School workforce research roundtable

We held a roundtable on the 11 June to discuss the early findings of our forthcoming report on the school workforce in England.

The number of new trainees has fallen persistently below the Government’s annual targets, whilst demand for teachers is increasing. The state-funded primary school population is predicted to grow by 4 per cent by 2025, and the secondary population by 21 per cent. Some types of school, including smaller, under-performing and rural schools, face particularly acute recruitment problems. Similarly, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computer science and language teachers are in especially short supply.

Against a context of budget cuts and static performance in international rankings, it is imperative that the incoming Government finds effective ways of alleviating the teacher recruitment, retention and distribution issues that are beleaguering the system. Devising such solutions is the task of this report.

The report has been informed by desk-based research and semi-structured interviews with sector experts working at a local, regional and national level. The purpose of the roundtable was to share and refine our initial conclusions. It brought together 22 experts including senior school and school group leaders, civil servants and researchers.