Recruitment and retention of staff
Recruitment and retention are key issues facing school managers. Individual schools and governing bodies are responsible for recruiting and retaining their staff, and hold most of the budgets. It is natural for there to be some competition between schools to recruit the best staff. However, some teacher shortages affect a whole area or subject. Where this is the case, recruitment strategies will be more effective if schools and LAs work together and learn from each other's experiences.
Realistic planning and anticipation of problems are vital. Schools that think they may be in difficulty should signal this early to their LAs. Key figures here are the Recruitment Strategy Managers (RSMs) which most LAs either have already or plan to recruit. Through their national network and links with the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), RSMs should able to advise on what has been tried elsewhere, either locally or nationally.
In September 2009, the Department, in partnership with Tribal, launched a Schools Recruitment Service. This service provides schools in England with an improved process for recruiting all permanent leadership, teaching and support staff. The Schools Recruitment Service will be used by schools across England to post vacancies and manage their communications with applicants. The service puts the whole application process online for jobseekers, from searching for vacancies and receiving alerts to applying for jobs and arranging interview times. Jobseekers are able to apply on the system for all types of school-based vacancies.
TeacherNet's A to Z of School Leadership has an entry on teacher recruitment, which contains a checklist of points on retention, and short and long-term recruitment. You may also wish to consider how schemes such as 'golden hellos' could help with recruitment.
If you recruit teachers directly from the Commonwealth you should read about the new agreement.
Child protection issues
The National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services (NCLSCS) provide an online training package, Safer recruitment, in response to recommendation 16 of Bichard's report. The training is for headteachers and school governors to ensure that interviews to appoint staff reflect the importance of safeguarding children. Full details are on the website.
The DCSF has produced guidance to support and accompany the online training; Safeguarding Children: Safer Recruitment and Selection in Education Settings which is available to download.
General Teaching Council (GTC)
The GTC has a statutory power to advise the Secretary of State on recruitment and retention issues, and conducted a countrywide survey to establish why teachers leave the profession. The results of this survey are available from the GTC website.
Checking teachers' qualifications
DCSF has produced a brief guide for employers of teachers on checking their qualifications.
Supply teachers
A Quality Mark for supply teacher agencies has been introduced. The mark sets minimum standards for agencies in the way they recruit and interview staff, how they check and manage their staff and the way they stay at the forefront of changes in the teaching sector. The agencies will also be assessed on how well they relate to schools and teachers. Click here to download the leaflet.
Last updated: 17 September 2009
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