Teacher shortage: PAC report tells government to look at pay and flexible working arrangements

- Lack of clarity over delivery of 6,500 additional teachers pledge as report highlights impact of workforce shortfalls in disadvantaged areas

The government should look at the impact of improving teachers' working conditions and pay as value for money measures to address the teacher workforce shortage. In a report following a decade of nationwide teacher shortages, 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.

Workload is cited as the top reason for teachers leaving their jobs, 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 '24, 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, with an estimated need for up to 12,400 more teachers in colleges alone by '28-'29. 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.”

PAC report conclusions and recommendations 

It is unclear how the Department will deliver the pledge for 6,500 additional teachers, measure its progress, or what achieving the pledge will mean for existing and forecast teacher shortages. In July 2024, the government pledged 6,500 additional teachers for schools and further education colleges over the course of this Parliament. The Department could give us no clear explanation of how the pledge was calculated or how it will fill existing teacher gaps - it estimates a need for 8,400 to 12,400 more teachers in colleges alone by 2028-29. There remains no information on the baseline against which the pledge will be measured, how it will be split across schools and colleges, or the milestones that will need to be met for the Department to be on track to deliver by the end of this Parliament. The Department has signalled that further details on the pledge will be released after the Spending Review. Despite this, delivery is already underway, with the 5.5% pay award for schoolteachers in 2024-25 and increased expenditure on initiatives, described by the Department, as part of this endeavour. The Department estimates that these actions will lead to 2,500 more teachers staying and 1,000 more applying the next year. The pledge focuses on additional teachers, but the Department assured us that, alongside recruiting teachers, it would continue to focus efforts on retention and that this is not a cap or a limit on how many it will recruit. We note that recent changes to employer national insurance contributions may impact this.

Recommendation 1. The Department should set out how it plans to deliver the pledge for 6,500 additional teachers to provide assurance that this will fill the most critical teacher gaps. This should set out:

• how the pledge will be split across schools and colleges;
• the baseline and milestones so Parliament can track progress; and
• how it will stay focused on teacher retention alongside recruitment.

The Department has no clear or coherent approach bringing together its various initiatives on teacher recruitment and retention. In 2024-25, the Department had a £700 million package, excluding pay and pensions, for recruitment and retention initiatives which the Department has allocated in a way to make as much progress as possible. This includes bursaries and scholarships to recruit teachers in particular subjects (£233 million budget in 2024-25), and a two-year support package for newly qualified teachers (£131 million budget in 2024-25). It has undertaken some evaluation of its recruitment and retention initiatives, but it has still to undertake a full evaluation, including non-financial initiatives despite a recommendation by a previous Public Accounts Committee in 2016. The Department has limited evidence on the effectiveness of initiatives to improve workload or wellbeing, despite these being common reasons for teachers leaving. Given these gaps, and a lack of targets (beyond those for those starting teacher training), the Department cannot make fully informed decisions on where best to focus resources and justify funding pots. More widely, the Department has started some cross-sector thinking, as well as value for money analysis. This has been used to stop, for example, international relocation payments for trainees.

Recommendation 2. The Department should develop a whole-system strategy to help frame how it will recruit and retain school and college teachers. This should be based on a fuller evidence base, establish the preferred balance between recruitment and retention initiatives; set appropriate targets for those joining teaching through different routes; and include value for money analysis of different initiatives.

Teacher vacancies and the challenges of retaining experienced teachers are greater for schools in deprived areas, and across some core subjects, leading to inequities in provision and career opportunities. Schools and colleges decide their own staffing model and have discretion around how they chose to use funding which may, for example, lead to variances in the use of supply teachers and pupil-teacher ratios.  Schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged pupils tend to have higher turnover rates and less experienced teachers - 34% of teachers in the most disadvantaged schools had less than five years of experience, compared to 20% in the least disadvantaged schools. These schools also suffer teacher shortages in specialist subjects, such as in Computing (1.4% vacancy rate against 0.8% in secondary schools overall). This means that disadvantaged students are at risk of 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 areas), and 9% do not offer Physics A-level (1% in the least disadvantaged areas). This issue is critical to the government's mission of breaking down barriers to opportunity, but the Department does not have a timescale for when we can expect to see reduced variation between schools in more and less disadvantaged areas. Challenges extend to colleges which struggle to find trained teachers in specialist subjects, such as construction, where shortages in the wider labour market increases the competition for talent and means fewer people are likely to apply.

