School leaders have spent enormous time and energy over the last 6 months ensuring robust plans are in place to support the wider opening of schools in September. As we look towards the coming term, it’s clear that maintaining appropriate staffing levels will be critical to both pupil and staff safety and ongoing provision [...]
Since March the education sector, like many others, has faced a once in a generation challenge due to the coronavirus pandemic. Whilst schools have done a fantastic job in tackling the situation head on, we can anticipate that a new set of challenges, particularly around recruitment and workforce, will emerge when the school year [...]
This is how Local Authorities, Multi Academy Trusts and other school groups in England are running cost-effective and ethical supply pools, today. Over the last twenty years, the supply teaching sector has become a fragmented wild west where it’s all too common for schools to be fleeced and supply teachers exploited. It’s time [...]
We’re currently helping supply teachers to earn up to 25% more than via a typical agency/umbrella company arrangement at no extra cost to their regular school(s). We have found that Employer’s NI contributions, admin fees and other deductions are routinely being taken from supply teachers’ agreed rate of pay. Those teachers thought they had [...]
Every year, over £0.5bn is spent on recruitment agency fees in public sector schools alone. That’s a staggering £30,000 per school! Whether it’s agency fees for temporary staff or permanent staff (including temporary to permanent fees), online job advertising or other indirect recruitment costs like admin and consultancy fees, this much-needed money is being diverted [...]
The Retention Crisis is seldom spoken about, especially compared to its more prominent twin, The Recruitment Crisis. Nonetheless, the figures associated with Retention Crisis are deeply unsettling. Eager to understand the story behind these figures and the optimal response strategies, we were fortunate enough to attend an eclectic smattering of talks on the subject at the [...]
Introduction The DfE’s long-awaited ‘Recruitment and Retention Strategy’ was released today and, as you might expect, there is plenty to discuss and dissect. Broadly, we echo the enthusiasm of other pundits and industry leaders. The Recruitment and Retention Strategy (RRS) is bold, well-informed and could rewrite the fundamentals of how the teaching workforce is organised. [...]
The Challenge Many schools use agency staff on a long-term basis. In fact, some agency staff can work in schools for years and still be 'on the agency's books'. This incurs a massive accumulation of cost that's crippling school budgets and hurting teachers – but it's been the price of having off-payroll staff for [...]
When it comes to hosting events, LKMco are known for two things: exciting salons of solutions-oriented thinking and stellar spreads of food and drink. Last night’s event, titled “Flexible Working: How can we take the force out of the teacher workforce?” was no exception. Teacher Booker were delighted to attend and participate in a wide-ranging [...]
The past year has been filled with several calls for schools to offer more opportunities for part-time and flexible work to teachers. The reasons are straightforward: Teaching is gripped by a recruitment and retention crisis, both at the national and local scale. More teachers are leaving the classroom – and often the education sector entirely – than [...]
