This week saw the publication of the National Foundation For Educational Research’s (NFER) 2025 Teacher Labour Market report, which demonstrated our ongoing struggles with teacher retention and recruitment.
Things aren’t getting better, and in many cases, they’re getting worse.
Despite recommendations for a pay award that “exceeds 3 per cent”, the government’s proposals of a 2.8 per cent rise for 2025-26 suggests this is unlikely.
Because of this, the NFER’s report also recommends focusing on “improving the attractiveness of non-pay factors” available to teachers, with specific recommendations around workload reduction.
At the Confederation of Schools Trust conference in November, education secretary Bridget Phillipson emphasised that “the best recruitment strategy is a strong retention strategy”, spotlighting the “women in their 30s” who “make up a huge share of the teachers leaving the classroom”.
Certainly, we know workload is the largest push factor for attrition in this demographic, but what else could schools and the Department for Education offer as cost-effective “non-pay factors” that could retain these teachers?
1. Flexible school cultures
Flexible working in education might not be as embedded as we would like, but thanks to a sustained focus on this strategy for the past eight years, the NFER notes it is “becoming more prevalent”.
Wherever possible, agreeing to formal flexible working requests correlates highly with retention over the maternity transition period.
However, where these cannot be granted, the 2024 found the assurance of ad hoc flexibility makes a huge difference - particularly to those women aged 30-39 who make up 27 per cent of our total workforce and 21 per cent of our leavers.
The question for school leaders, therefore, is how to create and communicate a culture where staff know that even if they work full time, they will be granted the flexibility they need to attend to their caring responsibilities.
2. Increased and equalised parental leave and pay
With a large number of competitive graduate industries now offering generous and equal parental leave and pay packages, the Burgundy Book conditions that offer a measly two weeks at statutory pay to fathers and non-birthing partners is outdated and insulting.
Indeed, given calls for six weeks paternity leave paid at 90 per cent now becoming commonplace, it only highlights further that teaching as a profession lacks equality or compassion - none of which appeals to the Gen Z recruits we are trying to tempt into the profession.
Even for birthing mothers, there is little point in the ideal above 3 per cent pay rise if this extends to just six weeks of maternity leave before being slashed in half, and then reduced to statutory maternity pay after 18 weeks.
With approximately 5 per cent of teachers becoming parents each year, improving our current leave and pay policies would be a cost-effective way for the DfE to earn loyalty among our current workforce and modernise the profession for potential new recruits.
3. Maternity transition support
The Missing Mothers report made clear that the current support available for returning mothers is woefully inadequate. Even for those who remained in the profession aged 30-39, just 38 per cent were satisfied with the maternity transition support provided by their school.
Additionally, one-to-one and group coaching during the first year following maternity leave is hugely impactful for the medium-term retention of mothers. It often makes the difference between them resigning within a few months and staying the course for a few more years.
On average, this coaching costs a tenth of the £4,500 that it takes to recruit per and a fraction of the cost of training a new teacher.
In fact, if all 20,000 teachers currently on maternity leave were to take up a full “cradle to classroom” coaching offer to support them over a two-year period, it would cost more than £130 million less than training the 6,500 new teachers promised in Labour’s election pledge.
Happily, part of this ideal coaching package is already available, fully-funded, to state school teachers in England, thanks to The Maternity Teacher/Paternity Teacher Project. Until August 2025, colleagues can access group coaching and workshop support .
A national expansion of increased support is planned for next academic year, and some multi-academy trusts like Oasis Community Learning and the Harris Federation already boost this with a one-to-one entitlement for their staff.
When updated school workforce census data is available this summer, we’ll have a better understanding of our retention priorities. Strategies that sustain mothers, however, are consistently proving to be cost-effective ways to boost the health of the overall workforce.
Emma Sheppard is a lead practitioner for English and founder of
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