Retention as a whole-school challenge
Why Good People Stay: practical ways to keep valued people in every role
Schools are at risk of losing experience across the entire workforce. Around three in ten teachers and leaders are considering leaving state-funded education, while more than one in five TAs and learning-support, administrative and finance, and site and catering staff say the same. For SBLs, retention is both a whole-school priority and a direct management challenge across the teams that keep schools running.
Losing experienced people creates cost, removes organisational knowledge and increases pressure on those who remain. Pay matters, but workload, flexibility, development, relationships, recognition and belonging also influence whether people stay. This session focuses on practical, affordable changes leaders can make across the workforce—without resorting to token gestures or expecting staff to tolerate unsustainable conditions.
In this session we explore
• Understanding the different pressures affecting teaching, leadership and support roles
• Identifying where workload, working practices or team culture are increasing retention risk
• Strengthening recognition, belonging and relationships across the whole staff community
• Creating meaningful development and progression opportunities for every part of the workforce
• Approaching flexible working fairly across roles with different operational requirements
• Turning staff feedback into focused action rather than another survey with no visible outcome
Take home points
• A practical framework for assessing retention risks across your setting
• Affordable actions addressing workload, culture, development and flexibility
• Better questions for understanding what different people and teams value
• Ideas for making flexible options workable without assuming one model suits everyone
• A clearer retention plan focused on changes leaders can genuinely influence
This session is for
SBLs, HR and people leads, COOs, senior leaders who manage support teams or contribute to workforce planning and retention
