Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to increase the retention of (a) teaching staff and (b) maths teachers.

The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full-time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country, over 24,000 more than in 2010.

Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply and quality, and the Department is action to support teachers to stay in the profession and thrive. The Department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices.

The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support and professional development for all new teachers. Underpinning this is the new initial teacher training (ITT) core content framework and the early career framework: together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence-based training, across ITT and into their induction.

Beyond the first few years of teaching, the Department’s priority is to help all teachers and headteachers to continuously develop their expertise throughout their careers so every child has the best start in life.

The Department has launched a new and updated suite of national professional qualifications (NPQs) for teachers and headteachers at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high-quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts. Since autumn 2021, eligible teachers and headteachers have been able to obtain scholarships to undertake fully funded NPQs.

The Department remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the very best teachers: the Department has implemented the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a significant 8.9% pay uplift to teacher starting salaries outside London in 2022/23, bringing them up to £28,000.

The Department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in mathematics. That is why range of measures have been put in place, including bursaries worth £27,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to teach mathematics. The Department is also offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for mathematics (and physics, chemistry and computing) teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.