Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Accepted
Department claims positive impact on teacher recruitment and retention from current initiatives
Recommendation
Although unable to breakdown the pledge by time or educational setting, or provide a baseline, the Department described having started delivering the pledge through, for example, the 5.5% pay award for schoolteachers in 2024–25 and an increase to the financial incentives package for schools 10 C&AG’s Report, para 2.37 11 ITN0006, Written evidence submitted by the National Foundation for Educational Research ; ITN0012, Written evidence submitted by the Campaign for Mathematical Sciences 12 C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 13 Qq 14, 65 14 Q 63 15 Q 66 16 Qq 65-67; C&AG’s Report, paras 19, 2.41-2.42 17 ITN0011, Written evidence submitted by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation 11 and colleges.18 The Department told us it was already seeing a positive impact, including 2,000 more secondary teachers starting training than the previous year and early signs of around 1,000 more teachers applying for the next year. It also now expects to retain about 2,500 more teachers than it had previously expected.19 Recruitment and retention
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and will publish a delivery plan by December 2025 setting out how it will recruit 6,500 new teachers, including baselines, milestones, and levers for both recruitment and retention.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1. PAC conclusion: 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. 1. PAC recommendation: 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. 1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2025 1.2 As part of its Plan for Change, the government is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and in our colleges, over the course of this Parliament. 1.3 The Department for Education (the department) has made strong initial progress to deliver the commitment to recruit 6,500 teachers. The department announced a 5.5% Pay Award for school teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024-25 and a further 4% Pay Award for 2025-26, announcing a £233 million Initial Teacher Training financial incentives package, confirming Targeted Retention Incentive payments worth up to £6,000 after tax in schools and Further Education (FE), and taking steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing. 1.4 Whilst government does not set or recommend pay in the FE sector, the department recently announced significant investment of £160 million for colleges and other 16-19 providers in the 2025 to 2026 financial year to help address immediate priorities including recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high-value, priority subjects. This commitment was made in addition to the £400 million of funding announced for 16-19 education in March 2025. In January 2025 the Department for Education confirmed that FE teacher training bursaries will continue for the academic year 2025-26. The top bursary value has been increased to £31,000 (tax-free) for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. 1.5 The department is seeing positive signs that its investment is starting to deliver: the workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time employed (FTE) between 2023-24 and 2024-25 in secondary and special schools; the schools where they are needed most. The future school teacher pipeline is also growing, as of July 2025 there are 12% more trainees who have accepted offers to train as secondary teachers, and in STEM acceptances are up 22% compared to last year. 1.6 Progress towards commitment to deliver in colleges will be assessed in greference to the data in the next Further Education Workforce in England publication. Progress will be measured against the academic year 2023-24 baseline of 36,576 FTE teachers in General Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges, as published in the May 2025 collection. In the meantime, there are encouraging early signs of growth in the workforce, with a 2% increase in FTE teachers in statutory further education (FE) providers in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23. 1.7 The department will set out more detail on how the commitment to recruit 6,500 teachers will be met over the course of this parliament in a published delivery plan. This will include: the definition of the pledge, how the department will track progress over the duration of this Parliament, progress to date, and the levers it will use to deliver the pledge (including how it will focus on both recruitment and retention).