The School Workforce in England publication provides information at national and local level on the number and characteristics of teachers and other school staff working in state funded schools in England, since 2010.
School workforce in England
- Published
Summary
Data sources
The School Workforce Census
The School Workforce in England publication is predominantly based on information provided by schools and local authorities as part of the annual School Workforce Census, introduced in 2010. Users requiring pre-2010 figures should refer to previously published series that can be found on gov.uk archives (opens in a new tab).
The School Workforce Census replaced existing data collections and was designed to ensure data was collected consistently and comprehensively in one single, harmonised exercise. This improved the quality and consistency of key school workforce statistics vital for monitoring and evaluating the school workforce. In addition, it reduced the data collection burden on schools.
The census collects a broad range of characteristics data, such as gender, age, ethnicity and disability. It also collects contract information such as grade, post or role, qualifications data, pay data and hours worked of those whose individual level data is collected. For full information on the census content, please see the census guidance (opens in a new tab).
The census collects information on school staff from all state funded schools in England. This includes staff working in:
- Local Authority (LA) maintained nursery, primary, secondary, special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs).
- Academy schools: free schools, University Technical Colleges, Studio Schools, City Technology Colleges, academy special schools and state-funded alternative provision schools.
- LA centrally employed teachers and support staff who spend more than half their working time in schools. Please note that it is not possible to identify which type of institution these individuals work in.
The census does not collect information from:
- Independent schools
- Non-maintained special schools
- Other further education colleges (FE).
- Some former FE funded sixth form colleges which are now classed as academy schools are excluded.
Information on teacher retention, retirements and out of service teachers does include data pre-dating the School Workforce Census (2010) due to inclusion of additional data sources which allow comparable statistics over time.
Database of Teacher Records, Database of Qualified Teachers and Pensioner Statistics
Data collected as part of the administration of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is retained in the Database of Teacher Records (DTR) and pensioner statistics (Penstats). The Database of Qualified Teachers (DQT) holds information on the teachers that have obtained their Qualified Teacher Status.
These sources are linked to the School Workforce Census using unique Teacher Reference Number (TRN) supplemented by NI number, names and date of birth.
These data sources are used to identify:
- Newly Qualified Entrants to the teaching profession.
- Retention of qualified teachers.
- Qualified teachers currently out of service.
- Qualified teachers with no service history.
- Qualified teacher retirements.
Data collection, processing and cleaning
The school workforce data required from both schools and LAs is determined in advance of the census so that the suppliers of school and LA management information systems (MIS) can incorporate any changes into their local systems. For a full list of the technical specification, the data items collected from schools, and automated data validation steps, see the published guidance and specifications (opens in a new tab).
Stage 1
By census day, schools and LAs should ensure their MIS hold accurate details for all staff in scope of the census. They then extract and upload the information required by the Department to the Collections Online for Learning, Education, Children and Teachers (COLLECT (opens in a new tab)) portal.
Stage 2
Once schools and local authorities have successfully uploaded their data to COLLECT they can review and inspect their data. The COLLECT system has a range of automated data validation checks which flag where the data provided has either failed to meet the standards required (an error) or does not conform to what was expected (a warning). Schools and LAs are encouraged to utilise additional credibility checks to ensure that the data being submitted is a true reflection of staffing levels and characteristics.
Once schools and local authorities have resolved errors and warnings they approve their data.
Stage 3
The Department runs a further set of checks on the data. These checks look within the data to spot any problem areas, for example, substantial numbers of records missing particular data items, or staff whose pay rate is not credible. The results of these checks are fed back to data providers to amend and improve data quality.
Throughout the first three stages of the collection, the Department operates a helpdesk to advise staff at schools and LA. When this process is completed and both data supplier and the Department are content, the Department authorises data for use.
Stage 4
Once all data has been authorised, a final database of all staff contracts at point of census years is created, which allows the Department’s statisticians to prepare for publication. At this stage data provided and deemed to be out of scope or not required is removed from the dataset. For example teaching staff on zero-hour contracts.
The census data on staff contracts is joined across multiple years and to other datasets (Database of Teacher Records, Database of Qualified Teachers and Penstats). This process uses Teacher Reference Number (TRN) supplemented by NI number, names and date of birth. The purpose is to improve data quality through overcoming occasional gaps in the data, removing duplicate teacher contracts, and to add required information for the final statistical publication.
A small percentage of teachers have more than one open contract on census day, for example where they have two distinct roles within a school or work in more than one school. In such cases, the main contract (highest grade) is selected for statistics on teacher numbers, teacher characteristics, entrants to teaching, teachers leaving state funded schools and teacher retention.
