This study adopts a comparative approach to the teacher recruitment and retention challenges facing the UK nations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It presents large-scale comparative analysis across the four nations, focusing on policy, secondary data and interviews with key stakeholders. The findings indicate the widely varying approaches to finding policy solutions and, significantly, the limited evidence base for the differing responses. It calls for a more coherent approach to policy-making to address teacher recruitment and retention challenges, including the recognition of contextual differences as well as greater collaboration across the four nations to increase the effectiveness of initiatives.