Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 27
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)
Further education colleges have higher vacancy rates than schools, with challenges across certain subjects, particularly those that are more specialist.82 We asked the Department why further education colleges find it difficult to keep specialist teachers. The Department said it sees more recruitment challenges where there are shortages in the labour market, for example in construction, where 9.6% of teaching positions were vacant in 2022–23. Given a competitive wider labour market, in-demand jobs, like construction, are well-paid and offer salaries which colleges struggle to compete with to recruit the teachers they need.83 76 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.4-1.5 77 C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 78 Qq 38, 41 79 C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 80 Teacher shortages deny nearly a third of poorer pupils’ access to computer science A-level | Teach First 81 Q 41 82 C&AG’s Report, paras 6, 1.13 83 Q 6; C&AG’s Report, para 1.13 20
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".