Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that recruitment targets for religious education teachers are met.

As at the last school workforce census (November 2021, published in June 2022), the number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country.

In the 2020/21 academic year the Department exceeded the postgraduate initial teacher training target for religious education (RE). 129% of the target was achieved (660 new entrants recruited), whilst in the 2021/22 academic year performance against the target fell to 94% (442 new entrants recruited) and in 2022/23, 76% of the target was achieved (341 new trainees) in RE.

The Department is concentrating funding in attracting the best teachers where they are needed the most, through its teaching marketing campaign, support services for prospective trainees, and competitive starting salary.

To make it easier for people to become teachers, the Department has launched its new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’, enabling a more streamlined, user-friendly application route.

The Teaching marketing campaign provides inspiration and support to explore a career in teaching and directs people to the ‘Get Into Teaching’ service. Through a new website, prospective trainees can access support and advice through expert one to one Teacher Training Advisers, a contact centre and a national programme of events.

The Department has recently raised starting salaries outside London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract people to teaching.

The Department is delivering 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024, giving all teachers and headteachers access to world-class, evidence-based training and professional development at every stage of their career.

The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession in all subjects, including RE.

To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the Department has rolled out the Early Career Framework nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching. This is backed by over £130 million a year in funding.

The Department has also launched a new and updated suite of National Professional Qualifications 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.

The Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The Department has also published the workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside headteachers to help reduce workload, and resources to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices.