Extra cash to tackle the teacher shortage can be spent on housing subsidies and childcare, as head teachers are encouraged to design their own recruitment packages to fill classroom vacancies.

Recruitment packages for teachers

�33m this year via local authorities Additional salary Housing subsidies Travel subsidies Childcare support �2m still to be allocated

Education Secretary David Blunkett has given further details of how �33m should be spent on the recruitment and retention of secondary teachers - and he will be writing to local authorities urging them to pass money straight on to schools.

As schools still face the threat of industrial action over staff shortages, heads will be able to offer customised recruitment packages to attract new staff, similar to the schemes available in the private sector.

The majority of local authorities which will receive the extra money are in greater London and the south-east - and help with high housing costs can be offered to attract teachers.

Or else heads will be able to provide other incentives, such as assistance with child care or help with other family needs.

If teachers are being recruited from a long distance and they do not want to re-locate, heads will be able to offer support with travel costs.

And for heads concerned about losing key members of their existing staff, such incentives will be available in form of retention packages.

'Golden handcuffs'

Under changes already made to the pay structure, head teachers can seek to keep key staff with "golden handcuffs" worth up to �15,000 extra per year.

Another �2m will be allocated after the latest survey of staff vacancies has been analysed.

The largest single amount is awarded to Essex local education authority, where earlier this year the director of education wrote to Mr Blunkett warning him of the dangers of a deepening recruitment crisis.

"We have acted to provide targeted support which combines cash for local education authorities and discretion for headteachers to spend this money in the most effective way to attract and retain staff," said Mr Blunkett.

'Melt down'

But the National Union of Teachers, which is taking part in industrial action over teacher shortages, said that the recruitment plans still failed to address the full scale of the shortage in the supply of teachers.

And the union's general secretary, Doug McAvoy, said that European education ministers meeting at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development this week would hear that England and Wales "have the worst problems of recruitment and retention in the region".

"The OECD warns of� �melt down� due to the severe staffing shortages. I look forward to hearing the education secretary�s reaction."

Retention and Recruitment Fund Allocations by Local Education Authority (2001- 2002) Derby 360,000 Bedfordshire 599,000 Essex 1,867,000 Hertfordshire 810,000 Luton 301,000 Southend-on-Sea 243,000 Suffolk 473,000 Thurrock 417,000 Barking and Dagenham 551,000 Barnet 904,000 Bexley 751,000 Brent 707,000 Bromley 860,000 Camden 427,000 Croydon 928,000 Ealing 812,000 Enfield 893,000 Greenwich 682,000 Hackney 496,000 Hammersmith and Fulham 327,000 Haringey 637,000 Harrow 544,000 Havering 689,000 Hillingdon 760,000 Hounslow 677,000 Islington 452,000 Kensington and Chelsea 204,000 Kingston upon Thames 387,000 Lambeth 528,000 Lewisham 663,000 Merton 445,000 Newham 924,000 Redbridge 801,000 Richmond upon Thames 375,000 Southwark 652,000 Sutton 547,000 Tower Hamlets 696,000 Waltham Forest 676,000 Wandsworth 535,000 Westminster 343,000 Blackburn with Darwen 243,000 Bracknell Forest 145,000 Brighton and Hove 286,000 Buckinghamshire 708,000 East Sussex 311,000 Hampshire 1,652,000 Kent 980,000 Medway 424,000 Milton Keynes 325,000 Portsmouth 250,000 Reading 169,000 Slough 186,000 Southampton 288,000 Surrey 650,000 West Sussex 494,000 Windsor and Maidenhead 181,000 Wokingham 226,000