Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to introduce mandatory training on (a) ADHD and (b) other neurodevelopmental conditions within initial teacher training and ongoing professional development frameworks; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of training gaps on pupil outcomes.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with ADHD and other neurodiverse conditions.
From September 2025, the new initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF) will set out a minimum entitlement to training for all new teachers. The ITTECF contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and SEND which was tested with SEND educational experts to ensure new teachers are equipped to support pupils with a range of additional learning needs.
The department recognises that continuous improvement is essential and has committed to review the ITTECF in 2027 to ensure it continues to provide the best possible support. This review will include a focus on teaching pupils with SEND.
The department also offers the Universal Services programme which helps the school workforce identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, including those with neurodiversity. This includes a range of continuing profession development such as bespoke professional development groups and autism training. Alongside this, the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme is a national programme, backed by £13 million of investment. PINS deploys specialists from health and education workforces to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children in mainstream primary schools.
In November 2024, the department established a neurodivergence task and finish group, which includes a range of experts from clinicians, scientists and academics, as well as education experts and third sector organisations. This group is chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg from the University of Birmingham and aims to work closely with the department to help improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream settings in a way that works for neurodivergent children and young people.
Asked by: Manuela Perteghella (Liberal Democrat - Stratford-on-Avon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including supply teachers in any forthcoming workforce strategy for (a) teacher recruitment and (b) teacher retention.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High quality teaching is the in school factor that has the biggest positive impact on children’s outcomes. Ensuring a high quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools and colleges, get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues.
Supply teachers make an important contribution to the smooth running of schools by filling posts on a temporary basis and covering teacher absences.
School autonomy is vital to the health of our education system. Headteachers are ultimately responsible for employment in their schools, as they are best placed to understand the specific needs of their pupils and make staffing decisions accordingly.
The department is determined to improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession so that existing teachers want to remain in it, former teachers want to return to it, and new graduates and career changers wish to join.
We continue to incentivise teacher recruitment through increasing teacher trainee bursaries to £233 million in 2025/26, with a focus on shortage subjects, and doubling retention payments from this year. A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and we are doing more to improve wellbeing and reduce workload, including actively promoting flexible working such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve retention rates among Design and Technology teachers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High-quality teaching is the most important in-school factor to a child’s educational outcomes. 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 child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers.
The 2024/25 initial teacher training (ITT) census reported 618 trainees had begun courses in design technology, up from 334 trainees in 2021/22. The department offered a £25,000 tax-free bursary for design technology teacher training in 2024/25 and increased this to £26,000 for courses starting in 2025/26.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and we want to ensure teachers of all subjects and phases stay and thrive in this profession. The department agreed a 5.5% pay award for teachers in the 2024/25 academic year and has taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, and enable greater flexible working, to support retention and help re-establish teaching as an attractive profession.
High-quality continuing professional development is also key to ensuring the retention of an effective teaching workforce. The department has established teaching school hubs across the country, who play a significant role in delivering ITT, the early career framework, and national professional qualifications. Star Teaching School Hub North West Lancashire and One Cumbria Teaching School Hub are both centres of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Lancaster, Westmorland and Furness.
Asked by: Manuela Perteghella (Liberal Democrat - Stratford-on-Avon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase recruitment of music teachers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High-quality teaching is the most important in-school factor in determining a child’s educational outcomes. Recruiting and retaining additional numbers of qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances of every child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new, expert teachers.
To deliver this pledge we are resetting the relationship with the sector to ensure teaching is once again a valued and attractive profession and one that existing teachers want to remain in, former teachers want to return to and new graduates wish to join.
The 2024/25 initial teacher training census reported 331 trainees had begun courses in music, up from 216 trainees in the 2023/24 academic year. We reintroduced a £10,000 music bursary for the 2024/25 academic year and are continuing to offer this for courses starting in 2025/26.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and the department wants to ensure teachers of all subjects and phases stay and thrive in the profession. We agreed a 5.5% pay award for teachers this academic year, 2024/25, and have taken steps to improve teachers’ workloads and wellbeing and enable greater flexible working, to support retention and help re-establish teaching as an attractive profession.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase levels of recruitment and retention of teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor to a child’s educational outcomes. 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 child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers, get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues. To deliver this pledge we are resetting the relationship with the sector to ensure teaching is once again a valued and attractive profession.
The department agreed a 5.5% pay award for teachers in 2024/25, and increased the funding available for bursaries for trainee teachers to £233 million from 2025/26, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy and we want to ensure teachers stay and thrive in this profession. In the first five years of their careers, new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools. There are three schools in the Cheltenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.
The department has also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help re-establish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, by making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working, whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Malmesbury School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Cheltenham schools.
High quality Continuing Professional Development is also key to ensuring the retention of an effective teaching workforce. The department has established teaching school hubs across the country, who play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework and National Professional Qualifications. Balcarras Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Cheltenham, Cotswolds and Stroud.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of renewing her Department's contract with Now Teach, in the context of meeting teacher recruitment targets.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service, which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including career changers.
The current contract for the career changers programme will come to its natural end in autumn 2026, with no option to directly renew the contract with Now Teach. The department is currently working with Now Teach to support their exit planning and ensure that the final cohort of trainees complete the programme successfully. We have no plans to reprocure the contract at this stage.
The department has contracts with many organisations in support of teacher recruitment and training and continues to fund and support those organisations in line with the terms of the agreed contracts.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what evidential basis she does not plan to renew her Department's contract with Now Teach, in the context of meeting teacher recruitment targets.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service, which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including career changers.
The current contract for the career changers programme will come to its natural end in autumn 2026, with no option to directly renew the contract with Now Teach. The department is currently working with Now Teach to support their exit planning and ensure that the final cohort of trainees complete the programme successfully. We have no plans to reprocure the contract at this stage.
The department has contracts with many organisations in support of teacher recruitment and training and continues to fund and support those organisations in line with the terms of the agreed contracts.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department is measuring its progress on recruiting 6,500 new teachers; and whether this measurement will account for teachers that leave the profession over the remainder of the Parliament.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The factor in schools and colleges that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Ensuring a high-quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. However, this government inherited shortages of qualified teachers across the country as the number of teachers has not kept pace with demographic change. That is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has already made good early progress towards this key pledge, including providing a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax.
We have also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help reestablish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) to be undertaken remotely, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including targeted support for career changers.
We are working with the sector to develop our approach as part of the spending review.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress she has made on recruiting 6,500 new teachers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The factor in schools and colleges that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Ensuring a high-quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. However, this government inherited shortages of qualified teachers across the country as the number of teachers has not kept pace with demographic change. That is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has already made good early progress towards this key pledge, including providing a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax.
We have also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help reestablish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) to be undertaken remotely, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including targeted support for career changers.
We are working with the sector to develop our approach as part of the spending review.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of career changers on meeting her target of recruiting 6,500 new teachers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The factor in schools and colleges that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Ensuring a high-quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. However, this government inherited shortages of qualified teachers across the country as the number of teachers has not kept pace with demographic change. That is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has already made good early progress towards this key pledge, including providing a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax.
We have also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help reestablish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) to be undertaken remotely, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including targeted support for career changers.
We are working with the sector to develop our approach as part of the spending review.