Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: teaching and school leadership

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Applies to England

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-quality-of-teaching-and-leadership. Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

To improve standards in schools, we need to raise the quality of teaching and school leadership.

We want to:

• raise the status of the teaching profession to make it more attractive to top graduates
• make sure that teachers receive solid training that gives them the practical skills they will need
• give teachers access to high-quality professional development so they can continue to improve throughout their careers

To improve the quality of teaching, we are giving school leaders more freedom and responsibility to lead and manage their staff. This includes giving schools the flexibility to pay the best teachers more.

Actions

To improve the way new teachers are trained, we are:

• expanding school-led initial teacher training (ITT) through School Direct
• encouraging more schools to become accredited providers of ITT (called SCITTs, school-centred initial teacher training) with programmes taught by experienced, practising teachers
• only allocating places to ITT providers that Ofsted has graded as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’
• increasing the number of high-achieving graduates teaching in disadvantaged schools by expanding Teach First (an employment-based teacher training programme for outstanding graduates)
• providing opportunities for former members of the armed forces to receive teacher training through the Troops to Teachers programme
• setting up 2 trial university training schools (UTS), where university faculties:
  • set up and run a school
  • give teachers access to their latest research
  • provide training for new and existing teachers

To raise the status of the teaching profession and make it more attractive, we are:

• reducing bureaucracy and giving teachers and school leaders more freedom to use their professional judgement
• encouraging more new teachers into priority subjects through:
  • training bursaries of up to £25,000
  • tax-free scholarships worth £25,000 in maths, chemistry, physics and computing
• making it easier for schools to attract and retain outstanding teachers by giving them more flexibility over pay

We are improving the quality of current teachers by:

• providing teachers with evidence about what works through the Education Endowment Foundation, and encouraging them to send us their views on research or evidence gaps
• increasing access to the subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) programme
• raising the minimum requirements for practice and conduct through clearer teachers’ standards

To improve the quality of school leadership at all levels, we are:

• encouraging school leaders to develop their skills through new qualifications to become a headteacher (NPQH), senior school leader (NPQSL) and middle leader (NPQML)
• recruiting up to 100 outstanding school leaders over the next 2 years through the Talented Leaders programme to work in areas that struggle to recruit excellent headteachers
• improving the quality of subject and year-group leaders of schools in disadvantaged communities through the Teaching Leaders charity
• supporting the Future Leaders charity to develop the leadership skills of teachers who want to work as headteachers in disadvantaged communities
• continuing to recognise and support national school leaders who work to improve education in their area - these are:
  • national leaders of education
  • national leaders of governance
  • local leaders of education
  • specialist leaders of education

Background

In the schools white paper ‘The importance of teaching’, published in November 2010, we set out our commitment to support teachers and improve standards in schools.

We have:

• updated induction arrangements for newly qualified teachers (NQTs)
• revised teacher appraisal and capability arrangements to help school leaders manage teachers’ performance effectively and to make it easier to remove ineffective teachers
• reformed classroom teachers’ pay to link it to performance
• introduced new arrangements for leadership pay, giving schools greater flexibility to attract and reward good leaders
• published revised guidance on teacher prohibition that makes it easier for schools to respond to instances of serious teacher misconduct
• introduced tougher skills tests for teacher trainees - all applicants must now achieve a high pass mark before they can begin teacher training
• established a national network of around 600 teaching schools to develop leadership and raise the quality of teaching
• revised the national standards for headteachers

Evidence of the impact our reforms have had on the teaching profession is available.

Who we’ve consulted

Teacher training

• over the summer of 2011, we ran a consultation on the ITT strategy set out in ‘Training our next generation of outstanding teachers’ - we received around 250 responses
• from 22 September to 16 December 2011 we consulted on allowing qualified teachers from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand working in further education to become permanent teachers in English schools - we received 122 responses.
• from 20 March to 25 May 2012, we consulted on ‘Proposed changes to allow initial teacher training (ITT) in pupil referral units (PRUs) from September 2012’ - we received 28 responses
• from 26 March to 18 May 2012, we consulted on allowing schools to employ industry experts as instructors more easily - we received 33 responses

Teachers’ pay and performance

From 24 May to 16 August 2011, we consulted on simplifying schools’ teacher performance management arrangements. We received 250 responses.

Following Lord Hutton’s recommendations from his review of public sector pensions, we have reformed the teachers’ pension scheme (TPS), with changes taking effect from April 2015.

In developing the new pension scheme, we negotiated with unions and set out a proposed scheme design. We have run the following consultations:

• from 7 May to 28 June 2013 we consulted on proposals for implementation of the reformed teachers’ pension scheme in 2015
• between 13 September and 11 November 2013, we consulted the draft Teachers’ Pension Regulations 2014 - we received 31 responses
• between 12 November 2013 and 7 January 2014, we consulted on New Fair Deal pension changes and proposals to increase member contributions - we received 47 responses
• on 29 April 2014, we launched a consultation on further regulations to complete the teachers’ pension scheme reform - we received 18 responses

As part of the independent review of national standards for headteachers, we launched a public call for evidence on the revised headteacher standards on 16 May 2014. The call for evidence closed on 16 June 2014.

