Teachers

(asked on 27th November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what modelling her Department has undertaken of the impact of recent changes in (a) pay levels, (b) pension contributions and (c) national insurance contributions on the supply of teachers.


Answered by
 Portrait
David Laws
This question was answered on 2nd December 2014

The Department for Education uses the Teacher Supply Model (TSM) to calculate the optimum number of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) places required to match the future supply of teachers to the estimated demand for qualified teachers within the state funded sector in England. The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) use this information to inform their allocation of ITT places to teacher training providers.

The Department does not include pension and National Insurance contribution as factors in econometric forecasts of numbers who will leave the profession; however we do use average relative pay.

Whilst the Department estimates future teacher demand at a national level, decision-making taken at school level determines the actual number of teachers required. In addition, the reforms to teachers’ pay that were introduced from September 2013 have given schools greater freedom to develop local reward packages which enable them to attract and retain the good teachers they need.

The Department has published the TSM online, along with an outline of the wastage forecast methodology. This is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-supply-model

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