Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the levels of (a) recruitment and (b) retention within the teaching profession.

High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child’s outcomes. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child. This is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new teachers across secondary and special schools and in our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

Over 2,000 more people are training to become secondary school teachers this year. Recruitment is on track to improve even further for the cohort set to start training in 2025/26, with 1,070 more acceptances to postgraduate and teacher degree apprenticeship initial teacher training courses in secondary subjects by the end of April 2025, compared to the same time last year. Additionally, over 2,500 more teachers are expected to stay in the profession over the next three years.

This government has already accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools and ensured that this is fully funded. We are also incentivising recruitment with an increased £233 million investment in training bursaries, worth £29,000 tax-free, and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, for trainees in key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing

The department is boosting opportunities to train to teach by streamlining postgraduate teaching apprenticeship courses from twelve months to nine, starting from August this year, to help get newly trained teachers into classrooms sooner.

A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and we can only do this by ensuring teaching is an attractive profession for all. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.

Alongside the resources we have made available to teachers to support their wellbeing, we are also promoting flexible working policies including allowing teachers to undertake planning, preparation and assessment from home. We are working closely with the sector, as part of Improving Education Together, to identify further key actions to improve teacher workload and wellbeing and ensure those joining the profession can stay and thrive.