Impact

Following discussion with unions and wider consultation, we published the equalities impact assessments on the revised teacher’s pension scheme in the autumn of 2012.

On 13 September 2013, we published an updated equalities impact assessment on the teachers’ pension scheme. The impact assessment looked into whether teachers’ pension contributions from 2015 onwards would have a disproportionate impact on any group of teachers.

Bills and Legislation

The following regulations are relevant to this policy:

• The Education (School Teachers’ Qualifications) (England) Regulations 2003, as amended
• The Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) Regulations 2003, as amended
• The Education (School Teachers’ Appraisal) (England) Regulations 2012
• The Education (Induction Arrangements for School Teachers) (England) Regulations 2012
• The Education (School Teachers’ Prescribed Qualifications, etc.) Order 2003, as amended
• Education Act 2002
• Education (Specified Work)(England) Regulations 2012
• The Teachers’ Pensions Regulations 2010
• The Teachers’ Pension Scheme Regulations 2014

Appendix 1: university training schools

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

University training schools (UTSs) are run by university faculties. They give teachers:

• access to the latest academic research and innovation
• the opportunity to apply this in the classroom

The university also provides high-quality initial teacher training (ITT) to new teachers, as well as continuous professional development for staff.

UTS trials

In the 2010 schools’ white paper ‘The importance of teaching’, we made a commitment to invite some of the best higher education providers of ITT to open UTSs.

The University of Birmingham and Cambridge University will open trial UTSs in September 2015.

Contact us if you have any questions about the UTS trials.

University training schools (UTS) team

Email [email protected]

Appendix 2: School Direct

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The School Direct programme allows schools to recruit and train their own teachers. It gives schools the freedom to:

• decide who they want to recruit and how
• decide which subjects they want to train someone in
• decide whether they want to train someone for primary or secondary teaching
• employ the teachers they have trained in their school or in a school to which they are linked

School Direct is available in primary and secondary schools across England and courses generally last for 1 year. Trainee teachers who successfully complete a School Direct course will gain qualified teacher status (QTS). School Direct programmes may also include a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).

School Direct offers 2 types of training places:

• the first is open to all graduates - the trainee, who may receive a bursary from the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), pays tuition fees to fund their training
• the second is for graduates with 3 or more years of work experience - a school employs the trainee as an unqualified teacher and the NCTL subsidises their salary and training

Appendix 3: evidence of improvement in the teaching profession

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Ofsted judgements

Ofsted judgements show that the quality of school leadership has improved since the 2009 to 2010 academic year in both primary and secondary schools:

• 81% of primary schools were judged as having good or outstanding leadership in the 2012 to 2013 academic year, compared to 71% in the 2009 to 2010 year
• 80% of secondary schools were judged as having good or outstanding leadership in the 2012 to 2013 academic year, compared to 75% in the 2009 to 2010 year

Ofsted judgements of teaching quality also show improvement in both primary and secondary schools since the 2009 to 2010 academic year:

• 79% of primary schools were judged to have good or outstanding teaching in the 2012 to 2013 academic year, up from 69% in the 2009 to 2010 year
• 72% of secondary schools were judged to have good or outstanding teaching in the 2012 to 2013 academic year, up from 65% in the 2009 to 2010 year

Increase in teacher numbers

Figures from the 2013 school workforce census show that there was an increase in full-time teachers of 2.1% between November 2012 and November 2013.

Teach First has more than doubled in size since 2010, with 1,387 participants starting the 2014 to 2015 programme in England. The number of Teach First participants teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects has increased from 42% in the 2010 to 2011 academic year to 46% in the 2014 to 2015 year.

School Direct has also grown. There were 9,232 new entrants to School Direct programmes in the academic year 2014 to 2015, compared with 400 in its first year (2012 to 2013).

Increase in initial teacher training (ITT)

Figures from the initial teacher training: trainee number census 2014 to 2015 (published in November 2014) show that more top graduates are training to be teachers. In the 2014 to 2015 academic year, 74% of new postgraduate entrants have a first class or 2:1 classified UK degree, compared with 73% in the 2012 to 2013 year and 66% in 2011 to 2012.

We introduced early years ITT in September 2013. Over 2,300 people began training that year, and over 600 have already successfully completed their training.

Appendix 4: teaching schools

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Teaching schools have an outstanding rating from Ofsted and have a history of working with other schools to help train teachers and support them throughout their careers.

Teaching schools can form groups called teaching school alliances. The alliances are made up of:

• the leading teaching school
• the schools it supports
• their partners, such as universities.

Information on how schools can apply to become a teaching school is available.