In her first week in post, Ms Phillipson has begun work on the Labour Party’s election manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers.
She has also written an open letter to the teaching profession (DfE, 2024) in which she acknowledges the challenging situation facing many schools and their communities.
The letter cites school funding, teacher workload, recruitment and retention, SEN provision, and mental health services, among other challenges.
However, at the time of writing, the new education secretary has failed to address one of the most pressing issues – this September’s teachers’ pay settlement.
She wrote: “A huge part of my role is to understand the scale of the challenges you are facing, and the support needed to fix them. The scar of child poverty, severe financial pressures squeezing all your budgets, high workload, climbing vacancy rates, strain on care, mental health and SEND services, among many other issues, have made your jobs increasingly difficult.
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