The UK’s labour party said it plans to save taxpayers billions of pounds paid by schools each year to teacher recruitment agencies through its new plan to embed ‘world-class teaching for every child’ and drive ‘high and rising standards’ in schools, reports FE News.

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson pledged to reduce payments to fill growing teaching agencies in response to new analysis by the party, which found that state schools in England have paid recruitment agencies more than £8 billion in fees since 2010 to fill teaching growing vacancies.

The Independent reports that, Phillipson, who submitted parliamentary questions on agency fees, said £1.98 billion was spent on fees by local authority-maintained schools between April 2017 and March 2022. Around £4.5 billion was spent between 2010 and 2017, with academies and academy trusts also spending £1.75 billion on fees between 2016 and 2021.

She accused the conservatives of overseeing a ‘perfect storm’ in teaching.

Meanwhile, data from the Department for Education showed there were 43,997 leavers in the teaching profession in 2021/22 (latest data), compared with only 36,159 starters on Initial Teacher Training, leaving a shortfall of 7,838.

Labour said it would introduce a new retention payment when teachers complete the two-year early career framework in order to tackle new teachers leaving the job. Labour also pledged to reinstate the requirement for new teachers to have or to be working towards qualified teacher status, amid a raft of proposals designed to keep staff in the profession.

“We will only drive high a rising standards in our classrooms if we get a grip on the perfect storm in our teaching profession, which is seeing an exodus of experienced teachers and costing taxpayers over the odds to fill vacancies,” Phillipson said. “Only Labour has the vision to re-establish teaching as a profession that is respected and valued as a skilled job which delivers for our country.”

“A good retention plan is the best recruitment plan: that is why labour’s measures to keep teachers in our classrooms will deliver world-class teachers in every classroom and reduce the costly payments to recruitment agencies clobbering taxpayers,” Phillipson added.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said, “The ambition for every class to be taught by a qualified teacher is also welcome – every parent should be able to expect that their child is taught by someone with the requisite expertise.

“Plans to improve early career training and ongoing professional development are sensible but Labour will need to be prepared to go further if they are to begin to solve the current crisis,” Whiteman added. “We know that issues such as uncompetitive pay and a punitive inspection system are key factors in pushing people out of the profession, and it is only by tackling these that we will see teaching and school leadership become an attractive proposition once again.”

Leader of the labour party Keir Starmer will later this week set out the party’s plans on schools and education.