In addition, databases covering the full time period for other modules of the census, such as absences, curriculum taught, qualifications and vacancies are produced.
Stage 5
Following data checks and quality assurance, the publication can be released. This signals the availability of the data for use by the department (for example Teacher Supply Modelling), schools and local authorities, the general public (including in reply to Freedom of Information requests) and to independent analysts and researchers.
Production of the statistical publication
The data collected in the latest census is used to update the time series data in the publication and to create the latest snapshot of data.
Each year there are a small number of schools who did not provide a school workforce return or where the return was incomplete and could not be used. In 2024, 48 schools, 0.2 percent of the total, did not provide a return. Further schools have sections of their return such as curriculum and sickness absence missing. These missing schools are treated differently as appropriate in the various topics in the publication. Please consult the sections below for a description of the methodology employed in such cases.
Updates to previous year's data
Previously published information is revised each year. While the School Workforce Census data does not get updated, other data sources do (for example the Database of Qualified Teachers). Updates allow for better identification of teachers between years, retention in service figures, exit from service figures, deduplication of teacher data and reduction of missing information.
For the 2022 publication a revision was made to teacher leavers:
- The methodology to identify the reason a teacher left service has been improved and the previous timeseries has been updated. The improvements involve better matching across data sources and use of an additional field of the census. This better identifies those teachers who retired from service or died while in service. This does not affect the overall numbers of teachers leaving service, or the trends seen over time.
For the 2024 census publication improvements were made to the joining and cleaning of Database of Teacher Records data to account for the small number of schools that do not submit data:
- These improvements have altered the timeseries figures slightly for qualified entrants, qualified leavers, and retention. The scale of this change is small and does not impact the overall trends. Recent years have the most notable change, qualified entrants and leavers reducing between 500 and 900, and associated rates decreasing by up to 0.3 percentage points.
Symbols used in the data files
x = not available
This information has not been collected or there are no estimates available at this level of aggregation.
z = not applicable
This is normally where a statistic cannot be produced. For example where a denominator is not available to produce a percentage.
c = confidential
Where presentation of data would disclose confidential information, for example being able to identify details about a single respondent, this data must be suppressed and given this marker to maintain confidentiality clauses. In the previous standard there was a separate category for suppression. Discussion with ONS Statistical Disclosure Control Unit confirmed that reasons for suppression would either be for confidentiality purposes or low reliability, and these are now separately identified in this list of symbols.
u = low reliability
This indicates observations/values for which the user should be aware of the low quality, for example where values of statistical significance have been calculated.
Size of the schools’ workforce
The School Workforce Census collects individual level data for all types of staff in schools with a contract of 28 days or longer. This includes contracts that were open on the census date and those that were open but ended during the previous academic year.
To account for schools that did not supply usable data, a scaling factor is derived based on the total number of schools per phase, the average number of staff (by type) per phase and the number of missing schools by school phase in each local authority area. The scaling factor is then used to gross up the totals based on received data to produce national estimates.
The size of the school’s workforce figures include only those staff with a contract open on census day.
Teachers with more than one open contract on census day (for example working part-time in two schools) have their information combined into one record with their main contract taking precedence. Combining teacher data in this way simplifies the linking of data across years, which helps identify whether teachers are still in service.
Data of teaching workforce is available by teacher grade:
- Classroom teacher: teachers on the unqualified, main and upper teacher pay ranges and the leading practitioner pay range.
- Other leadership teacher: deputy and assistant head teacher pay ranges. Also included are advisory teachers.
- Head teacher: Head teachers and executive head teachers who are responsible for more than one school.
Support staff may have more than one role within each contract (fewer than 1 per cent of cases). In these cases, the first role is that used to categorise the staff member. Support staff may also have more than one contract, however these are not aggregated to a single record, therefore individuals may be counted more than once.
Data of support staff workforce is available by post:
- Teaching assistants: teaching assistant, higher level teaching assistant, special needs assistants, minority ethnic support staff and any other staff with support roles in the classroom.
- Administrative staff: staff employed for administrative tasks such as secretaries, and central support staff.
- Technicians: those employed to support science, design and technology, craft and ICT.
- Auxiliary staff: other staff essential to the running of the school such as catering, midday supervisors, cleaning and maintenance staff.
- Other support staff: support staff that are not classroom based, for example matrons/nurses/medical staff, librarians, invigilators and pastoral support.
Two new posts were added in 2023/24. These new posts have displaced reporting from other posts, particularly administrative staff:
- School business professionals include roles such as bursar, business manager, finance officer, office manager, premises manager or ICT network manager.
- Leadership non-teachers are members of the school's senior leadership team who are not reported in a teaching post.
Staff who work outside of the school are excluded from the school workforce census. These might include school crossing patrol and pupil transport staff.
Staff numbers at school level may differ from the figures presented in the national summaries because they have not been adjusted to account for schools that return data, to account for multiple contracts found for the same post, or where teachers are in service with more than one employer.
Educational psychologists
Local authorities supply data on the number of educational psychologists they employ (on a contract of 28 days or more). However, this will not show the true number of educational psychologists as local authorities do not include educational psychologists where the service has been outsourced or where this provision is being shared with other local authorities.
We anticipate that most data on educational psychologists will be provided by local authorities as it is unlikely that they are employed directly by schools. However, it is possible for schools to directly employ educational psychologists and therefore they can also return data. This may lead to duplication of data returned, for instance if a local authority returns a figure for all their centrally employed educational psychologists and a school inadvertently returns data for an LA employed educational psychologists who is working in the school on census date. It is estimated that this could lead to an overcount of up to ~50 EPs (headcount, up to 2-3%) in total per year.
For educational psychologists a count of staff headcount and FTE by full/part time working is provided. Educational psychologist data are included as an ancillary table and no details of their characteristics, such as age and gender, are available.
Educational psychologists are not included in total workforce figures due to collection differences.
Occasional teachers and third party support staff
The school workforce census does not identify supply teachers or support staff. However, teachers and support staff who are not directly employed by the school or local authority and who are in school on census day (early November each year) with a contract or service agreement lasting fewer than 28 days are recorded as ‘occasional’ teachers and ‘third party support staff’ respectively.
Characteristics of the school workforce
Teacher data is derived from the linked aggregated teacher dataset and the support staff data from the multi-year all-contract dataset.
These statistics are based on the headcount of staff, rather than the FTE. Therefore these figures should not be used as a measure of the overall size of the school workforce.
For the ethnicity breakdown teachers have more than one post in a school, they are counted once under their highest graded post. The post of head teacher is ranked highest and classroom teacher lowest. If the teacher has more than one post at the same grade then only one is counted. There is no natural hierarchy of posts for school support staff and therefore where staff have more than one post they are counted once under each post. Around 10 per cent of support staff have more than one contract.
Qualified teachers are defined as those holding any of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status or Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS).
Staff characteristics are not provided for occasional teachers and support staff employed through a third party, therefore tables on characteristics exclude these staff.
Sex
In the 2024 census sex replaced gender. The sex of the member of staff must be provided. ‘Sex’ is the sex recognised in law, as recorded on a birth certificate or gender recognition certificate. This will be the same value that is reported to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), as legal sex can affect pension ages or National Insurance contributions.
Gender – 2021 School Workforce Census
In the 2021 census there is a higher than average number of “gender unclassified” staff (with regards to teachers: 1,272 compared to between 540 and 70 in previous years). This was investigated and found to be due to one payroll provider using an incorrect codeset for gender data. Using an incorrect codeset means that the data cannot be included in analysis.
Teacher entrants and leavers
Teacher entrants, retention, and leavers data uses all census data over time to produce a longitudinal teacher dataset. Revision to earlier years figures will arise from improvements in the identification of teachers.
Entrants and leavers figures are shown as FTE. Figures do not include changes to working pattern such as an increase in hours worked. Where percentages are provided, they are of the total entrants or leavers in the year.
Characteristic information on entrants is provided by the school that the teacher joins and that of leavers is provided by the school that the teacher leaves.
Teachers previously working as unqualified teachers in the state funded sector in England that attained qualified teacher status during the present census year are classed as entrants.
Qualified teacher entrants includes the following groups:
- Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in their first post: teachers who enter state funded schools straight after successfully completing initial teacher training in England. That is they did not have qualified teacher status, (QTS), at the beginning of the year of the census but did have QTS at the date of the census.
- Deferred newly qualified entrants: similar to NQTs but they started teaching in state funded schools within two years of gaining QTS.
- New to the state funded sector: those who qualified more than 2 years before taking up their first post in a state funded school in England. These teachers may have previously worked in the independent or further education sector, or outside of England.
- Returners to the state funded sector: those who were not in service in the previous census year but had taken up a post in a state funded school at some point between then and the current year’s census.
Qualified teachers leaving the profession includes the following groups:
- Qualified teachers retiring: includes teachers taking early retirement or who are retiring through ill-health. The figures may include some teachers who have previously retired and have subsequently decided to return to teaching.
- Out of service teachers: teachers leaving the profession, including those leaving the profession entirely, moving to other UK education sectors and those leaving on career breaks such as maternity leave or secondments outside of the school sector. Some of these teachers may re-join a state funded school in England at a later date.
- Teachers who die whilst in service.
Teacher entrant/leaver rate is calculated by dividing the number of qualified entrants/leavers by the number of qualified teachers in the year they joined/left service and expressed as a percentage.
When looking at time series data for special schools please note that the census started recording PRU data separately from 2013 rather than as part of the centrally employed returns. Figures for 2013 onwards are included with special schools and figures for entrants in 2013 are higher as a result.
Teacher retention data
The teacher retention file shows the percentage of qualified teachers that enter service in the academic year after the year of qualifying, and the proportion of these that remain in service in each year afterwards. This information is compiled from the School Workforce Census and the Database of Teacher Records (DTR).
The retention matrix uses new methodology detailed in the 2018 methodology document (opens in a new tab).
Teachers' pay
Teacher Pension Scheme
Data Collection and Data Quality
The Teacher Pension Scheme (TPS) data is collected by the scheme administrator. The data is collected in the process of managing the contributions of teachers and their employers to their pensions.
Audited annual accounts for the Teacher Pension Scheme are published. The latest audited accounts are available for 2023-241. This publication is based on a more recent extract of the TPS data which has not yet been through the full audit process. The quality of this data should be treated with greater caution.
The TPS data covers teachers eligible for the Teachers Pensions Scheme, regardless of participation. This should ensure a high degree of coverage for the scope of this publication, of teachers in state-funded schools, including those who have opted out of the pension scheme. Exceptions will exist, such as teachers working in state-funded schools for more than 28 days, and so in scope of the School Workforce Census, but who are contracted through a teacher supply agency and so are ineligible for the TPS in their current employment.
Employers have reporting responsibilities that are clearly set out2. Submitted data is subjected to validation processes and returned to employers for corrective action where errors are identified. Employers must submit End of Year Certificates, which ensure agreement between the data submitted and the financial contributions, on behalf of both the employee and the employer, made to the scheme.
TPS data provides an estimate of the median teacher salary that is representative of pay fully inclusive of the latest award. The latest statistics are for the academic year 2024/25 and do not include the latest 4% pay award for 2025/26. While the annual uplifts to pay ranges in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) for the present academic year are proposed and agreed at a national level, it is for schools to determine pay for teachers on an individual level, with these decisions incorporating schools’ pay flexibilities to deviate from the national framework, as well as teachers’ performance reviews.
When backdated pay awards are agreed, data must be submitted to retrospectively update prior months with the correct salary at the new rate. This may not be addressed as completely for the most recent pay award as for prior years, but our choice of reference date at the start of December increases the likelihood that the initial data submission reflected the award.
Data used in this publication for academic year 2024/25 was extracted before the end of the financial year and with a short period between submission and extraction. Data is therefore likely to be subject to more missing data than data for earlier years, as some providers only submit data at the end of the financial year, while for providers submitting data monthly, omissions may have not yet been identified and rectified. It may also be subject to greater data quality issues, as corrective actions may remain outstanding, and end of year reconciliation is yet to take place.
The extract of TPS data used in this publication is considered provisional data. The TPS data remains subject to further submissions, revisions, and data cleaning between now and the next annual audited accounts publication. This process may not eliminate all input or data errors, including for prior years.
Data Processing
To ensure that the teachers included in this analysis are consistent with the school workforce data in the this publication, we have matched the TPS data to the SWC data and only teachers in the TPS that can be matched to the SWC are included in the calculation.
In the first instance, we match TPS data from the 1st of December to the SWC data. Our preference is TPS data from December because it will typically be the first service line submitted by employers after the SWC collection in early November. Using data as of 1st December ensures teachers are likely to be in the same schools and same jobs as on census day, less than a month prior, while allowing more time for pay awards to have been implemented and included in the reported TPS data. Where December data is unavailable, we make additional matches using TPS data from November, October or January.
Teachers are included in this analysis only if their salary data is deemed reliable in both datasets and there is a unique match between the SWC and TPS data. Improvements to the matching process have been made this year. By increasing the range of factors matched on between the two data sources, the match rate and sample has increased for previous years. For 2024/25, the match rate using the new methodology is 94%. Due to this, some of the figures in back series have been revised. We are keeping this methodology under development and subject to further changes.
We have checked that the median pay statistics in the school workforce publication are approximately the same each year as for the matched subset of data, when calculating the median for this subset using the SWC data alone for these contracts, to ensure the matched dataset is representative. This provides confidence that the differences between the SWC and TPS median pay figures are due to differences in the pay data for individual teachers in the two sources, rather than due to the subset of teachers that can be matched having different characteristics than those who cannot be matched.
We have filtered out contracts where the salary does not look reliable by comparing against rules based on the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) pay range minima and maxima for individual teachers’ grades. As far as possible we have followed the established methodology from the school workforce publication.
Further information
Additional allowances have been included in the median salary calculations. This is consistent with the school workforce data calculation of median pay, which is also based on gross pay. The median is the mid-point salary in the cohort when the salaries are arranged in order from smallest to largest.
When making comparisons of teacher salaries by school phase or type there will be several factors that affect pay to consider. For example, the published data do not take into account factors such as: size of school and the teachers’ experience.
Comparison of SWC and TPS median pay
The chart below compares estimates of median teacher salaries in England, since the census collection began in 2010/11:
The SWC data (available in the data downloads), unlike the TPS, does not show year on year increases that match the pay awards.
The TPS estimated median pay is higher than the SWC in all years. The data indicates that a gap opened up between the estimate of median pay in the SWC, and TPS median pay, after 2013/14. Prior to 2014/15, the difference between the two data sources was under £600 each year. This then increased to an average of around £1,000 between 2014/15 and 2020/21, inclusive. In 2021/22, the difference narrowed significantly. The difference has substantially increased in the past two years to around £2,000
Although other factors could have an influence, the timing of the data collection is likely the main driver causing the SWC data to not reflect fully the pay award for the academic year for a large number of teachers.
An explanation for the deviation between the recent pay awards and the lower increases year on year in salaries in SWC data, is that the data reported in the SWC for November often does not yet incorporate in full the increases to teachers’ pay resulting from the most recent pay award. The SWC is designed to capture a snapshot of data on the day of collection; it is not adjusted for subsequent pay awards that are backdated. Reported median pay in the November 2022 Census is equal to the maximum of the upper pay range for the prior year 2021/22, indicating there may be a number of teachers whose pay had yet to be adjusted for the 2022/23 award. A similar story is seen for 2024/25, where the reported median pay is just above the maximum of the upper pay range for 2023/24.
It is for schools to determine pay for teachers at an individual level, subject to their own pay policies and performance reviews. Such individual decisions may not have been made for all teachers by the time the census data are collected in November. Therefore, some schools may have reported data reflecting the latest pay review, but for others the pay reported will be that of the previous academic year (without the outcome of the latest pay review applied).
The differences in the two estimates became greater from 2013/14 when reforms to link pay and appraisal may have contributed to implementation of the pay award not being fully complete by census day. However, this is likely to be more common in years where the consultation process and publication of the STPCD concludes later in the year which was the case in the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years.
As well as timing, the size of the pay awards is likely to influence the discrepancies in the estimates. Relatively high nominal awards in 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 are likely to mean that any reporting lag exerted a large influence on underestimating median pay, as seen in the differences between the estimates. The differences before 2021/22 were smaller, as the pay awards were lower. By comparison, the pause in public sector pay awards for 2021/22 meant that the reporting lag had a limited impact, leading to a much smaller underestimation of median pay overall. Reported pay in the School Workforce Census rose by 2.0% despite the pause in pay awards, as the lagged award from the previous year ‘caught up’.
The particular circumstances above make a clear case that the timing of the data collection for the SWC is likely to account for the difference between the cumulative pay award for 2022/23 and 2024/25 (18% for the median teacher) and the increase in reported average pay between November 2021 and November 2024 (14%).
School Workforce Census
Please note that the School Workforce Census opens in early November each year and it collects information on the salaries and additional payments of teachers as at that point in time. This information is presented with an academic year assigned to it to help demonstrate which academic year the census relates to (for instance data collected in November 2024 is presented as 2024/25 here). However, we are aware that not all schools will have implemented a pay review by this point in the school year.
Pay increases are made following a process of pay recommendations, consultation, implementation through updating the school teachers’ pay and conditions (STPCD), and individual performance assessments. This begins with the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (opens in a new tab) (STRB) submitting recommendations to the Secretary of State on changes to the pay and conditions of teachers in England, which usually includes a pay increase each year. Following this is a consultation period which runs throughout the summer. Once responses have been collated and considered, the recommended pay ranges are published in September/October (opens in a new tab). Schools then conduct performance –related discussions (opens in a new tab) with staff which will assist in determining pay for that academic year, and update their payroll systems accordingly.
Given the timelines discussed, it is known that not all schools will have updated their systems in time for the November census date and therefore there is a “lag” in the figures presented. This issue is likely to be especially pronounced in 2022 and 2023, given the consultation process and publication of the STPCD did not conclude until mid-October in both years, which was later than in recent years. The timescales do not affect how much teachers are paid; pay is backdated if needed.
For further information please refer to the STPCD statutory guidance (opens in a new tab).
These statistics are based on the headcount of staff, rather than the FTE. Therefore, these figures should not be used as a measure of the overall size of the school workforce.
