Stats vary depending on the source, but according to data uncovered by Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, spending on supply teachers alone rocketed 50% in a year, from £839 million in 2020/2021 to £1.27 billion in 2021/2022. Big money and good news for Edu Recruitment agencies.
This was backed up by a Schools Week's report in 2023, that the recruitment crisis and soaring sickness had led to big profits for teacher supply companies, with an analysis of annual accounts showing the country’s seven largest agencies recording £68.4 million in gross profit in the previous year.
All of us know, that schools have been reporting facing recruitment challenges for a long time, particularly secondary schools, where recruitment of trainees to teacher training programmes has been below the target numbers required for many years. Stats published show that the current government has failed to hit its secondary teacher target for nine of the past ten years, with estimates suggesting just half of the required teachers would be recruited for September 2023.
The Government posted the following information; ‘Overall, postgraduate teacher recruitment as measured by the Initial Teacher Training census was below target in academic year 2023/24 (38% below target). This was mainly driven by low recruitment for secondary trainee teachers (50% below target compared to 4% below target for primary trainee teachers).’
So, back to the impending election. Both Labour and the Conservatives claim they are going to ‘solve’ the teacher recruitment issue, and hence slash money spent on recruitment agencies.
Well, if the Conservatives haven’t managed to sort it out in the past ten years, it would suggest they have no ‘magic wand’ fix coming any time soon. They know that to solve this ongoing problem training and development is crucial, as is support for NQTs, addressing workload, and flexible working. All of which should, in theory, help get more teachers into the profession and stop the high number of teachers who leave every year.
So, if the Conservatives continue in power, it would suggest that recruitment agencies will still play a pivotal role in the education landscape. But what about if Labour gets it?

Labour claims to recognise the multiple reasons for the teacher recruitment and retention problems. The party talks about the restoration of teachers’ pay, and implementing effective action to reduce teacher workloads as two of its main priorities.
So, in theory, if enough investment is put into the teaching industry, Labour could start to make an impact, but realistically these changes, even if they do happen, will take years to filter through to the day-to-day recruitment needs of schools. And agencies still have what schools currently don’t - the drive and resources to get out there and go above and beyond to secure candidates.
The good news, therefore, for the recruitment industry is that their services are very much going to be needed in the foreseeable future.