Responding to the publication of initial recommendations by the Department for Education’s (DfE) Workload Reduction Taskforce, James Zuccollo, Director for School Workforce at the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said:
“Given the huge recruitment and retention challenges facing schools, and the significant concerns held by the profession about the impact of teacher workload, it is important that the government continues to work closely with the sector to act on this issue.
“One of the main recommendations made by the taskforce is the removal of Performance Related Pay requirements (PRP). Research has shown that PRP requirements have had a minimal impact on school’s practices whilst creating an additional administrative burden for schools, so removing these would be a sensible step.
“However, it is vitally important that we retain the most talented teachers in the profession and financially rewarding them for their outsized impact on pupils’ lives may be part of the answer. Removing the PRP requirements must not constrain headteachers’ ability to reward and retain their best teachers, particularly when average pay across the profession continues to fall further behind that of other graduate professions.”
