Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for which subjects there is the greatest need for additional teachers; and what steps she is taking to recruit such teachers.

The Department for Education uses the Teacher Supply Model (TSM) to estimate the national requirements for the primary phase and each individual secondary subject for the number of postgraduate Initial Teacher Training (ITT) places to meet future demand.

The 2016/17 version of the TSM, which was used to inform the 2016/17 ITT recruitment process, along with a user guide explaining the methodology in detail, is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-supply-model.

The need for additional teachers will not only be met by new entrants to teaching as they only account for about half of all entrants. We are encouraged that the number of former teachers coming back to the classroom has continued to rise year after year – in 2014 we welcomed back more than 14,100 teachers, up from 11,700 in 2011.

We continue to offer a range of generous financial incentives – including training bursaries of up to £30,000 tax-free – to trainee teachers in the subjects where there is the greatest need. Between now and 2020, we will invest a total of £1.3 billion in attracting and training new teachers.

Last year, the Prime Minister announced a package to improve teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, worth up to £67 million over five years. This will train an additional 2,500 maths and physics teachers, and will improve the skills of a further 15,000 teachers in those subjects. We are making it easier for schools to play a leading role in selecting and training new teachers, including through the School Direct route, which this year will train over 10,000 new teachers.