Serena's Story

Meet Serena, 28, from Dagenham and Rainham in London. She wanted to train as a teacher to work in her local schools, but found herself blocked by Treasury spending rules that treat teacher training like a zero-sum game. The Department for Education reduced bursaries for critical shortage subjects and set national recruitment targets that ignore London's specific needs. The classrooms were there, graduates ready to teach were there, but Westminster chose not to connect them. This episode explores how central government funding caps create artificial teacher shortages in one of England's most deprived areas. Disclosure: Blocked Britain receives no government funding and maintains editorial independence.