Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 13
38th Report - Increasing teacher numbers: Secondary and further education
Published 9 Jul 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Increasing teacher numbers: Secondary and further education All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We questioned the Department on what it was doing to better understand the competition between schools and colleges when recruiting teachers.31 The Department has identified that around 60% of workers who leave an education occupation move into another education occupation. However, until recently, departmental teams for schools and further 25 Committee of Public Accounts, Training new teachers, Third Report of Session 2016–17, HC 73, 10 June 2016; HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes – Government responses to the Committee of Public Accounts, November 2016 (page 23) 26 Qq 56-57; C&AG’s Report, paras 2.32-2.33 27 Qq 55 28 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.10-1.11, Figure 3 29 Qq 22, 55 30 ITN0009, Written evidence submitted by Education Support 31 Q 42 13 education worked in silos, and the Department’s only recruitment strategy, from 2019, applied just to schools.32 The Department has now started to think in a more joined-up way, to help better understand what works and the trade-offs of its decisions.33 Focus on recruitment and retention within further education colleges
From: Public Accounts Committee, 38th Report - Increasing teacher numbers: Secondary and further education (HC 825), 9 July 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-eighth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 9 September 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-eighth report from Session 2024-26
Published 15 October 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations on increasing secondary and further education teacher numbers, and gives target implementation dates between November 2025 and December 2026.
- On the pledge of 6,500 additional teachers, the department "will set out more detail" in a published delivery plan covering the definition of the pledge, tracking of progress, progress to date and the levers it will use, including recruitment and retention.
- On a whole-system strategy, it points to upcoming publications (the Schools White Paper, the 6,500 delivery plan and the post-16 education and skills strategy) and says it is "embedding value for money analysis" into major initiatives.
- On further education, it commits to update the Committee "every 6 months" on progress in recruiting and retaining FE teachers, with a first step being the 6,500 delivery plan.
- On behaviour hubs, it says "further rollout and funding are subject to spending review outcomes and evaluation findings".