Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what were the objectives of the British Council's Creative Producers in the Western Balkans 2021-2022 programme.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Council's priority objectives for the Western Balkans are to build the skills and capacity of individuals and organisations operating in the media and cultural sectors, to support region-wide digital transformation, and enhance and support English language teaching and learning.
The Creative Producers programme was designed to develop the profession of creative production and artistic good practices across the countries involved and the UK.
The British Council determines its own funding programmes operating at arms' length to Government.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the priority objectives are for the British Council in the Balkans.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Council's priority objectives for the Western Balkans are to build the skills and capacity of individuals and organisations operating in the media and cultural sectors, to support region-wide digital transformation, and enhance and support English language teaching and learning.
The Creative Producers programme was designed to develop the profession of creative production and artistic good practices across the countries involved and the UK.
The British Council determines its own funding programmes operating at arms' length to Government.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school music teachers left the teaching profession in the period between (a) 2010 and 2015, (b) 2015 and 2020 and (c) 2020 and 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the number of teachers leaving state-funded schools and the number of teachers by subject in state-funded secondary schools in England are published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistic available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
In the year to November 2022, the full time equivalent (FTE) of 43,997 qualified teachers left the state-funded sector in England, while 47,954 qualified teachers joined.
The latest available data shows that in November 2022, the latest data available, there were 7,184 FTE teachers teaching music in state-funded secondary schools, a slight increase from 7,003 in the previous year.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers1 of music in state-funded secondary schools
2011/12 to 2022/23
| Number of teachers of all years |
2011/12 | 8,043 |
2012/13 | 7,432 |
2013/14 | 7,268 |
2014/15 | 7,109 |
2015/16 | 6,862 |
2016/17 | 6,720 |
2017/18 | 6,480 |
2018/19 | 6,525 |
2019/20 | 6,543 |
2020/21 | 6,837 |
2021/22 | 7,003 |
2022/23 | 7,184 |
Source: School Workforce Census, published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/94487fba-1bd5-4bef-b77d-08dbd08e1875
1: Teachers were counted once against each subject and key stage they taught, irrespective of the time spent teaching.
The requested figures for music teachers leaving the teaching profession are not available.
The quality of teaching remains the single most important factor in improving outcomes for children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Department plans to update the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, originally published in 2019, and build on existing reforms to ensure every child has an excellent teacher, including in music. The strategy update will reflect progress in delivering these reforms, and set out priorities for the coming years.
For those starting initial teacher training in music in the 2024/25 academic year, the Department is offering £10,000 tax-free bursaries. This should attract more music teachers into the profession and support schools in delivering at least one hour of music lessons a week.
The Government will also be placing a stronger emphasis on teacher development as part of the Music Hub programme in the future, including peer-to-peer support through new Lead Schools in every Hub.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession in the period between (a) 2010 and 2015, (b) 2015 and 2020 and (c) 2020 and 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the number of teachers leaving state-funded schools and the number of teachers by subject in state-funded secondary schools in England are published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistic available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
In the year to November 2022, the full time equivalent (FTE) of 43,997 qualified teachers left the state-funded sector in England, while 47,954 qualified teachers joined.
The latest available data shows that in November 2022, the latest data available, there were 7,184 FTE teachers teaching music in state-funded secondary schools, a slight increase from 7,003 in the previous year.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers1 of music in state-funded secondary schools
2011/12 to 2022/23
| Number of teachers of all years |
2011/12 | 8,043 |
2012/13 | 7,432 |
2013/14 | 7,268 |
2014/15 | 7,109 |
2015/16 | 6,862 |
2016/17 | 6,720 |
2017/18 | 6,480 |
2018/19 | 6,525 |
2019/20 | 6,543 |
2020/21 | 6,837 |
2021/22 | 7,003 |
2022/23 | 7,184 |
Source: School Workforce Census, published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/94487fba-1bd5-4bef-b77d-08dbd08e1875
1: Teachers were counted once against each subject and key stage they taught, irrespective of the time spent teaching.
The requested figures for music teachers leaving the teaching profession are not available.
The quality of teaching remains the single most important factor in improving outcomes for children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Department plans to update the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, originally published in 2019, and build on existing reforms to ensure every child has an excellent teacher, including in music. The strategy update will reflect progress in delivering these reforms, and set out priorities for the coming years.
For those starting initial teacher training in music in the 2024/25 academic year, the Department is offering £10,000 tax-free bursaries. This should attract more music teachers into the profession and support schools in delivering at least one hour of music lessons a week.
The Government will also be placing a stronger emphasis on teacher development as part of the Music Hub programme in the future, including peer-to-peer support through new Lead Schools in every Hub.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of offering higher starting salaries to people entering the teaching profession with wider professional experience relevant to the subjects they teach.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions document (STPCD) sets out the four pay ranges for teachers in maintained schools in England. A teacher must be paid a salary within the minimum and maximum of the pay range as set out within the STPCD as the relevant body determines. A link to more information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-pay-and-conditions.
In the recent pay award, teachers and leaders in maintained schools received a pay award of 6.5%, the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years. The Government also delivered its manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for teachers in all regions of the country, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London. The Department is committed to ensuring that teaching is a financially competitive career option within the graduate labour market.
The Department wants to ensure there are excellent teachers where they are needed most. The Department has announced a £196 million initial teacher training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 ITT recruitment cycle, a £15 million increase on the last cycle. This includes increased bursaries worth up to £28,000 tax free and scholarships worth up to £30,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The Department is also providing a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the Department will be investing £100 million each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 tax free.
The Department continues to consider longer term pay priorities to attract and retain the best graduates whilst also delivering value for money on taxpayers’ investment in schools. The next remit to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is due to be published shortly, which will include the strategic areas that the Department will consult the STRB on and look to implement in the next academic year.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the proportion of male primary school teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department wants to ensure that teaching is an attractive career choice for people from all backgrounds. This includes men looking to work in primary schools.
Alongside monitoring overall numbers of male teachers in the profession, our in-house teacher recruitment services, such as the Apply for Teaching Training service, generate real time data and insights into recruitment of male primary initial teacher training (ITT) candidates, along with the recruitment practices of schools and universities that offer ITT.
Whilst men make up a smaller proportion of the teaching workforce than women, since 2010 there has been an increase of over 6,500 male teachers in state funded nursery and primary schools, rising from 28,180 in 2010/11 to 34,818 in 2022/23.
Recruitment campaigns are targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates, and potential career changers, regardless of gender. The Department takes every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials used. The Department is also working with our Teacher Vacancy Service to ensure online case studies encourage more male primary teachers into the profession, through sharing positive and encouraging stories from teachers.
The Department wants teaching to be an attractive and competitive profession. From September 2023, starting salaries will raise to at least £30,000 in all areas of the country. In fulfilling this manifesto commitment, the Department is ensuring that all teachers launch their career on a competitive starting salary.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what will be the total additional cost of the 6.5 per cent pay rise agreed for teachers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s (STRB) recommendations for the 2023/24 teacher pay award in full. This means that teachers and head teachers in maintained schools in England will receive an award of 6.5%, the highest STRB award in three decades. The 2023/24 pay award completes the delivery of our manifesto commitment to raise starting salaries to £30,000. This will raise the status of the teaching profession and provide a pay offer that helps attract and retain the best teachers in the profession.
Back in March, the department set out its calculation that schools, on average, could afford a pay award of 4% from within existing funding. The department decided to fund the 2023 pay award from a lower affordability figure than that calculation: funding the costs of the pay award above 3.5%, on average, rather than above our 4% national affordability calculation. That matches the earlier figure in our written evidence to the STRB, which many schools used in their budget assumptions. Unions have confirmed that this ensures the pay award is properly funded.
The department is therefore providing additional funding equivalent to 3% of the pay award, or £525 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £900 million in the 2024/25 financial year. The estimated full cost of the 6.5% award, for all state-funded schools in England, would be £1.14 billion in the 2023/24 and £1.95 billion in 2024/25 financial years respectively.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government which (1) age group, and (2) other demographic groups, left the teaching profession in the greatest numbers in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Information on the school workforce in England, including the number and characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, working pattern and post) of teachers joining and leaving service nationally, is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Leavers are defined as qualified teachers leaving the state funded sector in England, for example due to a change of career or joining other UK education sectors, and those leaving on career breaks such as maternity leave or secondments outside of the school sector. Some of these teachers may rejoin a state funded school in England at a later date.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) support, and (2) guidance, they are offering to schools to enable them to maximise teacher retention.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Department’s reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment in key subjects and areas, through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, but also at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession.
There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The Department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and head teachers, resulting in a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest for teachers in over thirty years.
To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the Department has rolled out the Early Career Framework nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching, with over £130 million a year in funding. Beyond these first few years, the Department’s priority is to help all teachers and head teachers to continuously develop their expertise throughout their careers so every child in every classroom in every school has the best start in life.
The Department has therefore launched a new and updated suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) for teachers and head teachers at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts. Since autumn 2021, eligible teachers and head teachers have been able to access scholarships to undertake fully funded NPQs.
These measures will create a golden thread running from Initial Teacher Training through to school leadership and rooting teacher and head teacher development in the best available evidence.
The Department has also published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, and therefore support retention, including the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which schools are being encouraged to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. Developed in partnership with the education sector and mental health experts, the Charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.
Additionally, a workload reduction toolkit has been developed for schools alongside head teachers and has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. On 13 July 2023, the Department also announced that it will convene a Workload Reduction Taskforce to explore how it can go further to support trusts and head teachers to minimise workload for teachers and head teachers by building on previous successes.
The Department is also taking action to promote flexible working in schools. The Department has published supportive resources on GOV.UK, including non statutory guidance and case studies: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/flexible-working-resources-for-teachers-and-schools#guidance-for-flexible-working.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of diversity in the art and design teaching profession.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department wants teaching to be a profession where teachers and head teachers from all backgrounds have the same opportunities to progress in their career. The Department actively monitors diversity data on the teaching population through the School Workforce Census and Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Census. Results show increasing diversity over time for some groups. For example, the ethnic diversity of the teacher workforce continues to increase, with 15.6% of teachers identifying as belonging to an ethnic minority group, up from 11.2% in 2010/11.
It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the demographic characteristics of subject teachers due to the way data is collected from a sample of secondary schools. A national level headcount of teachers by subjects taught is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
With regard to trainee teachers, in 2022/23, there were 477 new postgraduate trainee art and design teachers with known sex. Of these, 87% were female, 12% were male, and 1% reported their sex as ‘Other’, compared to 72%, 28%, and 0% respectively for postgraduate ITT trainees overall. There were 458 art and design trainees with known nationality, of which 92% were UK nationals, 6% were European Economic Area nationals, and 2% were of other nationality, compared to 92%, 5% and 2% respectively for all ITT postgraduate trainees.
It is not possible to provide breakdowns of other ITT trainee characteristics by subject. Full data can be found in the ITT Census here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census.