Attracting and retaining teachers in regional and remote Queensland

Tabled Report 5: 2025–26

Tabled date

2025-11-06

Report year

2025-26

Education

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: enhances its understanding of current and future workforce needs and challenges. This

   enhances its understanding of current and future workforce needs and challenges. This should include

   • determining estimated teacher needs across the state
   • developing acceptable workforce ratios for schools to support system-wide decision-making
   • implementing more comprehensive workforce analysis to identify skill requirements, risks, needs, and challenges specific to workforce supply and demand. This analysis should span both short- and long-term factors.

2. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Education

   in developing its new workforce strategy

   • identifies and includes all relevant actions and initiatives that address workforce risks and gaps
   • sets clear and measurable objectives for its strategy, and for initiatives within its strategy
   • develops an implementation action plan that outlines specific time frames, and roles and responsibilities
   • ensures initiatives within the strategy are supported by appropriate planning activities

3. QAO's text Addressed to: implements stronger monitoring of its workforce strategy and initiatives. This

   implements stronger monitoring of its workforce strategy and initiatives. This should include

   • defining roles and responsibilities for day-to-day monitoring of workforce planning activities
   • reviewing governance arrangements to more clearly articulate responsibilities for overseeing the implementation and effectiveness of the new workforce strategy
   • identifying and collecting relevant data to enable ongoing monitoring of its strategy and initiatives
   • developing a monitoring and evaluation plan over initiatives within its strategy.

4. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Education

   improves its approaches to managing teacher recruitment and mobility, through

   • collecting data on statewide vacancies to inform decision-making and prioritisation of teacher recruitment, and the effective transfer of teachers across the state
   • implementing central monitoring of vacancy and mobility requests
   • documenting and communicating roles and responsibilities for recruitment and mobility for schools, regional teams, and central teams

5. QAO's text Addressed to: clarifies and communicates the expectations for how regional offices and teams

   clarifies and communicates the expectations for how regional offices and teams should help schools with attraction and retention matters

6. QAO's text Addressed to: clarifies and communicates the expectations for how regional offices and teams

   provides expectations and guidance to its schools about the use of Permission to Teach teachers and support for all teachers in the early phases of their careers

7. QAO's text Addressed to: improves its approach to determining which schools can access workforce initiatives. It

   improves its approach to determining which schools can access workforce initiatives. It should

   • establish criteria for school eligibility
   • periodically review criteria
   • document eligibility decisions.

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO