Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the terms of reference are for the research commissioned by her Department from the University of Nottingham on retentions levels in the teaching profession; and when that research will be published.

In October 2014 the University of Nottingham was commissioned by the Department for Education to conduct research to obtain up to date evidence on teachers’ reasons for leaving the profession, the quality of both leavers and returners, and the school-level factors influencing retention. This was to include a survey of headteachers, leavers and returners.

A pilot of the survey carried out between January and March 2015 did not succeed in attracting sufficient responses for data to be meaningful. The department therefore ended the contract and research project before the main stage was conducted. We are currently reconsidering the methodology and expect to re-commission some form of research once viable ways of finding better data or responses has been identified.