Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the School workforce in England figures, published in June 2024 will be the baseline against which she will measure progress towards recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects.

High quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child and young person’s outcome in schools and colleges. 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, in its Plan for Change, the government is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary and special schools, and in our colleges, over the course of this Parliament, and we will be continuing to monitor this.

Delivery is already under way. Upon entering government we moved quickly to expand our Get Into Teaching marketing campaign and, in July 2024, announced a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools. In 2024/25, we drove forward teacher recruitment and retention, backed by investment of around £700 million across schools and further education (FE). This includes announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package, confirming targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax, and taking steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing. Building on this, on 22 May 2025, we also announced a 4% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools in England from September 2025, ensuring teaching remains an attractive graduate profession.

The government’s Plan for Change is starting to deliver, with over 2,000 more people training to become secondary school teachers this year and recruitment 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.