WIREDGOV

An improved system to ensure the right number of teachers are in the right place at the right time has been announced as the Government moves to address the long-standing problem of accurately predicting teacher numbers required across the country.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament this afternoon, Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, said that the recommendations of the working group she set up to look at teacher employment would all be adopted in order to create a system fit for delivering a 21st Century education.

This includes a rise in the Preferential Waiver Payment scheme to £8,000 to attract teachers to areas with vacancies.

She said:

"When we set up the Teacher Employment Working Group in June this year, it was to assess whether the current process for predicting staffing levels was fit for purpose.

"Our priority is the education of the children in our schools and therefore ensuring that we have enough teachers coming through the training system to cover absence and retirement is essential.

"This is not a new problem but it is one which this Government is now tackling. We need to have the right number of teachers in the right place at the right time to ensure children are not sent home because of lack of teachers."

The main measures recommended by the report are:

• The need for greater reconciliation between local teacher number decisions and the national job planning process
• GTCS to conduct a study of probationers to establish work patterns, while the Government, GTCS and local authorities consider how more reliable information about employment of post-probation teachers can be gathered annually
• Research to see if the credit crunch is having an effect on the number of teachers who were previously predicted to be preparing for retirement
• Local authorities to use post-probation teachers to fill vacancies and also work as supply teachers rather than rely on retired teachers
• A review of winding-down arrangements for teachers who are approaching the end of their careers to make space for newly qualified teachers
• Raising the preference waiver scheme level to £8,000 from £6,000 for secondary sector probationers
• Commission research into how to persuade teachers to be more flexible and move to other parts of the country where demand for teachers is higher

Ms Hyslop said:

"On taking office, I was surprised to learn that the system I inherited does not factor council plans fully into national workforce planning. It is essential that it does. I am today asking COSLA and local authorities to work more closely with the Government to ensure supply and demand do not get out of synch.

"It is also important that we understand the difficulties inherent in teacher workforce planning. The number of teachers who completed their probationary year this summer and who sought jobs as fully qualified teachers in the autumn are the product of decisions on teacher workforce planning taken by ministers of the previous administration in December 2005. This applies only to the one year PGDE course. In relation to teachers who undertook the four year BEd course, the decisions were taken in December 2002.

"I am pleased to accept all the recommendations without reservation as they will ensure better results in determining the number of students going on to study to be teachers."

Ms Hyslop announced the establishment of the Teacher Employment Working Group, chaired by COSLA, in the Parliamentary Chamber on June 5, 2008.

The Group comprised: ADES, EIS, STEC, GTCS, SSTA, AHDS, SLS and the Scottish Government.

The Preference Waiver Payment scheme was introduced in 2004-2005 to fill vacancies not filled by the allocation process. It plays a large part in filling vacancies in more remote parts of Scotland.

Related Information

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/Teaching