Teacher Recruitment and Retention

Teacher Recruitment and Retention

• There is increasing evidence of a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention just as the number of pupils and the demand for new teachers begins to increase sharply. Excessive workload and attacks on payare driving away teachers and deterring new recruits.

• DfE figures show that numbers recruited onto ITT (Initial Teacher Training) courses fellby nearly 14 per cent between 2010/11 and 2014/15.[1]
• Initial Teacher Training (ITT) figures for 2015/16 show that while there was a slight increase in the number of overall recruits, nearly one in five secondary trainee places for September 2015 were still unfilled. The overall contribution to the secondary recruitment target was 82 per cent in 2015/16, a significant decrease from the previous year when secondary recruitment achieved 94 per cent of the target.[2]
• In 2015/16, the only subjects where the Teacher Supply Model (TSM) recruitment target was met were English, History and PE. This shortfall represents 3400 fewer secondary trainees entering the profession than were needed.[3]
• In 2015/16, ITT figures included Teach First applicants for the first time – this boosted the overall recruitment figures by over 1500 applicants. Despite the inclusion of Teach First recruits into the figures, the overall TSM target still was not met, for the third year in a row.

• DfE figures show that in the 12 months to November 2014 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) almost 50,000 qualified teachers in England left the state sector. This equates to one in 10 teachers leaving the profession – the highest for 10 years, and an increase of more than 25 per cent over five years. The number of teachers leaving as a proportion of the total number of teachers in service, known as the ‘wastage rate’, is 10.4 per cent.[4] The same figures reveal that more than 100,000 potential teachers have never taught, despite finishing their training.

• The DfE statistics also highlight the growing number of teaching posts thatschools are not able to fill; the number of teaching vacancies in 2014/15 had increased by a third within twelve months. The total number of vacancies was over 1000 in November 2014, whilst in November 2013, this stood at 750. In addition, there were over 3000 temporarily-filled teaching posts in November 2014, and over 20,000 teachers without QTS; both of these figures had substantially increased since the year previous.[5]

• The crisis in teacher recruitment means that whilst schools are struggling to fill vacancies, more and more pupils are being taught by teachers who do not have a relevant qualification in the subject. In 2014/5 less than 80 per cent of maths lessons were taught by teachers with a relevant post A-level qualification, a decrease of 3 per cent within one year. Similarly, 83 per cent of English lessons in 2014/15 had an appropriately qualified teacher; a figure which was nearly 85 per cent in 2013/14.[6]

• In January 2014 the head of Ofsted Sir Michael Wilshaw, said that it was a "national scandal" that around two-fifths of teachers had left the profession within 5 years and that serious questions needed to be asked about the current teacher training system.[7]

• In July 2015, the DfE reported that the number of children enrolled in state schools would increase by almost a million over the next decade, with the rise in the number of pupils between 2015 and 2024 equivalent to the addition of more than 1,900 schools.[8]

• A national survey of more than 2,300 governors carried out by TES and the National Governors’ Association in the summer of 2014 revealed that one in three respondents said their schools had been finding it tough to attract head teachers and 32 per cent said they had been struggling to recruit classroom teachers.[9]

• The NUT has concerns about the significant under-recruitment of the Government’s flagship School Direct training route; less than two-thirds of School Direct salaried and unsalaried places were filled in 2014/15.[10] The Unionsharesthe concerns of Universities UK that an increasing focus on School Direct has built a considerable instability into the teacher training system.[11]

• Recent changes to teachers’ pay such as ending prescribed pay scale points, extending PRP to all pay ranges and introducing school-based pay determinationare likely to damage still further teacher recruitment and retention, and the same could well be said of the effects of the Government’s detrimental changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. The Chancellor announced in the 2015 Summer Budget that the 1 per cent limit on public sector pay increases, including for teachers, is to be extended. This decision will further increase the crisis being experienced in teacher recruitment and retention.

• This is borne out by the results of a YouGov survey (January 2014), which found that 52 per cent of teachers said they were less likely to stay in teaching as a result of changes to their pay and pensions and three-quarters said their morale had declined since the last General Election.[12]

• A survey published in October 2015 by the NUT and YouGov found that over half of teacherswere thinking of leaving teaching in the next two years citing ‘volume of workload’ (61%) and ‘seeking better work/life balance’ (57%) as the two top issues causing them to consider this.[13]

• The Government can ill-afford to lose valuable teachers at any time, but especially not in the present context of sharply rising pupil numbers. Securing teacher supply for the future and preventing teacher wastage requires action to make teaching an attractive profession in comparison with other graduate occupations, in particular by offering professional levels of pay and by reducing workload to manageable levels.

Produced by the National Union of Teachers

[1]DfE – Statistics: initial teacher training. Available at

[2] DfE Statistics: initial teacher training. Available at:

[3] DfE – Statistics: initial teacher training. Available at:

[4]DFE – Statistics – national statistics - School Workforce in England: November 2014. Available at (Additional Tables)

[5] TES (2015) ‘Six new statistics that suggest teacher shortages are increasing’. Available at:

[6] TES (2015) ‘Six new statistics that suggest teacher shortages are increasing’. Available at:

[7]The Guardian (2014), Ofsted Chief: two-fifths of teachers quitting within five years is a ‘scandal’ . Available at

[8]DfE National pupil projections: trends in pupil numbers – July 2015, Main tables. Available at:

[9]TES (15 August 2014), Schools have the jobs, so where are the staff? Available at

[10] DFE – Statistics: Initial teacher training. Available at:

[11]UniversitiesUK - The Impact of Initial Teacher Training Reforms on English Higher Education Institutions. Available at

[12]NUT commissioned YouGov poll of 826 teachers carried out in December 2013. NUT (January 2014). Teachers’ New Year Message [online]. Available at:

[13] NUT commissioned YouGov poll of 1020 teachers carried out in June/July 2015 and published in October 2015. Available at: