Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teaching assistants since 2020.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education in schools across the country.

The school workforce census shows that the full-time equivalent (FTE) of teaching assistants has increased each year since 2019/20, rising to 288,800 in 2024/25. This is an increase of 5,900 since 2023/24.

A December 2024 departmental survey entitled ‘School and college voice’ found that a large majority of leaders (82%) reported recruiting teaching assistants or learning support staff since January 2024. However, these roles were commonly reported as the hardest to fill.