Government vow to recruit 6500 teachers may not address shortage watchdog

It is unclear whether the Government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers will fully address staff shortages, the public spending watchdog said.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said demand for teachers in secondary schools and colleges is increasing as the number of pupils continues to rise.

The watchdog has called on the Government to publish a delivery plan for achieving its pledge, and to consider what more it can do to encourage teacher trainees to work in state schools across England.

In its report on Wednesday, the NAO said the number of teachers who were newly qualified who started in state secondary schools in 2023/24 fell to 8,700 – the lowest number since 2010/11.

It said the Department for Education (DfE) “struggles” to attract postgraduates into secondary school teaching – and the DfE has missed its target for postgraduates starting training to become secondary school teachers in nine of the 10 previous years.

During the election campaign, Labour pledged to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers over the course of its five-year parliamentary term.

The DfE budgeted to spend around £700 million on initiatives to improve teacher shortages in secondary schools and further education (FE) colleges in 2024/25, the NAO said.

But there were around 1,500 teacher vacancies and 1,700 temporarily filled posts in secondary schools in 2022/23, and a further 2,500 teacher vacancies in FE and sixth-form colleges.

The DfE has predicted that colleges may need between 8,400 and 12,400 more teachers by 2028/29 to meet demographic pressures and offer T-levels.

The NAO report said: “Looking ahead, secondary school and further education student numbers will rise and DfE has identified not having enough teachers as an ongoing issue.

“In July 2024, the Government pledged to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers by the end of the current Parliament, but it is not yet clear whether this will fully address current and expected teacher shortages.”

The watchdog added: “Given the upcoming multi-year spending review, DfE has not yet agreed plans setting out how it will achieve, and routinely monitor progress towards, the pledge for 6,500 more teachers.”

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Despite the Government’s pledge, secondary schools and further education colleges face a challenge in securing enough teachers to support growing student numbers.

“DfE must continue efforts to look at this as a cross-system issue and improve further education workforce data, to allocate funding effectively and ensure all children and young people achieve the best outcomes.”

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, said: “The Department for Education assesses that meeting the Government’s pledge for 6,500 more teachers will be very challenging.

“Even if met, it is not clear that this will be enough to fix the nationwide shortage of teachers amidst growing numbers of students.”

He added: “There needs to be a new cross-sector approach to recruiting and retaining enough high-quality teachers.

“Otherwise, workforce challenges will continue to pose a real threat to young people’s education and life prospects.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Virtually every school and college in the country is having to manage teacher shortages because of long-standing nationwide recruitment and retention problems.

“The last Government failed to address this issue and it is not clear how the current Government intends to achieve its pledge of recruiting 6,500 new teachers or whether this will be anywhere near enough.

“We’ve had no end of piecemeal policies but the overriding factors remain unresolved – pay levels are not competitive enough and workload and stress is driving teachers out of the profession.”

On Tuesday, the DfE lowered its target for recruiting postgraduates into initial teacher training (ITT) in 2025/26 as it said teacher retention forecasts were “more favourable” this year.

The DfE said there was an increase in secondary ITT recruitment between 2023/24 and 2024/25 of 2,000 trainees.

The 5.5% pay rise for teachers in 2024/25 is forecast to improve teacher retention, it added.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The failure to recruit and retain the expert teachers our schools need over the last 10 years is stark, which is why our Plan for Change has a clear commitment to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers by the end of this Parliament.

“We’re already seeing green shoots, with two thousand more secondary school teachers training this year, alongside a boost in the number set to begin training in shortage Stem subjects but there’s still much more to do.

“Following last year’s 5.5% pay award, and with hundreds of millions of pounds being invested to help us turn the tide, I’m determined to restore teaching as the attractive, prestigious profession it should be.”

A separate report by Warwick Business School, published on Wednesday, suggests that men face discrimination when applying for jobs in schools.

The experimental study, which saw over 600 teachers in England evaluate fictitious CVs for three school-based roles, suggested that male applicants were rated 1.2 percentage points lower than female applicants on average.

It comes after the Education Secretary called for more men to become teachers earlier this month, as she said boys’ behaviour and their influences were “a defining issue of our time”.

Published: 30/04/2025 by Radio NewsHub