trust-to-trust support
Currently, good practices in teacher retention are often confined to individual schools or trusts. The paper calls for a shift in mindset where schools and trusts support each other, sharing resources and best practices to create a more equitable experience for all teachers.
This could include introducing nationally-reaching peer review models where trusts with strong retention records are paired with those facing challenges. Trusts could also share anonymised data on retention rates, staff feedback and diversity, identifying areas of strength and improvement.
By working together, trusts can help to drive widespread, systemic change.
Locality leadership
Partnerships between trusts, local public services and businesses can offer new perspectives on workload, flexible working arrangements and staff wellbeing – challenges that are not limited to schools among public service sectors.
For instance, trusts could (and some already do) collaborate with local businesses to provide benefits like discounted services or job swaps, offering teachers new experiences and skills.
Local partnerships can also create a sense of community and shared purpose, making teaching a more attractive and sustainable career.
Influencing national policy
Finally, the paper stresses the need for more education leaders to have a seat at the table in policy discussions. This would allow them to inform key areas like accountability, workload and flexible working conditions.
While some trusts already make commitments to support retention, a system-wide retention promise would ensure educators know what they should expect in terms of professional development, work culture, workload management and work-life balance, wherever they are.
This assurance could help to make the profession as a whole more appealing and sustainable.
This paper is a call to action from the CEO group. By adopting a retention promise, the sector would signal to current and future teachers that their contribution is valued, their growth supported, and that their working conditions matter. This would help build trust, encouraging more teachers to stay and contribute to a stable, effective education system.
The consequences of failing to act will be severe: a shortage of qualified, diverse teachers, diminished educational quality, and widening inequities between schools.
A retention promise is a crucial starting point, but it must be backed by broader system leadership efforts to ensure every teacher has a consistent, supportive experience.
We urge leaders to seize this moment to foster collaboration, share best practices and advocate for supportive policies. By working together, we can build a future where teachers are retained, valued, and empowered.
The end of this crisis may seem distant, but this paper offers a pathway to that shared goal.
Forum Strategy’s seventh annual National #TrustLeaders CEO conference takes place on 19 September. Register here
