Why Good CPD Might Be Your Most Underrated Retention Tool

Nearly one in ten teachers left the profession in 2022/23, the highest rate since records began. Vacancies have more than doubled since before the pandemic. And the schools hit hardest are, predictably, those that can least afford it.

These aren’t abstract statistics for most school leaders. They represent real gaps in timetables, real pressure on the staff who stay, and real conversations that are increasingly hard to have.

What’s striking, though, is something Baroness Mary Bousted highlighted at a recent education leadership conference: most teachers still enjoy teaching. The classroom isn’t the problem. It’s everything around it – the workload, the stress, the cumulative weight of too much for too long.

That distinction really matters, because it changes what leaders can actually do about it.

The CPD that helps people stay

Professional development has a reputation problem in schools. Too often it means sitting through something that feels disconnected from real life, designed for a generic version of a teacher rather than the actual people in the room. Done badly, it adds to the load rather than reducing it.

But when CPD is genuinely useful – when it gives staff tools they can use the following morning, and when it’s shaped with them rather than done to them – something shifts. Staff feel more capable, more supported, and more like their development actually matters to the school. That’s not a soft outcome. It’s one of the more reliable levers leaders have on retention and morale.

The research increasingly points to three things that separate CPD that helps people stay from CPD that simply fills an INSET day.

1. Make it practical enough to use on a Tuesday afternoon

Awareness without application doesn’t stick, and in a school context, it rarely even lands. Staff managing high cognitive load, emotional demands and constant context-switching aren’t short of things to reflect on. What they’re short of is strategies that work in the margins of a real day: between lessons, after a difficult conversation, at the point when reserves are lowest.

The most effective wellbeing-focused CPD doesn’t ask staff to find time they don’t have. It’s designed to fit the rhythm of school life – short, concrete, and specific enough that someone can actually reach for it when they need it. If staff leave a session without something they can use the following morning, the session hasn’t done its job.

2. Ask better questions, then do something visible with the answers

One pattern that comes up consistently among schools that retain staff well is almost embarrassingly simple: they ask, they listen properly, and they act in ways that are visible. Not an annual survey that produces a report nobody reads (or worse, sets the cat among the pigeons and is actually harmful), but genuine conversation about workload and experience – followed by changes, however modest, that show the feedback was actually heard.

This builds something that matters beyond retention. When staff trust that honest input is welcome, schools get earlier warning of problems brewing, more candid CPD conversations, and a culture where people feel able to say what they actually need before it becomes a crisis. Relational trust isn’t a soft outcome. In a stretched school, it’s load-bearing.

3. Relevance isn’t a luxury – it’s what makes CPD worth engaging with

A class teacher, a DSL, a SENCO and a member of support staff are all experiencing school pressure differently. Treating them identically in CPD isn’t just inefficient – it sends a signal that the school hasn’t really looked at what each person is carrying.

The best programmes allow for genuine flexibility, not as a premium add-on but as a basic design principle. When CPD reflects the reality of different roles, staff are more likely to engage with it seriously, apply it consistently, and feel that their specific experience has been seen. That last part – feeling seen – turns out to matter more than most leaders expect.

A note on what this isn’t

None of this is a quick fix, and it shouldn’t be framed as one. Teacher retention is a systemic problem with roots that go well beyond what any individual school can control. But within that, there is meaningful work that leaders can do – and CPD that genuinely supports staff wellbeing is one of the more durable investments available.

Whether you’re reviewing your CPD calendar, thinking about how to support a team that’s stretched, or just looking for something worth sharing with colleagues – the conversation Baroness Bousted opened is a useful one to keep having.

If you’d like to explore what practical, wellbeing-focused CPD looks like in a school context, you can find out more about our work with staff here: Support for Staff Under Pressure.