Five changes to how teachers are employed in Scotland, with the evidence for each and the bodies that would need to make them. Members help decide what we ask for next.
5 demands, each with its evidence and the bodies that would need to act.
FIVE DEMANDS
Start with the evidence · 2020–2025
What does secure work look like where you live?
Explore the mix of teaching posts. Every number below measures full-time equivalent posts—not individual teachers or unemployment.
Scotland · primary · 2025
78.2% of posts are permanent
Scotland
24,414.6 FTE total
Permanent posts
19,086.3 FTE
Temporary posts, excluding TIS
3,938.1 FTE
Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS)
1,390.2 FTE
Six census years. One consistent definition.
Choose a year below
Trend labels show permanent posts. Bars show all three categories on a shared scale. Temporary excludes TIS to avoid double counting. A permanent employee may occupy a temporary post.
Source: Teacher census supplementary statistics 2025, 2025. Table 7.7; Table 8.7; Table 1.6. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2019/07/teacher-census-supplementary-data/documents/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics-2025/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics-2025/govscot%3Adocument/Teacher%2Bcensus%2Bsupplementary%2Bstatistics%2B2025%2B-%2BMarch.xlsx. Teaching posts in FTE, not individual teachers, contracts or unemployment. Temporary excluding TIS = temporary including TIS minus TIS. Primary/secondary only. Scotland includes grant-aided schools; early Scotland totals are reconstructed from the published components.
View the data table
Selected sector: primary. FTE teaching posts; percentages use each row’s total.
Area / year
Permanent posts
Temporary posts, excluding TIS
Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS)
Total FTE
Scotland · 2020
20,372.1
3,517.1
1,762
25,651.2
Scotland · 2021
20,087.9
4,012.6
1,706
25,806.5
Scotland · 2022
20,012.3
3,842.5
1,596.1
25,450.9
Scotland · 2023
19,550
3,952.9
1,593.5
25,096.4
Scotland · 2024
19,241.4
3,854.1
1,372.3
24,467.8
Scotland · 2025
19,086.3
3,938.1
1,390.2
24,414.6
01 Shared responsibility
One jointly funded plan for secure teaching jobs
The Scottish Government, COSLA and councils should agree who pays for and delivers secure jobs, and report progress in public.
Who must act—and what do their documents say?
Three connected responsibilities. Select a participant, then follow a reviewed documentary case.
These are the campaign’s requested delivery responsibilities. Commit sustainable funding and publish national rules, eligibility and outcomes.
What this record establishes · 16 June 2026
Scottish Parliament: education statement
The parliamentary statement provides the policy context for the announced three-year jobs guarantee.
Reviewed explanation; read the original passage at Ministerial statement and questions on teacher employment. Announced jobs guarantee. Scheme design and displacement require assessment; this is not a measured employment outcome.
Source: Scottish Parliament: education statement, 16 June 2026. Ministerial statement and questions on teacher employment. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-16-06-2026?iob=223851&meeting=20170. Announced jobs guarantee. Scheme design and displacement require assessment; this is not a measured employment outcome.
What remains unanswered
How does this commitment connect to funded secure posts, an agreed delivery timetable and outcomes for teachers at every career stage?
This is a curated collection, not a complete record for every council. A response saying records were not held does not establish that no discussions or activity occurred.
The change we are asking for
The Scottish Government, COSLA and councils must publish a jointly funded delivery plan for secure teaching jobs, with named responsibilities, deadlines and regular public results.
Who must deliver
Government must commit sustainable funding. COSLA must coordinate the agreement. Councils must turn funded staffing needs into secure jobs and report delivery.
What success looks like
A published joint plan identifies who funds and delivers each commitment, when it is due, and the secure posts actually created.
A fair route to permanent work for experienced teachers
Secure jobs, including permanent supply roles, should be open to teachers at every stage of their career, not only to new entrants.
Experience should lead somewhere.
First-person accounts, in the writers’ original experience bands and wording. They show individual experiences, not the national prevalence of insecure work. These accounts are not assigned to your selected council.
6–10 years · Supply
What I find particularly difficult is knowing how many qualified teachers are actively looking for secure work while permanent opportunities remain so limited.
Published 2026-09-16 · I want to teach, but I need security
Create stable employment, including permanent supply roles for recurring needs, with fair access for experienced teachers as well as those entering the profession. Publish clear routes from temporary work to permanence.
Who must deliver
Councils must identify recurring staffing needs and offer secure roles. Government and COSLA must agree the funding and conditions that make those routes sustainable.
What success looks like
Recurring needs are met through secure jobs; routes to permanence are clear, accessible and reported across career stages.
Publish how many qualified teachers are seeking work, how much work they get and how much more they want.
What is missing from the count?
Can the reviewed responses answer the campaign’s whole-workforce questions? Every classification below is an editorial assessment of a specific response.
32 councils × 5 evidence questions. Coverage of this evidence collection—not a council performance score.
