Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of workload reduction measures on teacher retention rates.

The best recruitment strategy is a strong retention strategy, and this government has provided a near 10% pay award for teachers to ensure teaching is once again a respected and attractive profession.

The department is undertaking a range of initiatives to help teachers manage workload and improve retention. Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, contains a range of supportive resources for schools to reduce workload. Our education staff wellbeing charter, now with over 4,200 signatories, sets out commitments from government, schools, and colleges to improve staff wellbeing, including commitments to help reduce teacher workload.

The department is seeing signs of improvement. 2024/25 saw one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector, and the workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE from the previous year in secondary and special schools, the schools where teachers are needed most.