Teachers: Equality

(asked on 22nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that teaching staff with protected characteristics are supported to progress in their careers.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 30th June 2020

In October 2018, the Department set out its commitment to increasing the diversity of the teaching workforce across all protected characteristics when it launched the Statement of Intent.

This commitment to increasing teacher diversity was made alongside 10 co-signatories from the sector (including unions and grassroots organisations) who set out their own individual activities.

The Department has been making progress against its commitments, including:

  • Providing £2 million of funding in nationwide Equality and Diversity regional ‘hubs’ to support aspiring leaders into headship. The hubs focus on providing coaching and mentoring to increase representation across all protected characteristics in senior leadership roles. Between 2014 and 2018 over 2,900 teachers have been helped to take the next steps on their leadership journey through school led diversity leadership training through the Equality and Diversity Fund.
  • Reflecting the importance of diversity in the Department’s Recruitment and Retention Strategy published in January 2019 to ensure people from all backgrounds are supported and that barriers to their progression are removed.

  • Encouraging representative recruitment for National Professional Qualifications for school leadership through key performance indicators.

  • Continuing to engage with signatories of the statement. In July 2019, we held a roundtable to gather progress updates and showcase best practice.
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