Estimates on pay have not been provided for schools who did not submit a school workforce information.
Some teachers pay details are shown as Unknown (approximately 3-4 per cent). This can be due to a number of reasons:
- The salary of teachers employed through a third party on a service level agreement is usually unknown to LAs and schools
- Where the salary is below the base salary for the grade shown in the STPCD
- Part-time teachers with FTE salaries reported rather than the required actual salaries. These cases are treated as unknown.
Additional allowances have been included in gross salary calculations. Each allowance is recorded separately in the census. Where two or more allowances of the same type are noted for a single contract record then the higher amount is taken as the allowance in payment on the census date and included in the gross salary. The only exception is unspecified allowances where the sum of all these is included as representing the amount included in the salary over the course of a year as these are likely to be one-off rather than continuous monthly payments.
Where mean and median salaries have been provided this is based on the gross salaries for the cohort identified for example in that particular phase of education, grade, gender and age group and excluding those teachers where the salary was not recorded or is not credible. They exclude figures based on fewer than 3 identified salaries for the mean or 25 in the case of medians as recommended in Office for National Statistics, (ONS) guidelines. The mean salary is the sum total of all salaries in the cohort divided by the number of teachers. The median is the mid-point salary in the cohort when the salaries arranged in order from smallest to largest.
When making comparisons of teacher salaries by school phase or type there will be several factors that affect pay to consider. For example, the published data do not take into account factors such as: size of school, location of the school (London has higher pay scales) and the teachers’ experience and the size of school. In addition, in previous years the location of the growing number of academy schools affected the distribution of average pay statistics. Many of the first group of academy schools were in London and the southeast where the pay bands are higher, and this was inflating the average pay statistics - making comparisons difficult. A change to a larger more geographically spread group of academies and lower numbers of local authority schools will continue to affect this comparison.
Teachers' qualifications
New data on teachers’ qualifications was not collected in 2020 to reduce burden for school and local authorities during the pandemic. It was collected again from 2021 onwards.
The publication provides information on teachers’ highest level of post A level qualification. Qualifications information is received for almost all teachers (99.7 per cent in 2024) and includes teachers of all grades including advisory teachers.
The subject of a qualification was not received for all the qualifications data submitted and in a small number of other cases the information was incomplete or incorrect. From 2016, all qualifications obtained by teachers have been used, with data collected in previous years and the Database of Qualified Teachers being used to fill in any gaps in the current year’s collection.
The percentage of teachers holding a particular level of qualification was derived using a baseline of the total teachers for whom qualifications information was provided. Where a teacher was reported as holding more than one post A level qualification for a given subject, the qualification level was determined by the highest level, from degree or higher, Bachelor of Education, Postgraduate Certificate in Education, Certificate in Education to other qualification at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4. The published figures do not include qualifications in special education needs provision. Where the qualification was gained outside of the UK the level of qualification is not provided.
The overall number and percentage of teachers who hold a degree or higher qualification also includes any national qualifications framework degree at level 4 or 5 as well as those recorded at first degree level or higher. These are diplomas of higher and further education, foundation degrees, higher national diplomas, and certificates of higher education. It also includes qualifications where the level is unknown.
Subjects taught and specialist teaching in secondary schools
For a sample of secondary schools, the School Workforce Census collects information on the curriculum taught by teachers to pupils in years 7-13. The curriculum data is only collected from secondary schools that use electronic timetabling software that can produce data in the format required. This means that the sample size of schools that provide data can change from year to year. In 2023, 81% of eligible secondary schools provided curriculum data.
Curriculum information is based on the sample of teachers in secondary schools where curriculum data was provided. The data have been weighted and grossed so that all totals presented in the table provide a representative, national picture.
Teachers are counted once against each subject and key stage that they were teaching irrespective of the amount of time spent teaching that subject or key stage. A teacher may therefore be counted against multiple subjects and/or key stages and the sum of subjects or key stage teachers will not sum to the total number of secondary teachers elsewhere in the publication. For sciences, modern foreign languages, design and technology and EBacc, teachers of multiple subjects are counted once under each individual subject within the group but only appear once in the overall, and subject group, totals. For example, a teacher who teaches biology, general science and other science will appear against each of those science subjects but will only appear once in the all sciences total. From 2017, sciences and EBacc figures also include computer science.
Other/Combined technology includes construction and built environment. Religious Education includes philosophy. Other social studies includes law, politics, sociology and psychology. Information and communication technology is abbreviated to ICT and Personal, Social and Health Education and other associated subjects is abbreviated as PSHE.
EBacc subjects are mathematics, English, all sciences, (including computer science), history, geography and all modern languages.
