Skilled professionals are at the heart of the delivery of key public services, not least in education where high-quality teaching plays a crucial role in the learning, development and attainment of children and young people. Teachers matter for pupils, their future prospects and life chances, and the future strength of the country’s economy and society.
However, a crisis of teacher recruitment and retention developed during the 2010s, which has further intensified since the pandemic. The number of trainee teachers entering secondary training is now just half of the number required for the nation’s classrooms. School leaders are relying on expensive supply or non-specialist teachers to plug the gaps. STEM subjects are worst affected, endangering the future STEM skills pipeline.
The profession lacks attractiveness to new entrants, due to both a wider labour market full of alternative career opportunities and a pay offer that has eroded in relative competitiveness since 2010. But the profession only needs so many new teachers because so many leave: around one in ten each year. The crisis is one of both recruitment and retention.
High workloads driven by too much time spent on non-teaching tasks lead to teachers working longer hours than other graduates during a typical working week. While overall hours average out over the year due to longer school holidays, the toll of week after week of excessive hours, squeezing family and personal life, is seen clearly in the attrition data.
