Philippa's Story

Philippa, 28, from Welwyn Hatfield in the East of England, had everything needed to become a teacher: the qualifications, the passion, and local schools desperate for staff. But when she applied for teacher training, she discovered that HM Treasury's spending rules had forced the Department for Education to slash bursaries for subjects facing critical shortages in her region. The classrooms were there, the graduates ready to teach were there, but Westminster's political choice to treat currency-issuing government like a household budget meant connecting willing teachers to waiting schools became impossible. This is her story of how central government funding decisions blocked her path into education. Blocked Britain investigates the political choices that stop ordinary people from contributing to their communities, despite having everything else they need.