The Department for Education lacks “a coherent plan, suitable targets and sufficient evidence” in its efforts to improve teacher recruitment and retention, MPs have warned.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it is not clear how the DfE plans to deliver its manifesto pledge of providing 6,500 additional teachers, and has called for the department to set out clearly the baseline and milestones for recruitment, as well as how the extra teachers will be split across schools and colleges.
MPs also said that, while the DfE recognises that high workload is one of the main reasons why teachers are leaving the profession, “it does not understand the root causes behind these factors, including, for example, why and where workload is high”.
The PAC has recommended that the DfE looks at changes to contracts and working conditions, such as flexible working, and in more detail at how workload can be reduced. It also recommended that the DfE should collect data on its newly announced behaviour hubs and roll them out further if they are successful.
The causes of teacher recruitment problems
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said teachers’ high workload is being “driven by issues such as funding shortages, the wide array of responsibilities placed upon schools and colleges, and an accountability system of inspections and performance tables which is utterly excessive”.
The PAC report adds that the DfE’s various recruitment and retention initiatives are not brought together in a “clear or coherent” way, and that the department should develop a whole-system strategy based on evidence on how best to balance recruitment and retention initiatives.
Targets for new teacher trainees were cut in the most recent round because the DfE expects 2,500 more teachers to stay because of recent pay awards, MPs said.
In May teachers were awarded a 4 per cent pay award for 2025-26, after a 5.5 per cent pay rise the year before.
The DfE recognises that pay is important for recruitment and retention but needs to assess the effectiveness and value for money of this approach against other initiatives and decide whether to do more on pay, MPs said.
The ASCL, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the NEU teaching union welcomed this focus on pay, saying that teacher and school leader pay is the key to addressing the recruitment and retention crisis.
“Further real-terms pay rises over the course of the parliament to restore the value of salaries to 2010 levels are crucial if ministers are serious about making a real difference,” said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT.
Teacher shortages in deprived areas
The PAC report also flags up the fact that recruitment and retention challenges are greater in deprived areas, and calls for the DfE to work with schools to understand the reasons behind the variations in certain areas and core subjects.
Some 34 per cent of teachers in schools in the most disadvantaged areas had less than five years of experience, compared with 20 per cent in schools in the least disadvantaged areas, the report states.
Jack Worth, workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, said the government must take action now or it will miss its target of recruiting 6,500 more teachers.
“Schools are anxious to see the details of the government’s plan for supporting teacher supply,” he added.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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