What’s the state of the current school workforce?

Today, the Department for Education released the latest edition of its annual data release on the workforce, providing information across staff numbers and characteristics, as well as retention and recruitment trends for the state school sector in England.

In a time of a staffing crisis, these figures are crucial. Tes has analysed the data to highlight the key points for school leaders.

1. There are fewer teachers than last year

Firstly, there were 468,258 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in England in 2024, a decrease of 432 from the previous year, when there were 468,690. 

This means teacher numbers have now remained essentially static for the third year in a row, as the 2023 figure was 468,434. It comes after around 10 years of growth, with the overall figure rising 6.6 per cent from the first data point of 441,357 in 2011-12.

If you break this data down by phase, the picture becomes more complicated. Overall, the secondary workforce grew by 1,400, or 0.7 per cent, and the special and pupil referral unit headcount increased by 900, or 3.2 per cent - probably due to more children attending specialist settings.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson seized on this growth as proof the government was “delivering on our pledge to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers”.

However, the FTE for the nursery and primary phase fell by 2,900, or 1.3 per cent - no doubt a result of the declining primary population - therefore leading to an overall decline in the total number of teachers in the sector.

So, whatever positive spin Labour puts on the data, in reality it is a long way off its target of attracting 6,500 more teachers before the end of its parliament.

2. There are more support staff than last year

The story is, however, different for support staff, where the FTE workforce increased to 517,496, a rise of 7,114 or 1.4 per cent. Of these, 5,900 are teaching assistants. 

This is a 16.7 per cent increase on the number of support staff since 2011, when data on this part of the workforce was first collected.

Mapping this alongside the changing number of teachers, we can see how the support staff workforce has increased more rapidly than the teacher workforce across the same period - as shown below.

3. The gender make-up of the workforce remains consistent

In 2024, female teachers made up 76 per cent of the workforce, a stat that has remained consistent over time. There were 388,124 female teachers across state-funded schools, alongside 125,194 male teachers.

The data also shows that male teachers are much more likely to work in secondaries. In nurseries and primaries, there were 33,437 male teachers, making up 13.8 per cent of the workforce. In secondaries, there were 82,880, or 35.4 per cent. And in special schools and PRUs, there were 7,614 men, or 24.4 per cent of all teachers.

But, despite the dominance of women across the teacher workforce, they are still proportionally less likely to be leaders - although this is improving over time. In 2024, 70 per cent of leadership teachers were female, up slightly from the 2010 figure of 66 per cent. 

4. The ethnic diversity of the workforce is slowly increasing 

In 2024, 16.8 per cent of teachers identified as belonging to an ethnic minority group - marginally up from 16.2 the previous year and, more significantly, from 11.2 per cent in 2010.

Asian or Asian British teachers made up the majority of this group, with 5.8 per cent. Meanwhile, 2.9 per cent of the workforce identified as Black or Black British.

Despite the slow move towards diversifying, these figures are still not representative of the country as a whole: across England and Wales, 9.3 per cent of the population is Asian and 4.0 per cent is Black.

5. The leaver rate remains a concern

Now to entrants and leavers. In 2024, 41,736 FTE teachers joined the state sector, down 1,378 on last year. This included 16,999 newly qualified entrants, as well as 17,274 returners.

At the same time, 41,212 FTE teachers left the sector, which was 1,342 fewer than the previous year.
However, although more teachers joined than left, some existing staff also reduced their working hours - leading to the overall workforce having decreased by 432, as noted above.

The news on leavers may be slightly better than in previous years, but the long-term data is still pretty stark.

Of the 41,212 who left teaching in 2024, the vast majority -  37,413 leavers, or 90.8 per cent - chose to leave the profession. This represents a leaving rate of 8.2, which is slightly lower than 2021 and 2022, when the rate was 8.5, but significantly up on 2010, when it was 6.5. 

This is something James Zuccollo, director for school workforce at the Education Policy Institute, is worried about, describing how this “loss of experience in teaching and leadership” leads to a worsening quality of teaching. 

“Our research shows that attainment remains lower, and the disadvantage gap wider, than before the pandemic, so keeping experienced teachers in the profession is critical for the years ahead,” he says.

Conversely, just 3,655 - or 8.9 per cent - of leavers did so due to retirement. In 2010, that number was a far healthier 14,556, or 34.5 per cent.

The number of leavers due to retirement and due to choosing to exit the profession for other reasons is outlined below.

6. Teacher retention remains a worry

When it comes to how long teachers are staying in the profession, the picture is mixed.

On the one hand, retention rates for the newest teacher cohorts have improved. Of teachers who qualified in 2023, 89.7 per cent of teachers were still teaching one year later - a slight lift on last year’s 89.0 per cent. 

Meanwhile, of those who qualified in 2022, 80.5 per cent were still teaching two years later - also a small increase, up from 79.2 per cent on the previous year’s cohort.

This means there “is some cause for optimism”, says Zuccollo, who adds that “it will be crucial for the government to understand what has led to these improvements and build on that success as they develop their teacher workforce strategy”.

However, when you look at the data on those who qualified longer ago, it’s a far worse story. For almost all cohorts who qualified in 2021 or longer ago, the retention rate has decreased. 

For example, of teachers who qualified in 2019, 67.6 per cent of teachers remain in the profession five years on, and of teachers who qualified in 2014, 57.0 per cent remain a decade on. These stats follow the trend of recent years, as retaining teachers has become a growing concern.

7. Teacher vacancies are down

It’s slightly better news for full- and part-time teacher vacancies, which decreased to 2,173 in November 2024, after a high of 2,802 the previous year. 

Between 2020 and 2023, the number more than doubled - from 1,098 to 2,802, probably due at least partly to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic - but that trend has now reversed.

In 2024, the vacancy rate - which takes into account changes in the teaching population - was 0.5 per cent, down from 2023’s 0.6 per cent and matching 2022. It is, however, still very high compared to 2010, when the rate was just 0.1 per cent.

You can see how the teacher vacancy rate has changed over time below.

The future of the workforce

Overall, it’s a mixed picture, with Jack Worth, school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, saying the statistics “show some green shoots of progress towards addressing the chronic issues in teacher recruitment and retention in England” - especially around growing secondary and special-school teacher numbers, small improvements to retention and a fall in the vacancy rate.

However, he adds that “the effects of sustained under-recruitment and poor retention continue to be felt by schools […] Continued action to improve recruitment and retention is vital to restoring teacher supply to a state of health”.

All eyes will now be on the Spending Review (coming on 11 June), which offers the next opportunity for the government to address these workforce concerns.