Creating Value In Schools
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NFER’s research report What helps to improve teacher retention? explores the factors associated with the leaving decisions of teachers, so that we can understand what actions might improve staff retention in schools. One of their headline findings is the connection between school leadership support and retention. In other words, staff are more likely to want to stay in a school if they feel supported by the leadership. This correlates with findings from The Engagement Platform about the connection between perceptions of leadership, staff satisfaction and likelihood to stay, as well as previous research from the Education Policy Institute about headteacher effectiveness.
The Engagement Platform (TEP) has been gathering data from pupils and staff on their feelings about aspects of school life, in order to explore feelings of belonging and engagement.
At the Education Workforce event hosted by EdCity in January 2026, TEP directors Steph Hamilton and Agnes Fitzpatrick drew attention to a consistent finding: leadership matters.
Having a belief in what your leadership team is doing makes a big difference to staff.
The TEP results reinforce findings from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) in 2023 on ‘The influence of headteachers on their school’. They found that a substantial number of teachers leave schools with less effective headteachers: ‘staff turnover significantly increases in schools led by less effective headteachers, and staff absences rise’. Their conclusions overall?
NFER’s research What helps to improve teacher retention? aims to unpack what really makes a difference to staff decisions as to whether to stay or leave an organisation, or the teaching profession entirely.
One of their findings is that the proportion of teachers considering leaving is much higher than those who do actually leave. So, staff saying they want to leave isn't necessarily a good predictor of who will actually go.
But they did find that:
‘In sum, the modelling suggests that improving the quality of school leadership and manager support, improving pupil behaviour and overall perceptions of workload and increasing pay satisfaction may all reduce the leaving rate.’ (Full report, page 29)
NFER’s recommendation? ‘Government should further enhance the coverage of relational leadership approaches within the NPQ suite for middle leaders, senior leaders, headteachers and executive leaders.’ (Full report, page 37)
