The teacher retention crisis in England is costing taxpayers £1 billion a year

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), has urged Sir Keir Starmer to end the reliance on locum staff and find a long-term solution to the problem of declining teacher numbers.

“The previous government imposed below-inflation wages for years, inadequately funded the education system and increased expectations and accountability pressures on schools and colleges,” the union leader said.

“The result is a full-blown recruitment and retention crisis that is making it increasingly difficult to get teachers into the classroom, and costing agencies billions of pounds of public money to fill staffing gaps.

“The new government must build on this year’s progress on paying and overcoming high levels of systemic workload to ensure that teaching is the attractive career it should be, and that schools and colleges no longer have to cope and fix.”

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), has pointed the finger at teachers’ low pay compared “to other graduate professions”, which he says means schools are not recruiting “enough students for almost all subject areas”.

“Combined with underfunding of schools, this means principals are unable to fill positions. Nowadays, it is common to see teachers teaching subjects in which they have no specialization just to fill the gap,” he said.

“It also means that millions of pounds of public money are needlessly wasted on inflating the profits of teacher supply agencies.”