Teacher recruitment pledge lacks clarity

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) finds that the Department for Education (DfE) lacks a coherent plan, suitable targets and sufficient evidence of what works as it seeks to improve teacher recruitment and retention.  

The top reason for teachers leaving their jobs is workload, the research found, and pupil behaviour is an escalating and concerning challenge. The report finds that, while the DfE recognises this, it does not understand the root causes behind these factors including why and where workload is high. 

The inquiry found that the proportion of ex-teachers citing pupil behaviour as a reason for leaving rose from 32% to 44% in one year alone (2023 to 2024). While the DfE aims to address the issue through new attendance and behaviour hubs, only 17% of schools and colleges have signed the Department's wellbeing charter.  

The PAC recommends government look at changes to contractual and working conditions, such as flexible working and how teacher workload can be reduced, and for a further roll-out of behaviour hubs if they prove to be successful.  

While DfE recognises pay as important in recruitment and retention, it is less clear on how it considers pay alongside other initiatives. For example, the PAC asked the DfE if it has assessed whether spending on initiatives such the Early Career Framework professional development programme (£131m in 2024-25) provides better outcomes than simply increasing teachers' pay. 

The report finds that DfE has assessed the relative value for money for some of its financial incentives but has not assessed the extent to which increasing pay has a similar impact. The PAC recommends DfE should now do so, so it can make an explicit decision on whether it needs to do more to ensure teachers are paid the right amount.  

In July 2024, the government pledged 6,500 additional teachers for schools and further education colleges over the course of this Parliament. The report finds that it is unclear how this pledge will be delivered, progress measured, or what achieving it will mean for existing and forecast teacher shortages. DfE could give no clear explanation of how the pledge was calculated or how it will fill existing teacher gaps.

For colleges, the PAC’s report finds significant challenges are ahead in addressing the shortages here, with slightly over one in twenty positions in further education vacant in ’22-’23. The PAC is calling for more information on how the 6,500 pledge will be delivered to make sure the most critical teacher gaps are filled, and a full update on the recruitment and retention plans for further education in particular given the urgent need.  

The report highlights particular challenges in teacher shortages for schools in deprived areas. The PAC’s inquiry finds that 34% of teachers in the most disadvantaged schools had less than five years of experience, compared to 20% in the least disadvantaged. In a critical issue for the government’s mission of breaking down barriers to opportunity, these schools also suffer specialist teacher shortages, such as in Computing (1.4% vacancy rate against 0.8% in secondary schools overall). Disadvantaged students risk being locked out of particular careers due to a lack of trained teachers; 31% of schools in the most disadvantaged areas do not offer Computer Science A-level (compared to 11% in the least disadvantaged), and 9% do not offer Physics A-level (1% in the least disadvantaged areas). 

PAC member Sarah Olney MP said: “It cannot be said enough that teachers up and down the country deserve our heartfelt thanks for the job they do. Our report is the latest confirmation that this job is increasingly done in difficult circumstances, with workload burdens and challenging pupil behaviour some of the key drivers of teachers leaving the profession. The DfE told us that teaching quality makes more of a difference than teacher quantity. As reassuring arguments go, this seems difficult to believe when faced with the absence of any kind of teaching at all in certain subjects, particularly in the most disadvantaged areas. The shortfalls laid out in our report show how urgent it is that DfE lay out the detail behind its pledge for 6,500 more teachers.   

“The Committee is calling for the government to take a serious look at working conditions, flexible arrangements and increased pay for teachers. It is important to stress that this Committee’s role is not to make recommendations on policy – our report makes clear that government should be exploring conditions and pay as value for money measures alongside the other recruitment and retention initiatives it is carrying out. The debate around these issues has a long history, and is far from over. If the recommendations in our report are followed, the government will have an explicit answer, based on its own analysis and evidence, on whether it is time to offer teachers more flexibility, and/or to pay them more.”