Despite encouraging signs that teacher recruitment and retention are recovering, significant pressures remain across the school workforce, particularly for support staff. Jack Worth examines the progress made, the risks ahead and what school leaders can do to sustain improvement.

Workforce warning signs

School workforce woes are easing, but challenges remain 

After several years of dire recruitment to initial teacher training (ITT) and high teacher leaving rates in a world of rising pupil numbers, it is promising that the latest trends in schoolteacher supply point to improvements on the horizon. However, despite progress in recruitment and retention, there are issues and risk factors that remain for teacher supply. 

There are also significant challenges affecting the recruitment and retention of support staff, which are a vital part of school operations and support for pupils. Policymakers and school leaders must therefore continue to focus on staffing challenges to enable schools to succeed. 

Teacher recruitment and retention have improved 

DfE data shows that there has been a steady improvement in teacher retention over the last decade. The proportion of teachers leaving each year has fallen from 10.6% in 2017/18 to 9.5% in 2022/23 and to 9% in 2024/25 (tinyurl.com/5d4sxjzc). This may not seem a lot but equates to about 6,000 fewer teachers leaving the sector each year, which makes a huge difference to overall supply. 

The main driver appears to be some improvements in teachers’ workload, with average working hours falling by nearly two hours between 2021/22 and 2024/25 and the proportion of teachers reporting that their workload is acceptable rising from 17% to 26% (tinyurl.com/5d4sxjzc). Despite teachers’ perceptions of their workload still not being overly positive, the progress is nevertheless real. 

Recruitment of new teachers to ITT has also improved, with 43% more secondary trainees in 2025/26 compared to 2022/23 (tinyurl.com/kpax9h9h). Combined with secondary pupil numbers now peaking, the immediate crisis of teacher supply seems to finally be over. Perennial shortage subjects such as maths and physics are recruiting above their target this year, underlining the relative health of the flow of teachers due to enter the profession over the next two years (tinyurl.com/yjcjns9b). 

Challenges and risks 

However, there are considerable challenges that remain and risks on the horizon that could blow the progress off course. 

The first is the damage done by a decade of under-recruitment. Approximately one in eight maths lessons is taught by a non-specialist, rising to one in six in Key Stage 3 and even higher in schools serving the most disadvantaged communities (tinyurl.com/ycx7m593). This should begin to ease with ITT recruitment above target, but reversing this damage will need multiple years of healthy recruitment. 

Second is the state of the wider economy. A jobs slowdown is likely to be one factor in healthier recruitment, which could reverse and leave teaching vulnerable again. 

Third, while teachers are feeling slightly better about their workload, a wave of policy reform could risk damaging that progress. Curriculum reform, a new Ofsted framework and reforms to the SEND system could all lead to increased workload if they are not implemented carefully with teachers and school capacity in mind. 

Perhaps the biggest risk is policymaker complacency. A more benign context amid fiscal constraints could encourage policymakers to consider decisions aimed at saving money in the short term, such as bursary reductions and reduced pay rises. However, such decisions would be counterproductive for recruitment and retention in the longer term, especially if the wider economy improves. 

Support staff challenges 

Teachers form a vital part of the school workforce, but not the only part. Support staff actually form a larger part of the school workforce than teachers and make a crucial contribution to the operation of the school and support pupil learning. 

However, our new research on school support staff (tinyurl.com/2s4jxz54) reveals a range of issues with support staff recruitment and retention. While teacher retention has been improving, the leaving rate among support staff (19%) is the highest it has been since data collection began in 2011/12 (back then it was 13%). 

Despite this, the school support staff workforce grew by 7,000 in 2024/25, suggesting that recruitment of new staff has had to be extensive (tinyurl.com/2s4jxz54). Perhaps unsurprisingly, school leaders have reported difficulties recruiting support staff. About three-quarters of both primary leaders (74%) and secondary leaders (77%) said recruiting teaching assistants has been difficult. 

Overall, more leaders said recruiting teaching assistants was difficult than said recruiting teachers was difficult. However, the proportion of leaders reporting difficulty recruiting support staff and teachers has improved between 2023 and 2025, reflecting the more benign labour market conditions. 

Recruitment and retention challenges are driven by support staff not feeling valued, low pay and a perceived lack of career progression. Only 40% of support staff reported having opportunities for career progression, compared to 55% of people working in other jobs that have similar characteristics (such as age, sex, and qualifications). 

These will be key issues for the new School Support Staff Negotiating Body to grapple with as it begins its work in 2027. 

How school leaders can improve staff retention 

Teacher and support staff retention can be hugely influenced by the actions of school leaders, meaning the working environments leaders help to shape can play a key role in ensuring that staff are supported to stay (tinyurl.com/ycxfu9ry). 

Promoting a sense of agency is a key motivator for many staff (tinyurl.com/bdh53v68). School leaders could explore how staff can be meaningfully involved and engaged in setting the school’s priorities and making important decisions. Likewise, involving staff in decisions about their professional development and ensuring it has an impact on their ability to perform their role has been shown to be a significant factor for retention. 

Exploring flexible working options such as taking planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time at home or working part-time hours can also be important for many teachers, while school leaders should consider what actions they can take to ensure support staff feel more valued in their day-to-day roles.

Only 40% of support staff reported having opportunities for career progression.

Jack Worth
Education Workforce Lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

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