Caroline Ansell

The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.

In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.

The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.

The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.

The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.

In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.

The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.

The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.

The department currently has the highest number of teachers on record, with over 468,000 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. This represents an increase of 27,000 (6%) since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

The department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. For language subjects, the department is offering bursaries worth £25,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £27,000 tax-free in French, German and Spanish. The department is also continuing to offer bursaries and scholarships to all non-UK national trainees in physics and languages. The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. As of 2023, 69% of secondary or special schools in coastal towns are eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, compared to 59% of schools elsewhere in the country. This will support both recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

Coastal communities are also well served by the department’s network of Teaching School Hubs (TSHs), which are school-led centres of excellence in professional development, delivering training and support to teachers and school leaders at every stage of their career. The 87 TSHs cover all of England, with 31 hubs currently serving 146 coastal areas across England.

Regarding recruitment targets, simply looking at post-graduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) recruitment as an indicator of broader teacher recruitment is misleading as it is not the only route into teaching, nor does it represent the available number of teachers in the workforce. The PGITT target is calculated using the Teacher Workforce Model, which considers a broad range of factors including, but not limited to, projected pupil numbers, historical recruitment performance, teacher retention forecasts, economic factors, and recruitment from other non-ITT related routes such as returners and those teachers that are new to the state-funded schools sector.

Therefore, the PGITT target is not based on the total number of entrants schools’ need, but rather on the forecast residual need after accounting for other non-PGITT inflows, such as undergraduate ITT and returners. The department calculates targets on an annual basis, and if retention and entrants from other routes are higher than expected during the time that trainees are applying for and completing their course, this can offset the need to meet the PGITT targets in full.

The department will continue to monitor PGITT and other routes into teaching and have provided targeted support to ensure it recruits and retains sufficient numbers of teachers in all key subjects, including physics and languages.

The department currently has the highest number of teachers on record, with over 468,000 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. This represents an increase of 27,000 (6%) since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

The department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. For language subjects, the department is offering bursaries worth £25,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £27,000 tax-free in French, German and Spanish. The department is also continuing to offer bursaries and scholarships to all non-UK national trainees in physics and languages. The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. As of 2023, 69% of secondary or special schools in coastal towns are eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, compared to 59% of schools elsewhere in the country. This will support both recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

Coastal communities are also well served by the department’s network of Teaching School Hubs (TSHs), which are school-led centres of excellence in professional development, delivering training and support to teachers and school leaders at every stage of their career. The 87 TSHs cover all of England, with 31 hubs currently serving 146 coastal areas across England.

Regarding recruitment targets, simply looking at post-graduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) recruitment as an indicator of broader teacher recruitment is misleading as it is not the only route into teaching, nor does it represent the available number of teachers in the workforce. The PGITT target is calculated using the Teacher Workforce Model, which considers a broad range of factors including, but not limited to, projected pupil numbers, historical recruitment performance, teacher retention forecasts, economic factors, and recruitment from other non-ITT related routes such as returners and those teachers that are new to the state-funded schools sector.

Therefore, the PGITT target is not based on the total number of entrants schools’ need, but rather on the forecast residual need after accounting for other non-PGITT inflows, such as undergraduate ITT and returners. The department calculates targets on an annual basis, and if retention and entrants from other routes are higher than expected during the time that trainees are applying for and completing their course, this can offset the need to meet the PGITT targets in full.

The department will continue to monitor PGITT and other routes into teaching and have provided targeted support to ensure it recruits and retains sufficient numbers of teachers in all key subjects, including physics and languages.

The department currently has the highest number of teachers on record, with over 468,000 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. This represents an increase of 27,000 (6%) since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

The department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. For language subjects, the department is offering bursaries worth £25,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £27,000 tax-free in French, German and Spanish. The department is also continuing to offer bursaries and scholarships to all non-UK national trainees in physics and languages. The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. As of 2023, 69% of secondary or special schools in coastal towns are eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, compared to 59% of schools elsewhere in the country. This will support both recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

Coastal communities are also well served by the department’s network of Teaching School Hubs (TSHs), which are school-led centres of excellence in professional development, delivering training and support to teachers and school leaders at every stage of their career. The 87 TSHs cover all of England, with 31 hubs currently serving 146 coastal areas across England.

