Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of school budgets on workforce decisions.

We are investing an extra £1.7 billion into schools in the 2026/27 financial year, including funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform announced in the Schools White Paper. We are now more than 60% of the way towards our ambitious target of recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers in our secondary and special schools and further education colleges by the end of this parliament.

Schools have autonomy over their budgets and are best placed to take employment and recruitment decisions based on their own needs and context. We have published tools and guidance to help schools and trusts plan and deploy their workforce effectively to maximise value for pupils, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-workforce-planning-for-schools-and-trusts.