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The road to 6,500: Will pay snub and poor ITT recruitment jeopardise new teacher pledge?

Recruitment & Retention Pay and conditions Early Career Teachers Government policy
As a new term gets underway, there are question marks over the government’s chances of recruiting its promised 6,500 new teachers by the end of this Parliament. Pete Henshaw considers where we stand
Recruitment headache: The government has promised to find 6,500 new teachers but has still to set out in detail exactly how it intends to meet this challenging target - Adobe Stock

Th government’s intention to push for potential below-inflation teacher pay rise in September 2025 has put into even starker context recent teacher training figures showing “vast under-recruitment” for a third straight year.

During the election campaign, the Labour Party pledged to recruit 6,500 new teachers “in key subjects”.

However, little detail has been forthcoming about how it defines this 6,500 target and how it intends to meet it. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has said that she is aiming to reach this goal by the end of this Parliament.

The challenge is stark. The annual initial teacher training (ITT) census has rarely made for happy reading in recent years and the latest figures, published last month (DfE, 2024), are no different.

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