CPD steps up in the battle to retain staff

More staff training and greater curriculum support are set to edge out pay as the measures most commonly used by schools in their battle to improve the recruitment and retention of school staff, according to new research from Best Practice Network and Supporting Education Group.

The survey of 742 leaders from schools across England showed that although pay is second only to workload reduction in efforts by schools to recruit and retain the staff they need, it will be overtaken in the next two years by other measures including improved curriculum support and enhanced CPD opportunities.

Changing working practices and processes to reduce workload is the most common measure, currently used by 77% of survey respondents, while paying staff differently from or above national pay scales was the second most common, used by 71%.

But when respondents were asked which recruitment and retention measures they were planning to take on over the next two years, pay is likely to be overtaken. When planned use is combined with current use, CPD will become the second most commonly used strategy, with 24% planning to introduce more CPD and staff training on top of the 63% which currently use the approach.

742 school leaders took part in this survey from Best Practice Network and Supporting Education Group.

Changing working practices to cut workload, currently used by 77%, remains the top measure when combined with the 13% saying they are planning to do this, while 18% are planning greater curriculum support in addition to the 68% currently using the approach. Fewer respondents (10%) said they are planning pay changes, moving the measure from second to fourth place when current usage of 71% is taken into account.

The survey also revealed that schools struggle slightly more with recruitment in the North West and South West (84% and 80% of school leaders find recruiting staff most challenging), than in London (74%).

Retention was next in schools’ league table of concerns, with 29% rating it as their most challenging issue. Developing and managing staff were ranked third and fourth, cited as most challenging issues by 15% and 7% of respondents respectively.

Simon Little, managing director at Best Practice Network,

said:

Key findings from Best Practice Network’s talent survey

Schools differ in the areas they find most challenging – while 80% of school leaders struggle most with recruiting and retaining staff, 20% struggle most with developing and managing them – and in the strategies they employ to deal with those challenges.

Teacher pay is a key lever for tackling talent challenges. Schools plan on using this strategy more which will be a struggle in the context of falling enrolment numbers in primary schools and the current economic climate.

CPD is expected to be the second most used strategy for recruitment and retention in two years’ time

Staff training in various forms (particularly SCITT and NPQs, but also ITT partnerships and apprenticeships) are expected to grow.

Tools to manage and develop staff that would ordinarily be widespread good practice for most commercial organisations have relatively low penetration in schools despite their importance to users. We expect uptake to increase in the future.