Regarding recruitment targets, simply looking at post-graduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) recruitment as an indicator of broader teacher recruitment is misleading as it is not the only route into teaching, nor does it represent the available number of teachers in the workforce. The PGITT target is calculated using the Teacher Workforce Model, which considers a broad range of factors including, but not limited to, projected pupil numbers, historical recruitment performance, teacher retention forecasts, economic factors, and recruitment from other non-ITT related routes such as returners and those teachers that are new to the state-funded schools sector.

Therefore, the PGITT target is not based on the total number of entrants schools’ need, but rather on the forecast residual need after accounting for other non-PGITT inflows, such as undergraduate ITT and returners. The department calculates targets on an annual basis, and if retention and entrants from other routes are higher than expected during the time that trainees are applying for and completing their course, this can offset the need to meet the PGITT targets in full.

The department will continue to monitor PGITT and other routes into teaching and have provided targeted support to ensure it recruits and retains sufficient numbers of teachers in all key subjects, including physics and languages.

The information requested can be found in the attached table.

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The information requested can be found in the attached table.

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The department began offering schools and colleges a grant to train senior mental health leads in October 2021. A list of schools and colleges receiving a senior mental health lead training grant is published and updated throughout the year. This list can be found at the following link, alongside details of other payments to institutions: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions.

​In the 2021/22 financial year, seven schools and colleges within the Eastbourne constituency applied for the senior mental health training grant. In the 2022/23 financial year, a further five schools and colleges applied for the grant, which totals twelve grant applications to date. In the 2023/24 financial year, there were no grant applications in this constituency for Q1 and Q2.

The Department for Education (DfE) does not hold information on the number of teachers with responsibility for careers advice who have been trained in autism.

Since 2011 the DfE has funded the Autism Education Trust (AET) www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk to deliver autism training at three levels to staff in early years, school and post-16 settings. Level 1 training is a basic 90-minute awareness session and Levels 2 and 3 are more in depth and aimed at staff who are working with autistic pupils on a daily basis. The AET has also developed a competency framework and standards for supporting pupils with autism.

To date, the AET has trained more than 130,000 people – not just teachers and teaching assistants, but also support staff such as receptionists, dining hall staff and caretakers.

There are no exemptions to the Apprenticeship Levy. All employers, including public sector employers, with an annual pay bill of over £3 million will be required to pay the apprenticeship levy.

It is ultimately down to each local authority in scope of the levy to decide how to spread out the cost across the organisations that fall within their remit, including maintained schools. We have made it clear that we expect local authorities to work closely with the schools in their areas, to agree how this will work; and to ensure non-maintained schools contributing to the levy can access the funding for apprenticeship training. Department and Skills Funding Agency officials are already working closely with the LGA and local authorities to support them in doing this.

A guidance document for schools and local authorities on the apprenticeship levy has been published on GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-reforms-guide-for-schools

We are committed to making sure as many children as possible have a place at a good school. The latest Ofsted report clearly shows that standards have risen. Compared to 2010 almost 1.8 million more pupils are now taught in good or outstanding schools. The ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation sets out plans to make more good school places available, to more parents, in more parts of the country. This includes scrapping the ban on new grammar school places, and harnessing the resources and expertise of universities, independent and faith schools.

Between 2012 and 2015, entries for Chinese GCSE in England increased by 34%.

We introduced the Mandarin Excellence Programme this year for highly motivated pupils. It has started in 14 schools with more to follow over the next two years.

The programme will result in at least 5,000 young people heading towards a high level of fluency in Mandarin by 2020.

All state-funded schools, including academies and free schools, must provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. Ofsted inspectors examine whether schools are providing a broad and balanced curriculum which meets statutory requirements and the needs and interests of pupils.

The EBacc has been designed to be limited in size to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the curriculum for other subjects. On average, pupils in state-funded schools enter nine GCSEs and equivalent qualifications, rising to more than ten for more able pupils. For many pupils, taking the EBacc will mean taking seven GCSEs; and for those taking triple science, it will mean taking eight. This means that there will continue to be room for pupils to study other subjects.

We set out our EBacc proposals in our consultation. We will respond to the consultation in due course.

The following table provides the full-time equivalent number of teachers without Qualified Teacher Status in service in state funded schools in England, November 2010 to 2014. November 2015 data will be available at the end of June.

