Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) teachers, and (2) classroom assistants, are currently employed in local education authority schools in England.
Information on the school workforce in England, including the number of teachers and classroom assistants, is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistics publication at https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. The latest information is as of November 2020. Figures for November 2021 will be published in May 2022.
In November 2020, there were 204,847 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers and 151,865 FTE teaching assistants employed in local authority-maintained schools in England.
Table 1: Teacher and teaching assistants in England, by school type, FTE numbers
November 2020
School type | Teachers | Teaching Assistants |
LA maintained nursery and primary | 138,435 | 111,411 |
LA maintained secondary | 47,294 | 11,532 |
LA maintained special or Pupil Referral Unit | 15,398 | 26,765 |
Centrally employed | 3,720 | 2,157 |
Total | 204,847 | 151,865 |
Source: School Workforce Census 2020