Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to update the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy to help tackle STEM teacher shortages.

In January 2019 the Department launched the Government’s first ever integrated Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, developed alongside and welcomed by teachers, education unions and leading professional bodies. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy.

The strategy focused on four key priorities where reform and investment can have the biggest impact, and the Department continues to deliver policies that stemmed from the strategy.

The first priority is creating the right climate for head teachers to establish supportive school cultures. This is being delivered through measures such as the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter and the Department’s School Workload Reduction Toolkit, developed with the education sector. These can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter, and here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.

The Department has also prioritised transforming support for early career teachers. The Department has reformed early career support by rolling out the Early Career Framework, which provides the foundations for a successful career in teaching.

The Department has focused on ensuring teaching remains an attractive profession as lives and careers progress. The Department has launched a new and updated National Professional Qualifications for teachers and school leaders at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high-quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts.

The Department aims to make it easier for great people to become teachers. In 2021 the Department launched the new digital service, Apply for teacher training, which has enabled a more streamlined, user-friendly application route.

These reforms support recruitment and retention across all subjects. However, some subjects remain more challenging to recruit to than others, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects.

In October 2022, the Department announced a £181 million Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package for those starting ITT in academic year 2023/24, which is a £52 million increase on 2022/23. The package includes bursaries worth £27,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The Department has also extended bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK national trainees in physics.

Additionally, the Department is providing a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

In spring 2022, the Department launched a pilot ‘Engineers teach physics’ initial teacher training course, designed to encourage engineering graduates and career changers with an engineering background to consider a career as a physics teacher.

The Department reviews the financial incentives offer each year and considers introduction of specific targeted initiatives where there is evidence that they could contribute to the recruitment and retention of excellent teachers.