Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools in low-income communities can recruit and retain high-quality teachers.

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 young person.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for secondary teachers in shortage subjects in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. In Leigh and Atherton Constituency, two out of five schools are eligible for this retention payment.

The High Potential Initial Teacher Training Programme, currently delivered by Teach First, also recruits high quality candidates specifically for placement in schools serving low-income communities to help improve outcomes for pupils.

Our investment is starting to deliver: the workforce has grown by 2,346 full time employed staff between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools and vacancies have fallen to their lowest since 2020.