Source: School Workforce Census

Our recent White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, announced that we intend to replace the current arrangements for teacher qualification with a new, stronger accreditation that will be based on clear evidence of effective teaching practice. The new system will allow schools to employ as teachers individuals with appropriate qualifications and experience and put them on a pathway to full accreditation, recognising their proficiency in the classroom.

We are continuing our extensive work with the profession to remove unnecessary workload so that teachers can concentrate on teaching and not bureaucracy and paperwork.

This includes establishing three review groups to tackle the top issues raised by teachers in the Government’s Workload Challenge in 2014: marking, lesson planning, and data management.

The reports from these review groups were published on 26 March 2016. We have accepted all their recommendations for Government.

As the reports make clear, it is for everybody involved in education to act on the principles and recommendations in these reports so teachers can focus on what really matters – inspiring their pupils to achieve their full potential.

We will continue to work with the teaching profession to make sure they have the ongoing support they need. We have recently conducted the first biennial Teacher Workload Survey, a commitment which will allow us to track teacher workload over the coming years. The results of the first survey will be published later this year.

The pupil premium provides schools with additional funding to improve the progress and attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, with £6.25 billion provided to date. Pupil premium allocations to schools are mainly based on the number of pupils on roll at the time of the January school census who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the preceding six years.

We are working to encourage all families who meet the current criteria toregisterfor free school meals. The Department’s eligibility checking system has made it much easier and quicker to check which families are entitled to free school meals.

The Department has also published a registration form to help schools to identify pupils who are entitled to free school meals and the pupil premium. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-and-pupil-premium-registration-form.

Teacher retention rates have remained stable for over a decade. Approximately 90 per cent of teachers are in service in the year after they qualify, and 72 per cent of those who qualified in 2009 were still teaching 5 years later. Over the longer term, over 60 per cent of teachers remain in service 10 years after qualifying.

But we recognise that it is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers – that is why we have made significant policy interventions in the areas that teachers tell us matter most such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload. We have appointed behaviour expert Tom Bennett to lead a review to ensure new teachers are fully trained in dealing with disruptive children, and to consider all of the challenges of managing behaviour in 21st century schools.

We have established three groups to address the biggest concerns that teachers raised in the workload challenge - marking, planning and data management. The groups will create principles for practice and make specific recommendations for action. All three groups are due to report to Ministers in spring 2016.

Mature students are an important source of new teachers and bring relevant knowledge and skills from their previous employment. In 2015/16, 21 per cent of new entrants to initial teacher training (ITT) courses were aged 30 or over. To attract more potential career changers, our marketing campaign, ‘Your Future, Their Future’, uses a range of media, including television advertising, national newspaper advertising and targeted digital and print communications. As part of this we will be running the ‘New Year New Career’ sub-campaign, which is dedicated to attracting career changers, throughout January 2016.

We provide support specifically for career changers to make the transition to teaching, especially in the subjects where they are needed the most, including:

• The School Direct (salaried) route is specifically targeted at career changers with three years’ work experience and allows them to earn a salary whilst they train to teach. We provide grant funding to schools to subsidise the costs of salary and training for trainees on this route.
• For ITT 2016/17, we are working with 18 School Direct lead schools to develop and recruit to part-time and abridged School Direct (salaried) courses in maths and physics starting in September 2016. The aim of this pilot is to test whether schools can attract more career changers by offering flexible training routes which meet the needs of different individuals.

In addition, career changers can access extensive support that is available for all ITT candidates. This includes bursaries or scholarships of up to £30,000 tax-free; advice and guidance from the expert advisers on the Get Into Teaching Line; help with arranging school experience to assist with their ITT application; and access to our free Train to Teach events.

Those who wish to teach secondary biology, geography, maths, physics, chemistry, languages or computing are also eligible for our enhanced Premier Plus service. This includes tailored advice from a dedicated adviser, including the practicalities that often affect career changers, such as childcare funding. Applicants who wish to teach these subjects can also access funded Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses, through which they can boost or refresh their subject knowledge.

Officials from the Department for Education have liaised with the Department for Work and Pension as the lead Department for the Family Test to embed it into the policy process. This has included training officials on applying the Test, disseminating relevant evidence, learning materials and best practice.

The Department for Education follows that guidance, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-test-assessing-the-impact-of-policies-on-families.