Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Key Insights for School Leaders

Key Findings

Recruitment challenges persist

• Recruitment into Initial Teacher Training (ITT) remains significantly below target, particularly in secondary subjects.
• SchoolDash reports a 31% year-on-year decline in secondary job advertisements, reflecting reduced staff turnover, a reduction in recruitment activity due to projected declining pupil numbers, and budgetary pressures.
• NFER forecasts that only five secondary subjects are likely to meet recruitment targets in 2025/26.

Increased reliance on non-specialist staff

• Both reports note growing use of unqualified or non-specialist teachers, particularly in schools with higher levels of pupil disadvantage.
• The current vacancy rate is six times higher than pre-pandemic levels, indicating widespread difficulty in filling roles with qualified staff.

Ongoing retention challenges

• Only 60% of teachers expect to remain in the profession over the next three years, down from 75% pre-pandemic.
• NFER reports that 90% of teachers considering leaving cite high workload as a key factor, with pupil behaviour emerging as a growing concern.

Limited impact from policy initiatives

• Salary increases have returned starting pay to 2010/11 in real terms, but corresponding gains in improved retention of staff have been minimal.
• The Early Career Framework (ECF) has, disappointingly, had a limited effect on early career teacher retention.
• Policy changes recognising international teaching qualifications have expanded the recruitment pool, with potential for further development.

Considerations for school HR leaders

• Retention Planning: Focus on workload management, wellbeing initiatives, and flexible working options to reduce the attrition rate in your setting.
• Subject-Specific Focus: Prioritise hard-to-fill subject specialisms in recruitment efforts.
• International Recruitment: Explore capitalising on the expanded recognition of overseas qualifications as part of your recruitment strategy.

Conclusion

While both reports present a similar picture of the main concerns, they leave some gaps  — such as a lack of clarity on which retention interventions work best, and limited insight into the impact of teacher shortages on student outcomes.

These findings underscore the continuing need for schools to adopt strategic, context specific, data-informed HR practices.

Proactive recruitment, meaningful retention efforts, and flexible workforce planning will be essential to manage continuing significant workforce challenges — and to ensure pupils continue to receive high-quality education in the years ahead.

How Judicium Education can support your school

• Join our free Sofa Session on 4 June Beyond HR: Driving Strategic Success for a practical discussion covering the current challenges in the labour market, from skills shortages to recruitment gaps plus the growing shift towards skills-based hiring and what that means for recruitment practices in schools. 

• Explore how your setting can access flexible, expert-led support to help gain clarity, strengthen workforce sustainability, and implement HR strategies that deliver tangible results from our Strategic HR Support Service.

• Visit the People Strategy Area of our HR Hub to access guidance on implementing talent management, professional development, recruitment & retention, employee engagement,  and equality diversity & inclusion strategies in your setting in addition to recently added content updates designed to help your team leverage HR data analytics and understand the impact of AI on HR activities.