NAHT responds to Keir Starmer's pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers

Responding to the plans set out by Sir Keir Starmer to recruit 6,500 new teachers in England if Labour comes to power,  Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said:

"We are in the middle of one of the most serious recruitment and retention crises that we have seen for decades.

"A reset of the relationship with the teacher profession is long overdue, and we welcome Labour's pledge to recruit more new teachers to the profession.

"It's encouraging that Labour has recognised the long-running recruitment crisis. To recruit an extra 6,500 teachers, any future government will need to make teaching a competitive career in the graduate marketplace again, by undoing over a decade of real terms pay cuts, reducing workload, and resetting the brutal Ofsted inspection regime, removing single word judgments.

“We also must not forget that recruitment is only half the picture. The next government will also need to focus on retaining the teachers and leaders we already have as currently too many are choosing to leave the profession.”