The dynamics of teacher redeployment

Research published in June relating to staff redeployment across multi-academy trusts (MATs), is certainly worth a read.

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found in its research that staff movement between schools in the same MAT is higher than staff moving between schools that do not form part of the same MAT. 

Around 10% of teaching staff who work in a MAT move to another school each year, higher than the average among all schools, which is 7%.  One in ten of those teachers from a MAT move to another school in the same MAT (1% overall).  That may seem low, but the NFER point out that staff movement between schools in the same MAT is more than ten times higher than movement expected between any two schools that are not in the same MAT.  They suggest, as a result of their findings, that MATs could be described as having “internal teacher labour markets”.

The research suggests that there are three reasons for this:

• MAT leaders strategically redeploy staff to where they are needed most
• MAT leaders use the range of opportunities existing within the MAT to develop future leaders to ensure career progression opportunities for staff
• Information about vacancies is more easily accessible from within the MAT than from the outside

The report suggests that heads of MATs are taking a strategic approach in that they direct their workforce to schools in more disadvantaged areas, which would be in contrast to teachers’ preferences for moving generally, i.e. preferring to move to a school with a less disadvantaged intake.  Such deployment can only help support schools that struggle to recruit and retain teachers. 

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