Council
Headcounts
Contract categories
Work offered / obtained
Experience
Available hours / days
Aberdeen City
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Argyll and Bute
City of Edinburgh
Clackmannanshire
Dumfries and Galloway
Dundee City
East Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Falkirk
Fife
Glasgow City
Highland
Inverclyde
Midlothian
Moray
Na h-Eileanan Siar
North Ayrshire
North Lanarkshire
Orkney Islands
Perth and Kinross
Renfrewshire
Scottish Borders
Shetland Islands
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire
Stirling
West Dunbartonshire
West Lothian
The change we are asking for
Collect consistent information about qualified teachers seeking work: experience, contract categories, work offered and obtained, and the additional hours or days they want. Publish definitions and protect personal information.
Who must deliver
Government must agree and publish a consistent national framework with councils, COSLA and professional partners. Councils must collect and report the local information.
What success looks like
A regular, comparable publication covers underemployment across career stages and makes gaps, definitions and denominators visible.
This is a hypothetical allocation model, not measured statistics or a forecast.
Does the guarantee add jobs or allocate existing ones?
If a rolling guarantee uses existing posts, more baseline posts are allocated to guaranteed cohorts over its first three years. Additional funding changes that balance.
Fictional model · Year 1 · 100 baseline posts · 10 entrants per annual cohort
Baseline allocated to guarantee
10
Additional posts
0
Baseline outside guarantee
90
Each block = one fictional staffing post. 10 covered − 0 additional = 10 baseline allocated. Total = 100 posts. Posts outside the guarantee are not necessarily vacancies. This illustration does not predict job losses, recruitment choices or actual scheme costs.
Illustration as a table
Fictional assumptions: 100 baseline posts, 10 entrants per annual cohort. Selected year 1.
Covered posts
10
Additional posts
0
Baseline allocated
10
Baseline outside guarantee
90
Total posts
100
The questions that need answers
Who funds the posts, and for how long?
Who is eligible—and how can experienced teachers access secure work?
Which posts are additional to the funded baseline?
How will induction and mentoring be protected?
What employment is available after the guarantee ends?
The change we are asking for
Redesign the announced three-year jobs guarantee inclusively: fund additional secure work, create fair routes for experienced teachers, protect induction and mentoring, and publish an assessment of possible displacement before implementation.
Who must deliver
Government, COSLA and councils must specify funding, eligibility, additional posts, protections for experienced teachers and the route to employment after the guarantee.
What success looks like
Published scheme rules demonstrate additionality and fair access, protect induction, and track outcomes for entrants and the existing workforce.
Source: Scottish Parliament: education statement, 16 June 2026. Ministerial statement and questions on teacher employment. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-16-06-2026?iob=223851&meeting=20170. Announced jobs guarantee. Scheme design and displacement require assessment; this is not a measured employment outcome.Source: Programme for Government 2026–2031, 1 September 2026. Delivering a stronger NHS and Public Services: education. https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-government-2026-2031/pages/5/. Policy commitments, not evidence that all promised posts have been funded or filled.Propose an amendment (members)
05 Sustainable training
Train new teachers in line with funded jobs
Decisions on how many teachers to train should reflect funded posts, local needs and the teachers already seeking work.
Are training decisions connected to sustainable work?
Read the planning target beside employment evidence. The dates and populations are different; these figures cannot be subtracted to calculate unemployment.
Entry places · targets
3,818
target entry places
Primary
1,482
Secondary
2,336
Source: SFC: university intake targets for initial teacher education 2026–27, 13 February 2026. Summary table and Annex B, comparison with AY 2025–26. https://www.sfc.ac.uk/gd/publications/university-intake-targets-for-initial-teacher-education-2026-27/. Targets for entry places, not actual enrolments or employed teachers. Primary totals combine undergraduate and PGDE routes; secondary combines undergraduate and PGDE routes. These entry cohorts are not the post-probation cohorts.
People · subsequent employment
23.5%
in permanent full-time employment at the subsequent census
Scotland · named TIS cohort, all sectors. This is one employment category, not the share employed in any work.
Source: Teacher census supplementary statistics 2025, 2025. Post-probation employment table; 2024/25 TIS cohort. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2019/07/teacher-census-supplementary-data/documents/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics-2025/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics-2025/govscot%3Adocument/Teacher%2Bcensus%2Bsupplementary%2Bstatistics%2B2025%2B-%2BMarch.xlsx. Percentage of the named Teacher Induction Scheme cohort in permanent full-time employment at the subsequent census. People, not FTE. Other outcomes must not be labelled unemployment. Sector headcounts can overlap.
Staffing context: the opening chart covers primary and secondary teaching posts in FTE for 2020–2025. Entry targets, later employment cohorts and staffing posts have separate definitions and reference periods.
The change we are asking for
Connect initial teacher education intake decisions to funded staffing needs, regional and subject requirements, employment outcomes and qualified teachers already seeking work. Publish the assumptions and review them regularly.
Who must deliver
Government and the Scottish Funding Council must explain intake planning with universities, councils and the profession; councils must provide reliable funded staffing forecasts.
What success looks like
Each intake decision has transparent assumptions linking school needs and funded employment, with separate reporting of targets, enrolments and later outcomes.
