A review of the cost and implementation of the teachers' agreement – podcast transcript

Leon:  Hello, I’m Leon Thomson and I’m joined today by two members of the study team, Antony Clark and Sarah Pollock. Sarah, perhaps I could start by asking you a couple of questions – Sarah, why have you carried out this study?

Sarah: The teachers agreement was one of the most significant policy developments in the field of education over the last decade. That combined with the significant costs involved in the implementation really justified an independent assessment of the costs and progress made to date. 

Leon: So, in a nutshell, what has your report found?

Sarah: The agreement really has benefited many classroom teachers, its improved induction and support for new teachers and has given classroom teachers more time to teach, and its provided better access to high-quality training and development. However, in some areas we report that the outcome has been mixed, and the Scottish Executive needs to do more to ensure that the £2.15 billion invested really does deliver long-term change and value-for-money. We’re recommending that the Executive work with other parties to identify and report on a set of comprehensive measures, such as things like recruitment and retention to the profession and impact on educational attainment.

Leon: So Antony, do we know if the agreement has really delivered value for money?

Antony: Its quite difficult for us to say at the moment because the agreement didn’t contain any clear outcome measures. As Sarah has said, the direction of travel is quite positive, we’ve found good progress in a number of areas but we can’t really form a definitive judgement at this stage on value for money till more time has elapsed. We think we’ll be in a better position to form an opinion on this once we have seen the HMIE report which will be published later this year.

Leon: And what does Audit Scotland think needs to happen next?

Antony: The first challenge will be sustaining the progress we’ve found so far in implementing the agreement. The Executive needs to work with councils to keep staff on board and also make sure that momentum is maintained. We identified three areas of mixed performance in our report, these are limited uptake of the chartered teacher scheme, the impact of the new career structure on teacher morale in the secondary sector, and the effect of the reduction of class contact time on headteachers. These all need to be addressed. And finally, the agreement was designed to bring long-term change, not just for teachers, but for Scotland as a whole, so the Executive will need to work with councils to ensure that the changes not only deliver better terms and conditions for teachers which they are already doing, but also lead to pupils getting the most from their school education, improving exam results and ultimately benefiting Scotland as a whole.

Leon: Sarah, Antony, thank you very much.