A TEACHER recruitment crisis in Oxfordshire has led the county's education boss to express her concern to the Government.

In a letter seen by the Oxford Mail Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member for Education Melinda Tilley said there were not enough training places for some subjects.

She said it was important schools got a fair share of trainees in the next round of training in order to make sure there were enough teachers in future years.

It comes after the Oxford Mail revealed in April that major employers in the county had warned they could struggle to recruit workers if more teachers were not found for subjects such as design and technology.

Mrs Tilley was asked to write the letter by the county council's education scrutiny committee after worries about recruitment and retention were raised at its meetings earlier this year.

In the letter to the Department for Education she said: "Councillors in Oxfordshire are concerned about ensuring that there are enough newly trained teachers to fill all the vacancies in schools within the county in an appropriate manner with properly qualified teachers.

"The council is mindful of the change in direction in teacher preparation, instituted by the Government, that has meant in the training of teachers there has been less emphasis on our two excellent universities.

"Our concern is that we are unsure how the allocation process will operate to provide enough new teachers to fill around half the vacancies on offer."

It is believed the Department for Education has replied to Mrs Tilley but the response has not yet been made public.

In April there had been a four per cent rise in the number of vacancies in the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 2015.

Oxfordshire Teacher Training, based at The Cherwell School, had barely any applications for design and technology or religious education at that stage in the year, despite being one of the main teacher training centres in the county.