At this year’s Labour Party Conference, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has partnered with Teach First and the IG Group to hold a public panel discussion: ‘Schools and teachers at the heart of unlocking opportunity’.
Education is key to unlocking opportunity for every child and teachers are key to this. But secondary teacher recruitment targets were missed by 41% for the 2022/23 academic year, the ninth time in the last ten years that targets were not met. High quality teaching is essential to support children and young people to achieve their goals both academic and personal and, particularly of late, teachers play a significant role in supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing. More widely, through nurturing the workforce of the future, teachers also support the key policy goals of tackling regional inequalities and driving economic growth.
Labour has announced a National Excellence Programme which will include “recruiting thousands of new teachers to address vacancies and skills gaps across the profession.” Given the scale of the current crisis, it is timely to consider what an incoming government should do to tackle this issue and ensure policy reforms are implemented effectively and in partnership with the sector.
This panel will consider what effective policy should look like to both improve the attractiveness of the profession and decrease the attrition rate of current teachers. Panellists will consider the impact of and reasons behind movement into the private sector; the efficacy of current measures including bursaries and Levelling Up premium payments; how national Government can support local initiatives and what more is needed from education policy to tackle the issue of teacher recruitment and retention.
We are delighted to welcome Gina Cicerone, Fair Education Alliance; Russell Hobby, Teach First; Tony McGuiness, All Saints Catholic High School; Catherine McKinnell MP, Shadow Schools Minister and Jon Noble, IG Group. James Zuccollo, EPI’s Director for School Workforce will chair the session.
** Note: This event will take place in the conference secure zone. To access the secure zone you will need to obtain a pass directly from the Labour Party.**
