Local-authority maintained schools outperform academies in teacher retention

Local-authority maintained schools retain teachers better than academies and free schools, new data from a freedom of information (FOI) request revealed. Using data gathered from all schools surveyed in the School Workforce Census for the past 10 years, the National Education Union (NEU) has been able to develop a clear picture of the impact that multi-academy trusts (MATs) are having on teacher retention. The findings highlight a need for greater accountability of MATs and for all academies to be required to follow national pay and conditions for staff. Last academic year, large MATs saw 1 in 5 teachers leave their jobs and more than 1 in 9 teachers leave the teaching profession entirely. This compares poorly with local-authority maintained schools, where over the same period 1 in 7 teachers left their jobs and 1 in 11 teachers left the teaching profession. Among large MATs, defined as those containing at least 21 schools, the rate of leaving the profession has remained consistently higher than in other governance structures over the past 10 years. Free schools and academies have higher rates of teachers leaving the profession than local-authority maintained primary, secondary, and special schools. This is particularly noticeable in primary and special schools. In special free schools, the rate of teachers leaving the profession is an alarming 13.4%, compared to 9.1%in local authority maintained special schools. Among large MATs, several had retention rates of 75% or lower at the end of the 2022-23 school year, meaning that at least a quarter of staff left schools in those MATs. In addition to the FOI analysis, findings from the NEU’s annual State of Education survey of 13,000 teacher members are being released over the course of the union’s Annual Conference this week in Harrogate. One of the key drivers of teachers leaving the profession is workload. According to the government’s own research for 2024, full-time teachers typically work 51.2 hours per week and leaders 57.6 hours per week. The TUC’s annual survey for Work Your Proper Hours Day finds that 38% of teachers are doing unpaid overtime, and that it is the profession most likely to do so. Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “A myth has emerged in recent months that academies are a more attractive prospect for teachers because of flexibilities around pay and conditions. Evidence collected by the NEU shows the exact opposite to be the case. Far from being better places to work, our research reveals large MATs are havens for higher workload and poorer work-life balance for their staff. “These findings underline the importance of ensuring that academies are brought into a national system of pay and conditions. This will ensure a level playing field for staff and make a real difference to addressing the root causes of the recruitment and retention crisis.” He continued: “Currently, England has the biggest crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers for more than 20 years. We must do all that we can to fix it. That includes employers as well as the government. Today’s findings must act as a wake-up call to large MATs that they are contributing to the problem, and a culture change is urgently required.”