Pupils, schools and school staff have been profoundly impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. In September, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) published a series of reports [1] drawing on responses from over 2,500 senior leaders and teachers in mainstream and special schools to understand the impact of cost-of-living pressures on pupils, schools and staff.
Our research finds that recruitment and retention challenges have been intensified by cost-of-living pressures. It highlights that without urgent action now, recent cost-of-living increases risk having far reaching and long-lasting impacts on pupils, particularly those who are most vulnerable, across both mainstream and special school settings.
Due to recruitment challenges being compounded by cost-of-living pressures, large numbers of teacher, teaching assistant (TA) and support staff vacancies are remaining vacant for more than two months.
Pressures on school budgets have been compounded by recent cost-of-living increases, limiting the salaries schools are able to offer potential staff at a time when staff are contending with pressure on their personal finances. As a result, existing recruitment difficulties are being exacerbated and senior leaders report posts for staff of all types going unfilled for prolonged periods of time. For example, among the schools recruiting TAs over the last 12 months, only 7% of special schools, 23% of secondaries and 45% of primaries report filling all TA vacancies within two months. This is a particularly critical challenge for special school leaders where statutory staffing ratios are high and inadequate staffing may be unsafe.
