UK should look at flexible-working to address mass teacher shortage, MPs say
The government should look at the impact of improving teachers’ working conditions and pay to help address the teacher workforce shortage.
This was the key finding of a new report published by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which aims to address a decade of nationwide teacher shortages.
The report found 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 issue of pay
While the department recognises pay as important in recruitment and retention, it is less clear how it considers pay alongside other initiatives.
For example, the PAC asked the DfE if it has assessed whether spending on initiatives such as 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 that the 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 2024, the government pledged 6,500 additional teachers for schools and further education colleges throughout this Parliament.
The report found that it is unclear how this pledge will be delivered, how progress will be measured, or what achieving it will mean for existing and forecast teacher shortages.
The department 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 2028-2029.
Clear recommendations set out
“It cannot be said enough that teachers up and down the country deserve our heartfelt thanks for the job they do,” said PAC member MP Sarah Olney.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
Olney noted that the shortfalls laid out in the report show how urgent it is that DfE lays out the details 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,” she said.
