DISADVANTAGED schools are struggling the most with teacher recruitment, damning new research reveals by the Sutton Trust today.

Teachers in the most deprived state schools are less likely to report that their school department was well-staffed with qualified teachers, more likely to report that colleagues were planning to leave this summer and less confident that current job vacancies would be filled, according to the education charity.

The report found that 85 per cent of teachers in the most deprived state schools think that recruitment issues are affecting the quality of education their school was providing, compared with 55 per cent of teachers in independent secondary schools, and 76 per cent in the most affluent state schools.

The charity warned that inequalities are likely to continue to hamper efforts to improve social mobility.

Report author Professor Becky Allen said: “Our research clearly shows that where a government allows teacher shortages to rise, whether through pay restraint policies, tuition fees on teacher training or as a consequence of high graduate employment, these shortages will disproportionately pool in schools that serve more disadvantaged communities.

“Unless these teacher shortages are resolved, inequalities in access to suitably qualified teachers will continue to increase.”

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said the Tories have created the crisis in recruitment and retention and ministers have missed their own recruitment targets.

She warned that teachers were leaving in record numbers, as their wages have been cut and workloads have soared.

“Labour will invest in our schools, including giving teaching staff a real pay rise and ensure that every child has a good school place with a qualified teacher, as part of a national education service,” Ms Rayner said.

National Education Union assistant general secretary Ros McNeil said a wake-up call was needed on how pressurising and stressful it is to work in disadvantaged schools are.

She said: “Gimmicks and small temporary pots of money aren’t the answer. Funding cuts have been worse for schools in poor areas and teachers know this.

“Leading or teaching in a school with a majority of pupils on free school meals is a different job to leading or teaching in schools where families have material advantages.”

Ms McNeil called for admission reforms and a halt to the privatisation of public education to “level the playing field” and ensure children from poor families are not concentrated in specific schools.