School Workforce Census 2024: What the latest data means for school and trust leaders

The 2024 School Workforce Census, published on 5 June 2025, paints a mixed picture of staffing in England’s state-funded schools. 

Teacher numbers decreased slightly (468,693 → 468,258), while teaching-assistant posts rose to about 288,812 FTE. Meanwhile, early-career retention has improved, and the median teacher salary has reached £49,084. However, sickness absence remains high, and each phase faces distinct pressures.

Every headline statistic reflects day-to-day experiences in classrooms and staffrooms. National figures show where the pressure points are, but by the time a staff member has resigned, it is already too late. Only rich, school-level feedback explains why colleagues stay or leave, how their workload feels and which wellbeing initiatives truly help.

Edurio’s Staff Experience and Wellbeing Survey provides that context, helping you turn census numbers into targeted action that strengthens culture and improves retention.

Teacher headcount and support staff trends

Headcount tells us who is available to teach and support pupils each day, while the balance between teachers and teaching assistants signals how schools deploy their limited resources. The latest School Workforce Census shows overall staff growth driven mainly by support roles, masking a slight dip in qualified teachers. Reading these figures side-by-side helps you judge how your own workforce mix compares to national shifts.

Teacher numbers fell slightly overall: –2,900 FTE in nursery and primary, partly offset by +1,400 in secondary and +900 in special/PRU settings. Support-staff growth is at its highest recorded level, driven by teaching assistants.

Retention, recruitment and vacancies

Tracking how many colleagues join, stay and leave is the clearest pulse check on staff satisfaction and supply. Entrant and leaver figures reveal whether the system is gaining or losing capacity, while vacancy rates show the pressure points leaders feel when timetables must be covered. Looking at these 3 indicators together highlights where recruitment drives are succeeding and where the biggest challenges lie.

One-year retention for the 2023 cohort rose to 89.7 %, yet retention beyond three years continues to dip. Even with this improvement, this still means over one in ten newly qualified teachers are moving on in their first year.

In our staff experience and wellbeing survey data 2023/2024, we see that the main reasons staff consider resigning from their role are “feeling undervalued”, “overwhelming workload” and “low staff morale in the workplace”. It’s noteworthy that just 2% of staff in this group are considering resigning because they feel that the profession is wrong for them.

Pay in 2024–25

Teacher pay has risen faster than at any point in the past decade, with median salaries now topping £49,000 with a further 4 % uplift due in 2025/26. These figures shape everything from staff morale and retention to trust-wide budget forecasts, making it essential for leaders to understand how the gains vary by role and phase and how fairly staff feel those gains are shared. 

Classroom teacher median pay has risen 6.3% to £48,892 since 2023/24; headteacher median is £83,464, an increase of 5.5% since 2023/24. The STRB has recommended a pay award of 4% for 2025 and this has been accepted in full by the Education Secretary. The 4% pay award would take the median salary for 2025/26 to over £51,000 a year.

We ask staff the question, “How fair is your pay, compared to similar roles in the organisation?” Headteachers are the most likely to report that they believe their pay is fair compared to similar roles within their organisation. Teachers with leadership responsibilities are less likely to report feeling that their pay is fair compared to similar roles in their organisation, despite proportionate increases like other roles. Teaching assistant pay is not reported on in the DfE Staff Workforce Census 2024 data.

Diversity, sickness absence and wellbeing

How representative, healthy and supported your workforce feels can’t be captured by headcount alone. The latest census highlights steady gains in workforce diversity, continuing gender imbalances in leadership, and sickness rates that remain stubbornly above pre-pandemic norms. These signals point to deeper questions about inclusion, workload and morale.

Global-majority teachers: Teachers identifying as belonging to a global majority group now make up 16.8 % of the workforce, up five percentage points since 2010-11. Leadership remains less diverse than classroom roles.

Gender: 76% of teachers are female, but this figure drops to 70% in leadership positions..

Sickness and Absence: Two in three teachers (65.7%) took sickness leave in 2023-24, averaging 8.3 days, which is still notably higher than pre-pandemic levels (54.1%, and 7.5 days in 2018-19).

By pairing headline figures with staff-voice data, you can identify which groups face barriers to progression, where wellbeing support is falling short and how targeted interventions might unlock a happier, more resilient team.

What these trends mean for you

• Phase-specific planning: Secondary roles are growing, while primary roles are shrinking. Align staffing and budgets with this divergence.
• Protect fragile gains: Early-career retention is improving, but mid-career attrition persists. Consider ways to build long-term partnerships with colleagues. Read our Balancing Workload in School Trusts for examples of best practice.
• Maximise support staff: teaching assistants now form nearly 30% of the workforce. Clear roles and training multiply their impact.
• Budget for pay: factor the 4% STRB award into 2025/26 budgets.
• Prioritise inclusion and wellbeing: improve leadership diversity and embed robust wellbeing strategies to tackle high sickness rates. Our Staff Wellbeing in Academies Report has great insights into staff wellbeing.

Use these findings to sense-check staffing plans, focus retention efforts and benchmark pay and absence against national figures.