Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of teachers in England.

The latest school workforce census reported that the workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools. This year has one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,700 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector and more teachers returning to state schools than at any point in the last ten years. The latest data showed 17,274 teachers returned to the classroom.

This government agreed a 5.5% pay award for 2024/25 and a 4% pay award for 2025/26, meaning teachers and leaders will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years. In 2024/25, we also confirmed targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax for teachers in the first five years of teaching in maths, physics, chemistry and computing in the most disadvantaged schools.

The government manages Teaching Vacancies, a website where schools can list their teaching, leadership and support vacancies. The service helps schools save money by removing advertising costs for their recruitment activities.