Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the number of schools introducing (a) recruitment and (b) retention payments to encourage new teachers to work and existing teachers to stay at schools in Cornwall; and if she will make it her policy to reflect the potential need for such payments in area cost adjustments to the national funding formula.

There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 2,800 (less than 1%) since last year, and an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010.

The Department wants to ensure there are excellent teachers where they are most needed. The Department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects.

​In October 2022, the Department announced an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting ITT in 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 teach in key subjects, such as physics, chemistry, and computing. More information on the financial incentives package can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2023-to-2024.

​The Department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free annually 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 (EIA). As Cornwall is an EIA, eligible teachers in Cornwall receive the maximum payments available. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.

These recruitment and retention incentives are funded centrally and paid directly by the Department to eligible teachers. As such, they are separate from the National Funding Formula.