This report brings together findings from our interactive benchmarking tool, which compares the performance of individual academy trusts, local authorities, federations and dioceses across four key performance indicators, along with results from our Decisions in Education in England (DEEP) survey of senior leaders working in school groups.
On the school workforce
- MAT leaders identify recruitment as their biggest challenge. Amongst secondary schools, multi-academy trusts have, on average, significantly higher annual turnover of classroom teachers than local authorities (16.9% in the median MAT, 14.4% in the median LA), and annual turnover is even higher in larger MATs (19.5% on average).
- Although we cannot assume causality, at secondary, high teacher turnover is negatively correlated with overall attainment and post-16 destinations. However, there is no such correlation between teacher turnover and the progress of both disadvantaged and low prior attaining pupils. At primary, we found no correlation between teacher turnover and headline KS2 attainment.
- Similarly, higher levels of efficiency are associated with higher rates of classroom teacher turnover. This suggests that teacher turnover isn’t necessarily a negative outcome, if for example schools are adept at identifying and retaining only high-quality teachers, this could potentially help drive efficiencies.
