Number of teachers leaving the profession has risen 11% over three years, NAO says, and recruitment targets have been missed for past four years

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The number of teachers leaving the profession has increased by 11% over three years as the government continues to fall short of recruitment targets, Whitehall’s independent spending watchdog has found.

Despite spending £700m every year on training, ministers have failed to reach their own goals for recruitment for four consecutive years, according to the National Audit Office.

In a report released on Wednesday, indicators suggest teacher shortages are growing. Between 2011 and 2014, the recorded rate of vacancies and temporarily filled positions more than doubled from 0.5% of the teaching workforce to 1.2%. Secondary school teacher training places are proving particularly difficult to fill.

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Over the same period, the number of teachers leaving the profession increased by 11%, and the proportion of those who chose to leave the profession ahead of retirement increased from 64% to 75%.

The new figures have led to an unusually strong warning from the head of the NAO. Amyas Morse said that he could not approve of the Department for Education’s “value for money” objectives following the report’s findings.

“Until the department meets its targets and can show how its approach is improving trainee recruitment, quality and retention, we cannot conclude that the arrangements for training new teachers are value for money,” he said.

The DfE has not recruited enough trainees in the majority of secondary subjects, the NAO found, with 14 out of 17 secondary subjects having unfilled training places in 2015-16, compared with two subjects with unfilled places in 2010-11.

More secondary school classes are being taught by teachers without a relevant post-A-level qualification in their subject, the report, called Training New Teachers, found.

Auditors said the proportion of physics classes being taught by a teacher without such a qualification rose from 21% to 28% between 2010 and 2014.

Headteachers said that it continues to be a struggle to recruit teachers. Sue Croft, principal at Oxford Spires academy in east Oxford, said she advertised for five posts last term – physics, chemistry, business, geography and English. “I didn’t get any applications – not one,” she said.

She finally managed to fill the vacancies by using agencies and has recently appointed five “brilliant” newly qualified teachers for next September from overseas.

“Clearly we would prefer to have plenty of wonderful recruits in the UK, but we are very pleased with our international teachers that we’ve appointed,” she said.

The story is the same in Southend in Essex. Robin Bevan, headteacher of Southend High school for Boys, said he struggled to fill two vacancies for maths teachers. “We advertised, we went to agencies, we did everything we would normally do, but we were not able to recruit. It was as simple as that.”

They finally managed to recruit – from other local schools who then had their own teacher shortage.

The NAO report states that while the DfE and the National College for Teaching and Leadership have increased the number of routes by which people can qualify, potential applicants are not being kept informed to help them decide where to train. Providers and schools told the NAO the new training routes have led to confusion.

Auditors found that 53% of the 44,900 full-time equivalent teachers who entered the profession in 2014 were newly qualified, with the remainder either returning to teaching after a break or moving into the state-funded sector from elsewhere.

Lucy Powell, the shadow education secretary, said the report should be a wake-up call for the education secretary, Nicky Morgan.



“Having enough high-quality teachers is the first job of any education secretary, yet year after year she has failed to attract and retain enough teachers in our schools. This record of failure is threatening school standards and the future success of the next generation,” she said.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described the teacher shortages as severe, adding that they were already “jeopardising standards”.

“The situation is likely to worsen without urgent action. This is because the number of pupils is set to significantly increase over the next few years and many more teachers will be needed,” he said.



A Conservative spokesperson said that teaching unions were the main threat to the profession. “The greatest threat to recruitment is the negative picture painted by the teaching unions, who take every opportunity to talk down teaching as a profession.

“Rather than constantly scaremongering to create cheap headlines and soundbites, we urge the teaching unions and the Labour party to back our plans to recruit the brightest and the best to the teaching profession and to address local recruitment challenges where they occur,” the spokesperson said.



A DfE spokesman said the report makes clear that despite rising pupil numbers, more people are entering the teaching profession than leaving it and the number of teachers per pupil has not suffered.

“We refuse to be complacent and are determined to continue raising the status of the profession so that every child has a great teacher. That’s why we’re investing hundreds of millions in teacher recruitment, backing schemes like Teach First and the National Teaching Service,” he said.