Specialist teaching
The publication provides information on the proportion of specialist teachers, and of hours taught by specialist teachers, who hold relevant post A level qualifications by the subject taught. This is for teachers with qualified teacher status only.
Each qualification of a teacher was deemed as ‘relevant’ to the subject taught if the subject of their qualification (reported using both the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) and newer Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) codes) appeared in the Department’s subject mapping. The full mapping used is available in the Additional supporting files section of this statistical publication. Teachers teaching an EBacc subject are included where they have a relevant post A level qualification in the subject they are teaching, however, they may also teach other subjects within EBacc for which they have no relevant post A level qualification.
Where a teacher is recorded as having a PGCE they must also have a first degree recorded as well to be included, as their record of qualifications is not complete without both records. The degree held by a teacher may be in a different, but related subject, to their PGCE.
The overall sample size for analysis of the combined qualifications and curriculum data for teachers is lower than for curriculum information alone as we need to have both qualifications and curriculum information. The data are weighted and grossed so that all totals presented in the files provide a representative, national picture.
For qualifications and curriculum information confidence intervals have been calculated around the percentages to show the statistical accuracy of the data and give a range within which we can be reasonably sure (95 per cent certain) that the true value actually lies.
Investigations have revealed that there is some bias in the sample of the schools providing data with some regions providing a higher percentage of their schools to the sample than others. These differences may be caused by the Management Information System in use in that area.
The percentages published for qualifications and curriculum combined are the percentages estimated to have the particular qualification as their highest qualification in the subject out of the total number of teachers who teach the subject. This is irrespective of the number of hours the teacher teaches the subject or the level of teaching. The percentages for the number of hours taught is the percentage of teaching in the subject by teachers with the specified level of qualification in the subject.
Teacher vacancies and temporarily filled posts
The School Workforce Census collects counts of teacher vacancies and temporarily filled posts reported by schools. Schools that did not provide a data return on this topic are judged to have no vacancies.
A teacher vacancy refers to a full- or part-time appointment of at least one term's duration that, on the census date, had been advertised but not filled. Vacancies exclude those filled on a temporary basis unless it is by someone on a contract of less than a term.
A temporarily filled post is one where a permanent vacancy is available but it is being filled by a teacher with a contract of at least a term but less than one year’s duration. This is irrespective of whether the post has been advertised.
The teacher vacancy rate is the number of full- and part-time vacancies expressed as a percentage of full- and part-time qualified teachers in post plus the number of permanent vacancies. Teachers in post include teachers on leave of absence or secondment.
To calculate the secondary school vacancy rates by subject, the percentage of the secondary school curriculum hours that each subject taught contributes is calculated from the information provided in the curriculum file. The total number of full- and part-time qualified classroom teachers in service plus number of vacant posts is multiplied by this percentage to find the total number of teachers in post teaching each subject.
Rate refers to per 1,000 teachers.
The subject vacancy file includes the following subject combinations:
- Science includes physics, chemistry, and biology plus other sciences and general/combined science.
- Design and technology includes all design and technology subjects plus construction and the built environment and other technology and crafts.
- Commercial/business studies also includes economics and applied business studies.
- Other main and combined subjects includes citizenship, child development, general studies, health and social care, media studies and other vocational subjects. It also includes specialist teachers for special educational needs, (SEN).
No denominator is available where the subject is unknown, therefore no rates are available.
Teacher sickness absence
New data on teachers’ sickness absence was not collected in 2020 to reduce burden for school and local authorities during the pandemic. It was collected again in 2021.
Sickness absence is produced from the total days absent, including half days, for each teacher during the academic year previous to the School Workforce Census collection date. All teachers who are in regular service at any time during the year are included in the calculations, except where schools were not open for the full academic year and are excluded. Only those absence periods that ended during the academic year are counted so the total may include absence days from the previous academic year but will not include those at the end of the year if the period of absence is ongoing. Absence days are limited to 195 days (194 days in 2021/22 and 2022/23 due to an additional public holiday) for each teacher as this is the maximum number of working days in a single academic year. Non-working days are not included in the figures. Days absence that can be recorded for a part-time teacher are limited to those that they are contracted to teach.
In addition, schools report other absence types, however the number of working days lost is not collected for absence other than sickness and pregnancy, therefore we don't report on them here.
Absence information is not collected for agency/service agreement teachers, leadership staff who are not teachers and for other support staff.
