Resignation Patterns Among Parents

Maternity Teacher, Paternity Teacher’s Emma Sheppard recently wrote, “What is clear is the stereotype of teaching as compatible with family life is misguided – with thousands of mother-teachers leaving the profession each year.”

This article explores our staff dataset for insights relating specifically to parenthood and staff’s risk of resignation, in our staff survey.

In our Demographics module, we ask participants, “Are you a parent or carer?” and this question forms the basis of our analysis. We will use the question, “In the past three months, how often have you considered resigning from your post?” as a measure of those considering resigning from their roles in schools. It is also important to note that while staff may express a desire to consider resigning from their role, this does not necessarily mean they intend to leave the profession entirely.

Although we have data on those who are expecting, the sample size was very small, comprising approximately 88 teachers. Therefore, for the majority of this post, we focus specifically on parents compared to non-parents. Additionally, a significant number of respondents chose not to disclose their parental status – these have been excluded from calculations. It’s also essential to note that the parents in our datasets may have children of varying ages, ranging from newborns to adults: there are likely to be signficant differences between parents of children at such different life stages. The dataset includes from all staff positions, including central trust teams and school teams. 

Are parents more or less likely to consider resigning from their roles?

Of the staff who are expecting (88 of them), only 10% of them reported considering resigning from their role constantly or often. 39% of parents reported considering resigning constantly or often, or sometimes, compared to a slightly larger 41% of non-parents. Whilst this difference does not seem stark, it represents a theme that we see across most different demographic breakdowns. 

Maternity Teacher, Paternity Teacher highlight that  “In teaching, the qualifying criteria to benefit from occupational maternity pay are tied to the agreement to return to work for 13 weeks (full-time equivalent), which could be the reason that fewer colleagues are considering resignation when expecting.”

Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

However, among those who have considered resigning, parents are the most likely to leave the profession entirely. Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher suggests that this highlights an urgent need to better understand our parenting demographic to avoid this attrition. 

Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

In the rest of this blog, we explore the breakdown of these characteristics to see if this is solely reflective of parental status or other personal characteristics, highlighting areas where the gap is bigger or reversed.

Gender and parental status

When examining the data with gender taken into account, we observe a similar trend: parents are less likely to consider resigning frequently or constantly compared to non-parents, regardless of gender. The gap between parents and non-parents is larger among women than men: three percentage points for women and one percentage point for men.

Despite this, School Workforce Census data shows that women aged 30-39 are the largest demographic to leave teaching every year, and the Missing Mothers report suggests that motherhood is a significant push factor for more than half of these women.

However, it’s also important to note that female respondents were more likely to consider resigning overall than male respondents. 

We have excluded those with a gender identity other than male or female, due to small sample sizes.

Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

Age and parental status

Roughly, the older staff are the less likely they are to report considering resigning constantly, often or sometimes. If we consider this in the context of life in general, such as getting married, having children, or buying our first or forever homes, we can classify this as settling down in life. Is it possible that what we see here is people settling into their careers or work?

When looking at staff through the joint lens of parental status and their age, we again see the same recurring trend in the data: staff who are parents are less likely to consider resigning constantly, often or sometimes than non-parents. We have excluded data from individuals under 24 years old and those over 65 years old due to small sample sizes.

Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

It’s noteworthy that the 25-34 age group – the one where the average age at which people become parents – has the biggest difference between parents and non-parents across all measures reviewed in this analysis: eight percentage points.

If we look at this age group in more detail, by looking at gender in combination with this, we can see that women in this age category who are parents are much less likely to consider resigning (38%) than other women the same age who are not parents (47%). 

Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

Contract type and parental status

Parents who work full-time are less likely to report considering resignation constantly, often, or sometimes, similar to the trends observed elsewhere in this blog. However, what’s interesting here is that parents who are part-time are more likely to consider resigning constantly, often, or sometimes, which is the opposite of the trends seen elsewhere in this blog post.

The 2018 Maternity and Paternity Teacher report indicated that even when part-time work was available, it came with penalties regarding pay and progression. It also suggested that part-time working isn’t always done well, so it can have implications for workload and wellbeing. MTPT suggest that without the right school culture, part-time working can result in a delayed path to attrition. They also highlight that when the woman takes on part-time work in heterosexual couples, often the man stays full-time and therefore the breadwinner/carer responsibilities are reinforced, and when it comes to someone resigning, it is the mother’s “hobby job” of teaching that is sacrificed.

Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

Geographical region and parental status

There are variations between regions in how likely staff are to consider resigning from their role constantly, often or sometimes. However, in most regions, staff who are parents are less likely to consider resigning constantly,  often or sometimes. Two regions that buck this trend, however, are London and the South West, where parents are actually more likely to consider resigning from their roles constantly, often, or sometimes compared to non-parents. Note that we excluded the North East, South East and East Midlands due to small sample sizes.

MTPT suggest that the cost of childcare and cost of living could be untenable with families in different parts of the UK, which is also backed by NFER research on Teacher Supply, Retention and Mobility in London.Source: Edurio Staff Experience Survey

Differences in reasons for considering resigning

For all staff, the top 6 reasons for considering resigning are very similar: overwhelming workload, feeling undervalued, low staff morale in the workplace, lack of staffing, pupil behaviour and poor work-life balance. These same trends are reflected in the Missing Mothers report, where motherhood wasn’t the primary reason for leaving; instead, workload, wellbeing, and lifestyle choice emerged as the top three factors. But overwhelming workload, poor wellbeing and children lead to wanting a different lifestyle where family life and work feel compatible.

We see very similar findings where family reasons (e.g., childcare, caregiving, etc.) are more of a reason for parents to consider resigning from their role than non-parents. For parents, family reasons are much closer to the top of the list when it comes to reasons for considering resigning and are almost in line with financial reasons; this is different when we look at non-parents. 

MTPT highlight that the difference between the workload and the feeling of being undervalued among female parents and non-parents in our data presented here is a really interesting one. There is a 12% point difference in workload between women who are parents and those who are not. They also posed the question for further consideration: “Does this suggest that parents (older and more experienced) are better at managing their workload?” This difference is also not as noticeable when it comes to fathers versus non-fathers.

So, what have we learnt by exploring this data? 

We can see, having explored various personal characteristics, that parents are less likely to consider resigning (yet they still are) from their roles constantly, often or sometimes compared to non-parents, irrespective of additional characteristics.

What we can also see from the data is that parents are more likely to consider resigning from their roles due to family reasons than non-parents, but these aren’t the most reported reasons for staff considering resigning, with other issues such as workload and feeling undervalued much more commonly reported reasons staff consider resigning in schools.

Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher suggest that there is work to be done in how we as a sector support mothers in the early years of motherhood to stick to their intention to remain in the profession, rather than leaving. 

MTPT suggest that possible solutions could include: Improved and equal parental leave and pay as an incentive for immediate to medium-term retention could be one way, but another could be coaching support to maintain the intention to remain in the profession once the reality of how challenging it can be to return/sustain with young children.

So is teaching compatible with family life? Our data suggests that while family reasons are more likely to be the reasons parents consider resigning, it isn’t the main reason why they consider resigning from their role. Based on our data, it seems parents are less likely to consider resigning from their roles in schools than non-parents, particularly for those in the age group with the most new parents. Whilst this may be the case, women in their thirties remain the largest cohort to leave the teaching profession each year. They are, of course, the largest cohort overall and so proportionally are not the most at-risk group, but it’s clear that support for working mothers could be a key to solving the retention crisis within education.