England ministers set out plan to recruit 6,500 teachers

According to the School Week, ministers are aiming to improve diversity in teaching and expand flexible working access as part of a plan to increase the school workforce by 6,500 teachers, according to an implementation strategy published this week.

The government says it is “on track” to deliver the long-promised recruitment pledge, originally made in the Labour Party manifesto. Progress will be measured against a 2023–24 baseline of 245,805 full-time equivalent teachers working in secondary and special schools, pupil referral units and further education (FE) colleges. In 2024–25, the secondary and special school workforce rose by 2,346 teachers, while updated FE figures are due in May.

The original commitment to recruit 6,500 “new teachers in key subjects” was later revised to measure overall workforce growth, including retained staff. Ministers have faced repeated criticism for changing the metric and failing to clearly explain how the target would be achieved.

Under the new plan, recruitment will focus on subjects with shortages and disadvantaged areas where need is greatest. A significant strand of the strategy centres on improving equality in recruitment. The government wants the school workforce to “reflect the diversity of our communities” and has pledged to pilot anonymised applications for trainee teachers, publish more recruitment data, and improve how schools collect information on ethnicity and disability to monitor disparities.

A recent report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) highlighted “significant ethnic disparities” in initial teacher training (ITT) rejection rates among UK applicants. The differences were not explained by applicant characteristics, raising the possibility that discrimination plays a role. NFER estimated that addressing the disparity could result in around 2,000 additional trainees per year.

Jack Worth, NFER’s lead economist, welcomed the equality focus but cautioned that anonymised applications should be carefully tested and evaluated, noting limited robust evidence about what works. Allana Gay, a founding member of BAMEed, said diversity should be more closely monitored at ITT provider level and urged the government to move beyond “blind recruitment tricks” towards deeper engagement with underrepresented communities.

Retention forms the second pillar of the 6,500-teacher plan. The government acknowledged that many consider teaching “difficult and unsustainable”. Among the measures announced ahead of a forthcoming white paper is the doubling of full maternity pay from four to eight weeks.

The Department for Education (DfE) will also fund a programme to help schools normalise flexible working and manage workload, aligning it with broader school improvement efforts and promoting it through RISE. Support for staff returning from maternity leave will be included. The plan also references ongoing work on behaviour, pay competitiveness and leadership support.

A third strand focuses on professional development, promising a new teacher training entitlement to ensure every school has access to high-quality continuing professional development (CPD). However, much of the emphasis appears to be on early career teachers and leadership pathways.

Gareth Conyard, chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust, said he was unconvinced by the proposals, arguing they remained too top-down and paid insufficient attention to local context and teacher agency. “We are concerned these proposals do little to address the issue or create lasting expectations around professional development,” he said.

While Worth said there had been “significant progress” in recruitment and that economic trends were improving teacher supply, he warned ministers against complacency. “Things can rapidly change again if you’re not careful, keeping an eye on things like keeping pay competitive and workload manageable,” he said.

Emma Hollis, chief executive of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers, said efforts to boost recruitment were “always welcome” but stressed that retention and workload would remain critical if the system was to meet its broader ambitions. She added that positive proposals must be implemented thoughtfully, coherently and at pace.

Meanwhile, subject-specific gaps remain a concern. Luis Barson, director of science, business and education at the Institute of Physics, said there were “major gaps” in how the plan would tackle shortages in key subjects. A recent report from the institute estimated a shortfall of 3,500 physics teachers in England.

Barson said the government must clarify the extent to which its 6,500-teacher plan will address that deficit.