Pupil teacher and pupil adult ratios
The pupil teacher ratio (PTR) and the pupil adult ratio (PAR) are calculated by dividing the total FTE number of pupils on roll in schools by the FTE numbers of teachers, (those with QTS for the qualified only PTR) using the November teacher and staffing data from the School Workforce Census and the pupil data collected in the following January School Census. The PAR also includes Teaching Assistants, Other support staff and Technicians; and excludes Administrative staff, Auxiliary staff, Leadership non-teachers and School business professionals. Only those schools that provided both pupil and workforce information are included in the figures. The pupil numbers used in the calculation of the PTR statistics include dual registered pupils. For statistical purpose only pupils who did not attend both morning and afternoon sessions are regarded as part-time (part-time are always 0.5 FTE).
Teacher retirements
Teacher retirements are based on the administrative data for retirements that are maintained by the administrators of the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme, (TPS) on behalf of the Department for Education. The figures published are the number of first awards of pension benefits from the TPS. These benefits may be awarded some time after the teacher has left service and therefore differ from those provided in the wastage figures which only include those teachers who have received a pension award at or before the date they leave service. The number of awards may be revised for each past year as late applications for pension benefits are processed. Some retirements are recorded for England from outside of the state funded sector from Further and Higher education establishments and independent schools who are members of the TPS.
Retirement numbers are broken down by type of retirement.
- Ill health - early retirement at reduced rate due to ill health;
- Premature - early retirement following redundancy;
- Age Actuarially Reduced Benefit - early retirement at reduced rate before normal pension age;
- Age retirement - at normal pension age or later.
Phased retirements are included in those cases the teacher will have remained in service. Retirements are also broken down by the following:
- Year of retirement is the financial year in which the award was made.
- Age, the age of the teacher at the date of retirement.
- Gender
- Grade, of the last post recorded for the teacher and is obtained by linking to the school workforce census. When the last post was before 2010 the grade will be unknown.
Definitions and general notes
The files in this publication generally show school staff in five groups, teachers, teaching assistants, school support staff, school auxiliary staff and local authority centrally employed staff. Where gender and age is unknown, figures by these factors do not add to totals provided. Where ethnicity is unknown, this is shown as its own category in breakdowns provided. The definitions used with the data published in this publication are described here:
| Note Summary | Note Details |
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| Notes for teachers and teaching statistics |
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| Notes on school support staff |
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| Notes for teacher sickness absence data |
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| Notes on schools |
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In addition, when reviewing the files, please note the following:
In addition, when reviewing the files, please note the following:
| Note Summary | Note Details |
|---|---|
| We preserve confidentiality. | The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires we take reasonable steps to ensure that our published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality. |
| Numbers are not rounded | Some figures such as pay or sickness absence may be suppressed at school level or higher levels of aggregation to prevent disclosure of sensitive information about individuals. |
| We have adopted symbols to help with identification. | Symbols are used in the files are based upon general Office of National Statistics guidance |
How the department uses the information
The school workforce census data are used in many ways within the Department for Education and its agencies. The main uses are as follows:
| Production of statistical briefing and analysis on various topics such as… |
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| Teacher demand modelling to estimate changes due to various policies or demographic changes. |
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| Analysis of Teacher Pay Costs |
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| Transparency through publication |
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School Workforce Census data is sometimes shared with external researchers…. …under strict controls. Some examples |
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Further information
Further information on the school workforce census is made available via the publication and during year. The Department for Education is only responsible for schools in England.
| School, local authority and regional figures. | School level school workforce data is available within the additional tables published alongside this statistical release. The school data contains a range of information for each school following the same themes as set out in this document. It also includes both local authority and regional level summaries. The total number of teachers in schools will not sum to the LA, region or national total. This is because the LA and region totals include those employed directly by LAs and the national totals include estimates for missing schools. | |
| Want these figures, related to Performance Tables? | 8 school level school workforce indicators are included as part of each year’s School Performance Tables. The indicators include FTE and headcount statistics for the number of teachers, teaching assistants and school support staff, the average salary of teachers and the pupil teacher ratio. | |
| Want previously published figures? | The publications relating to the years 2010 to 2018 collections can be found on gov.uk and information published prior to 2010 can be found in the National Archives. | |
| Want data for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland? | The School Workforce Census only collects information from schools in England. Education in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter. For information for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, contact the departments below or access their statistics at the following links: Wales: educationworkforcedata@gov.wales or School Workforce Census results (gov.wales) Scotland: school.stats@gov.scot or School education statistics (gov.scot) Northern Ireland: statistics@education-ni.gov.uk or Department of Education: Education Workforce | |
| For related publications see: | Statistics on teacher training and the annual survey of newly qualified teachers | |
Help and support
Contact us
If you have a specific enquiry about School workforce in England statistics and data:
Teachers and teaching statistics team
Email: schoolworkforce.statistics@education.gov.ukContact name: Tony Clarke
Telephone: 0774 7767329
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Telephone: 020 7783 8300
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