Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of requirements for guarantors for rented accommodation to be based in the UK on the ability of schools to recruit trainee teachers from abroad.

The Department is developing a range of online materials that can be used to help support those moving to England to teach. This will include practical advice on living in the UK, including finding accommodation and how schools can assist with the transition. The Department is engaging with schools and international teachers as we develop this offering to understand what support they need inside and outside the classroom to help them thrive in English schools.

The Department has announced the bursaries and scholarships available to those starting initial teacher training in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department has made £181 million available to attract trainee teachers in high priority subjects, which is a £52 million increase on the incentives package we announced last year. This year, the Department has also extended bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK national trainees in physics and languages. This means international physics trainees will be eligible for scholarships worth £29,000 and bursaries worth £27,000. Language trainees will be eligible for scholarships worth £27,000 and bursaries worth £25,000.

This is part of a wider package of new measures to make teaching in England even more attractive to the best teachers and trainee teachers from around the world. This includes:

• a relocation premium to help those moving to England with the costs of visas and other expenses
• a new approach to recognising overseas qualifications so that high-quality teachers, wherever they are from, can come to teach in England.

More generally the Department is driving an ambitious transformation programme to overhaul the process of becoming a teacher. From stimulating initial interest through world-class marketing through to the start of training. In October 2021, a new digital service, Apply for teacher training, was rolled out. This is a key milestone in the delivery of a more coherent, user-friendly application route. New data and insight from our services will also drive innovation with a view to boosting recruitment in priority subjects.