Private health care, special mortgage deals and childcare centres will act as incentives in a bid to solve Essex's teacher shortage.

The scale and depth of the current crisis was outlined at a meeting of Essex County Council's learning services select committee at County Hall, Chelmsford, on Monday by speakers from teaching unions and headteachers' associations.

Council officers estimated 200 more teachers were needed by schools in Essex.

Opening the meeting, Paul Lincoln, Essex County Council director of learning services, said: "Until we see a greater flow of teachers into the profession nationally, authorities will be fishing in a pond which is very small.

"We're at the point where we now see schools poaching teachers from other schools."

Mr Lincoln said council officers plan to offer private healthcare, mortgage deals and free childcare to attract teachers from other parts of the country to Essex.

He added: "We need a more flexible approach to training and retraining former teachers, which may attract a much larger share of the national pool to Essex."

Low pay and long hours created by paperwork were all pinpointed by speakers as reasons for the supply of teachers drying up.

Jerry Glazier, general secretary of Essex NUT, said: "Teachers look at other jobs where they get better pay and they don't have to work 50 hours a week.

"People don't go into teaching for the money, but at the end of the day they have to pay their bills."

Speaker David Brinded, of the Essex Primary Heads Association, said: "There is a good sense of frustration in Essex, all of Essex and in Essex now, and there seems to be a refusal to accept there is a problem in teaching."

Councillors agreed to set up a special panel to talk to teachers and local education authorities in a bid to find a solution to teacher shortages.

Essex is facing a £4 million shortfall in the amount needed to pay teachers following a recent pay increase.

Paul Lincoln said once increases in teachers' starting salaries was taken into account, the teachers' pay rise of 3.7 per cent was calculated by officers to be 4.2 per cent.

He added: "We think the budget for next year will cover this increase but we are still looking at it."

Iris Pummell, Essex County Council lead member for education, said the national shortfall in funding for the whole country was £250 million, with the shortfall in Essex adding up to £4 million.

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