Recommendation 3. The Department should work with schools and colleges to understand the reasons behind variations, particularly within deprived areas and core subjects, setting this out in published information to help identify and share good practice and ideas on what works best.

The Department has recently increased its focus on addressing the significant teacher gaps across further education colleges, but there remains much more to do. A shortage of further education college teachers, which impacts the type and extent of skills developed, puts the achievement of the Government's missions for opportunity and growth at risk. In general, further education colleges, 5.1 out of every 100 positions were vacant in 2022-23 and the Department estimate that colleges will need 8,400 to 12,400 more teachers by 2028-29. Compared to schools, the workforce data kept by the Department is less detailed and complete, requiring it to make broader assumptions as part of its workforce model. The Department has begun to focus more on addressing teacher shortages in further education, describing this as now a strong focus. The Department say this includes recently providing £400 million additional funding to the sector, extending targeted retention incentives to further education from October 2024, and bringing in professionals who teach alongside working in industry. This also helps ensure students are taught the latest practices. College teacher pay remains, on average, £10,000 lower than school teacher pay. With no national pay review body, colleges set their own pay considering the funding from the Department, but colleges continue to feel there has been limited additional funding despite government's positive messages.

Recommendation 4. Given the urgent need for further education teachers, the Department should update the Committee on its full recruitment and retention plans for the further education sector as soon as possible, including expanding dual professional and industry partnerships in areas of key skill shortages, and then every six months until summer 2028, on its progress addressing gaps.

Teachers' working environment and conditions remain critically important to teacher retention, with workload cited as the top reason for teachers leaving, and pupil behaviour an escalating challenge. The Department does not offer payments or structured support for more experienced teachers, which means their working environment constitutes one of the main levers keeping them in the profession. The Department recognises workload as the top reason for teachers leaving and has, for example, worked with Ofsted to reduce marking requirements. However, it does not understand the root causes behind these factors including, for example, why and where workload is high. The Department does not dictate working patterns, or maternity and paternity leave, with schools and colleges making these decisions. However, there remains a lack of flexible working arrangements for teachers, although the Department has signalled an intention to raise improving maternity and paternity leave for teachers. More widely, the Department is looking to learn from the health sector on creating clearer career pathways. We are concerned about worsening pupil behaviour impacting workload and the wider environment, with the Department aiming to address this through new attendance and behaviour hubs. Only 17% of schools and colleges have signed the Department's wellbeing charter.

Recommendation 5. The Department should work to better understand why teachers leave and then better support schools and colleges in addressing these factors. This includes looking at changes to contractual and working conditions, such as flexible working, and at how teacher workload can be reduced. It should also collect data on the effectiveness of the newly-announced behaviour hubs, rolling them out further if they prove to be successful.

The Department recognises pay as important in recruiting and retaining teachers, but is less clear on how it considers pay alongside other initiatives and how schools and colleges can afford pay rises. Pay is important in recruiting and retaining teachers. The Department's influence on pay differs between schools and colleges, for schools, it sets pay ranges and then provides schools a funding package to be used, by schools, on pay and other areas of spend - it has assumed schools will make 1% efficiency savings in 2025-26 to afford pay rises. Colleges do not have a pay review body, setting their own salaries from the funding received. Schoolteachers have received a 17% combined pay increase from the last three pay awards. The Department has reduced its teacher trainee targets as it expects 2,500 more teachers to stay because of the most recent 5.5% pay award. The Department recognises college teachers continue to receive less than those in secondary, who earn around £10,000 more, and those in industry where, for example, IT professionals can earn over £11,000 more. The Department 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. It is unclear how important the Department considers pay over, for example, the Early Career Framework in retaining teachers. It is also worth noting that teachers benefit automatically from a defined benefit pension scheme, a hugely valuable yet easily under-sold perk of the job.

Recommendation 6. The Department should assess the effectiveness and relative value-for-money of pay against other recruitment and retention initiatives, to make an explicit decision on whether it needs to do more to ensure teachers are paid the right amount.