Teacher retention payments are “probably” effective for improving recruitment and retention, but the evidence is mixed, researchers have found.

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that the payments had less impact than had been identified in previous studies, and should only be used as part of a wider retention strategy.

Across all five of the retention payment schemes evaluated by researchers, the teachers’ leaving rate was reduced by just 0.7 percentage points, which the researchers say was not statistically significant.

The NFER found that retention payments were less cost-effective than bursaries, which it previously identified as being very effective for improving recruitment and retention.

Do teacher retention payments work?

However, it notes that bursaries in some teacher-shortage subjects are already nearly as high as starting salaries, meaning that the DfE may be reluctant to raise them further.

In these cases, retention payments could provide additional scope to enhance teacher pay, the NFER says.

Its report does not suggest that retention payments should be removed, but that they “should only be considered as part of a wider strategy for teacher recruitment and retention for subjects with bursaries that are at a clear maximum”.

The government should raise lower bursaries in shortage subjects and maintain higher ones, the researchers say. These increases should be introduced over time along with increases to the teacher starting salary.

Jack Worth, school workforce lead at the NFER, said: “Our analysis suggests retention payments may play a useful role in keeping early career teachers in the classroom, especially in shortage subjects - but the evidence is far from conclusive.

“To get the best value, they need to be carefully targeted and used alongside high bursaries and wider recruitment and retention strategies.”

Incentives should be ‘cherry on the cake’

Both the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the NAHT school leaders’ union said that to truly tackle the recruitment and retention crisis, the sector needed further above-inflation pay increases as well as action on workload and accountability.

“These measures could be complemented by more compelling financial incentives, like fully funding teacher training, waiving student loans, and long service awards - but such incentives should be the cherry on the cake, not its main ingredients,” said Ian Hartwright, head of policy at the NAHT.

Julie McCulloch, the ASCL’s senior director of strategy and policy, said the Department for Education must develop wider strategies to improve recruitment and retention.

The NFER evaluated five recent retention payment schemes piloted since 2018. It did not look at the targeted retention incentive payments introduced last year because it was too soon for there to be reliable data.

Impact of maths payments ‘smaller than thought’

Since 2018 the DfE has piloted five retention payment schemes, each with slightly different eligible subjects and conditions, with payments varying from £325 to £2,069.

Researchers found that the maths and physics retention payment (MPRP) and the maths phased bursary (MPB), which had both previously been found to be effective, had smaller impacts than previously estimated. The impact of MPRP was not statistically significant.

The levelling-up premium was found to be associated with around a one percentage point reduction in the teacher leaving leaving rate - but this also was not statistically significant.

Finally, the teacher student loan reimbursement (TSLR) and early career payment (ECP) were associated in the analysis with a slight worsening in retention - though both of these findings were not statistically significant.

The NFER analysis found no conclusive evidence that one scheme of retention payments is more effective than any other.

Retention schemes in future should be guided by contextual factors like particular subject shortages, bursary policies and potentially higher rates for teachers in schools in more deprived areas, the report says.

A DfE spokesperson said work is underway to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers, as the government pledged it would.

”Retaining more talented teachers is vital to delivering on this pledge, which is why we are offering payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers and we are working alongside the sector to improve workload and wellbeing, including encouraging schools to offer more flexible working practices,” the spokesperson added.

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