Teaching and Education in 2025: From Crisis to Continuity – Tackling Teacher Shortages and Workload in 2025
Part 1
The education sector continues to face significant challenges in 2025. Despite targeted government investment, teacher recruitment remains below target, and retention is faltering. The latest DfE data shows one in eleven teachers left the profession last year, with workload and wellbeing cited as key drivers.
We take a look at The Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2025, compiled by The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and share our insights over a two-part blog.
📉 Recruitment and Retention: A Widening Gap
Despite the Labour Government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers, the teaching workforce continues to lag behind pupil growth. Over the last 10 years, secondary pupil numbers rose by 15%, while secondary teacher numbers increased by just 3%, exacerbating supply challenges.
Recruitment into postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) remains well below target. Indeed last year, secondary ITT recruitment reached only 62% of the DfE’s estimated need, with 12 out of 17 subjects under-recruiting. Primary recruitment hit 88% of target – marking a third consecutive year of shortfall. Forecasts suggest under-recruitment will persist during the current academic year.
Retention is equally concerning. In recent years, it was reported that 9.6% of teachers left the profession, with early-career teachers leaving at even higher rates. The Early Career Framework has had only modest impact on retention, and vacancy rates have doubled since before the pandemic.
Schools are increasingly relying on unqualified or non-specialist teachers, especially in maths and physics, and class sizes are growing – 15% of secondary pupils are now in classes over 30. These pressures are experienced most in schools serving disadvantaged communities, where subject-specialist teaching is significantly lower.
While pay reforms have helped restore starting salaries to 2010/11 levels in real terms, experienced teachers remain underpaid compared to the wider labour market. The 2.8% pay rise this year may maintain parity with average earnings but risks missing an opportunity to improve competitiveness. Without full government funding, schools face further financial strain.
💼 Workload and Wellbeing: Still a Sector Issue
Workload remains one of the most significant and persistent challenges facing the education sector in 2025. Despite pay reforms and recruitment pledges, excessive workload continues to drive teachers out of the profession, particularly in the early years of their careers.
⏰ Unsustainable Hours
Teachers in England consistently report working well above the OECD average, with primary teachers averaging over 50 hours per week and secondary teachers not far behind. Much of this time is spent outside the classroom – on marking, planning, data entry, and compliance tasks. These demands are not only unsustainable but also unproductive, contributing to burnout and reducing time for high-impact teaching.
📉 Impact on Retention
The latest data shows that early-career teachers are leaving at higher rates than the national average, with many citing workload and lack of support as key reasons. The Early Career Framework (ECF), while well-intentioned, has had only modest impact on retention. Without meaningful workload reform, schools risk losing the very staff they’ve worked hard to recruit.
🧩 Fragmented Solutions
While some schools have introduced flexible working, off-site planning time, or reduced marking policies, these practices are not yet widespread or embedded. Only 3% of schools publish a flexible working policy online, and many leaders feel constrained by accountability pressures and funding limitations.
🧘♀️ Wellbeing and Workload: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Workload is not just a time issue; it’s a wellbeing issue. Education Support’s 2025 policy paper highlights the direct link between excessive workload and poor mental health, with teachers reporting higher rates of stress, anxiety, and burnout than the general workforce. Without systemic change, these pressures will continue to undermine morale, performance, and retention.
SMS goes beyond staffing. Our healthcare and wellbeing services offer proactive, confidential support to all supply staff, helping schools retain this talent and reduce absence:
- 24/7 GP Helpline: Unlimited access to remote consultations via phone or video
- Mental Health Services: Early clinical assessment and therapy via secure video or face-to-face
- Online CBT Platform: 30+ support programmes covering anxiety, depression, menopause, and more
- Physiotherapy/MSK Services: Fast access to treatment, bypassing NHS delays
- Nurse Support Services: Person-centred help for trauma, bereavement, chronic illness, and recovery
- Open Referrals & Fit Notes: Seamless access to further care when needed
These services ensure SMS staff are supported, resilient, and ready to contribute – reducing school absence and improving continuity for schools and pupils, relieving the pressure from permanent staff. Learn more on SMS’s wellbeing page.
How SMS Can Help Schools
As this crisis continues to bubble over, continuity in education and putting pupils and staff first must remain at the forefront of school focus. SMS provides flexible, qualified and fully vetted supply staff and subject specialists, who are ethically recruited and paid fairly, in line with the national standard. We offer short term to long term placements including temp-to-perm, giving schools supportive cover for absences, which also includes cover for planning, preparation, assessment, and intervention, without overloading core teams.
What’s more, we offer savings supply staff of up to 40% compared with supply agencies, and as a school-led mutual, we keep every pound spent in the education system.
- Ethically recruited and fairly paid
- Fully vetted and SEND-ready
- Supported with sector-leading health and wellbeing services
- CPD and Training
- Flexible and responsive to school needs
- Cost-effective, with transparent pricing
Let’s build a resilient education workforce – together.
Schools Mutual Services (SMS) is a not-for-profit supply staffing agency owned and managed by schools, designed to offer ethical, transparent, and cost-effective staffing solutions across the education sector. Unlike commercial agencies, SMS invests in the education system, helping schools protect their budgets while ensuring fair pay and professional development for supply educators. SMS provides school-ready staff who are supported with real CPD and aligned to national pay scales.
With regional hubs covering the whole of the North East, East Midlands and the South East, SMS works with executive leaders in schools and academies across Newcastle, Durham, Gateshead, Sunderland, Northumberland, South Shields, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicester, Oxfordshire, Swindon and Berkshire.
Each hub is embedded within its local education community, working in partnership with schools, academies, multi-academy trusts and teaching alliances such as OTSA, to deliver tailored supply staffing support across primary and secondary education, whether that is day-to-day supply teaching or long-term placements.
From multi academy trusts to community primary and special schools, SMS is helping educational establishments navigate financial pressures with a smarter, more cost-effective and sustainable solution for supply teachers and supply support staff, that puts pupil outcomes first.
With SMS, you’re not just filling a short-term supply need, you’re investing in a smarter, more sustainable future for your school.
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If you have any supply staffing requirements or would like to discuss any information in this article further, you can contact us here ➡️CONTACT FORM
North East Hub
Portland House, Newcastle, NE1 8AL
📞 0191 933 8300
✉️ info@schoolsmutualservices.co.uk
South East Hub
Podium Sandford Gate, Littlemore, Oxford OX4 6LB
📞 01865 597 771
✉️ oxford@schoolsmutualservices.co.uk
East Midlands Hub
16 Commerce Square, Nottingham NG1 1HS
📞 0115 646 6460
✉️ nottingham@schoolsmutualservices.co.uk