Asked by: Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of state secondary schools currently have teachers who have qualified as citizenship education teachers, and what plans they have to increase the number of schools with such teachers.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Delivering the government’s objective to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child relies on a highly skilled workforce in schools, with high quality teaching the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s outcomes.
There are now 468,693 full time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England but numbers have not kept pace with demand. Of the 3,435 state-funded secondary schools in England, 71.2% employed a teacher with a relevant qualification in citizenship. This figure relates to schools that supplied teacher qualification data. In some cases, teachers with a qualification in another subject may also teach citizenship in the school.
We are focused on the need to boost teacher numbers in priority subjects across the country. This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and colleges over the course of this Parliament.
Measures will include getting more teachers into shortage subjects, tackling retention issues and supporting areas that face recruitment challenges. The government will continue to work alongside the sector as we develop our delivery plan and seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession.
We have made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why this government has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25.
Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.
Asked by: Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government who in the Department for Education is responsible for ensuring that senior civil servants in the Department comply with section 3(6) of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, as embodied in the Civil Service Code; and what steps they have taken to monitor and ensure compliance with the provision in the past two years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department’s Leadership Team is responsible for setting standards within the department. Individual line managers are responsible for ensuring that staff are adhering to the Civil Service Code on a day-to-day basis.
Information about the Civil Service Code is shared regularly with employees, including in employee contracts and induction material. Clear processes are in place to enable anyone to report a breach of the Code. In the latest staff survey, 100% of Senior Civil Servants confirmed they are aware of and understand the Code.
Asked by: Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many teachers there are in secondary schools in England who are qualified citizenship education teachers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In November 2016 there were 4,800 teachers in state funded secondary schools teaching citizenship. Of these we estimate that 8.7% had a relevant post A level qualification in the subject. A relevant post A level qualification is defined as a first degree or higher, BEd degree, PGCE, Certificate of Education or any other qualification at National Qualifications Framework level 4 or above in either citizenship, international relations, international, EU or UK politics or polictical theory.
There are also 10.6% of citizenship teachers with post A level qualification in history that prepare teachers well for teaching British citizenship.
The source of this information is the annual school workforce census. The census collects the post A level qualifications of teachers and the curriculum taught by teachers for around 75% of secondary schools. As the return is incomplete and the number of citizenship teachers is fairly small there is some uncertainty around the proportion provided and therefore we estimate there may be a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2%.
Information on post A level qualifications held by teachers, in the subject they teach, is published in Table 12 of the school workforce in England statistical publication. This is attached and available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2016.
The data for November 2017 is expected to be published in June 2018.
Asked by: Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what practical steps they are taking to ensure that citizenship education in secondary schools is treated on a par with other subjects in the national curriculum.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Citizenship has a strong position in secondary schools, where it is part of the national curriculum in both key stages 3 and 4. It is one of only six compulsory subjects to be included in the key stage 4 curriculum. Citizenship education can also support schools to deliver their duties regarding the spiritual, moral, social and culture development of pupils, and promoting fundamental British values.
The recent report published by the Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement, ‘The Ties that Bind: Civic Engagement in the 21st Century’ made a number of recommendations regarding the quality and status of citizenship education in schools. We are currently considering these recommendations and will respond fully in due course.