Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how Technical Excellence colleges will differ from the Institutes of Technologies programme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Technical Excellence Colleges will support a focus on higher technical skills and link to local growth plans. These colleges will work with businesses, trade unions and local government to provide young people and adults with better job opportunities and the highly trained workforce that local economies need.
The department will be setting out further details on Technical Excellence Colleges in due course.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 6019 on Private Education: Teachers, whether any schools have (a) left the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and (b) entered phased withdrawal since 14 October 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Between 14 October 2024 and 15 January 2025, nine schools left the Teachers’ Pension Scheme outright and eighteen have entered a phased withdrawal.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage change in net recruitment from the last Parliament will be needed to meet the target of an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects this Parliament.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High quality teaching is the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s outcomes and is thus essential to delivering the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.
There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, but this has not kept pace with pupil numbers, with teacher vacancies increasing more than five-fold since 2010. This is why the government 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.
Our plans include getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face the greatest recruitment challenges and tackling retention issues. The department will continue to work alongside the sector as we seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession, one that existing teachers wants to remain in, former teachers want to return to, and new graduates wish to join.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. We have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in 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 new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools.
The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve the experience of teaching. This includes introducing a new school report card in place of Ofsted’s single headline grades, to provide a clearer picture of schools’ strengths and weaknesses for parents and more proportionate accountability for staff. It also includes enabling flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home, and 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, to ensure schools are able to capture the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time.
High quality continuous professional development is also key to ensuring we have and retain an effective teaching workforce. The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure the target for an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects this Parliament will be met.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High quality teaching is the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s outcomes and is thus essential to delivering the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.
There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, but this has not kept pace with pupil numbers, with teacher vacancies increasing more than five-fold since 2010. This is why the government 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.
Our plans include getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face the greatest recruitment challenges and tackling retention issues. The department will continue to work alongside the sector as we seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession, one that existing teachers wants to remain in, former teachers want to return to, and new graduates wish to join.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. We have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in 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 new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools.
The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve the experience of teaching. This includes introducing a new school report card in place of Ofsted’s single headline grades, to provide a clearer picture of schools’ strengths and weaknesses for parents and more proportionate accountability for staff. It also includes enabling flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home, and 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, to ensure schools are able to capture the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time.
High quality continuous professional development is also key to ensuring we have and retain an effective teaching workforce. The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new teachers in key subjects she expects to recruit each year.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High quality teaching is the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s outcomes and is thus essential to delivering the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.
There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, but this has not kept pace with pupil numbers, with teacher vacancies increasing more than five-fold since 2010. This is why the government 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.
Our plans include getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face the greatest recruitment challenges and tackling retention issues. The department will continue to work alongside the sector as we seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession, one that existing teachers wants to remain in, former teachers want to return to, and new graduates wish to join.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. We have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in 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 new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools.
The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve the experience of teaching. This includes introducing a new school report card in place of Ofsted’s single headline grades, to provide a clearer picture of schools’ strengths and weaknesses for parents and more proportionate accountability for staff. It also includes enabling flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home, and 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, to ensure schools are able to capture the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time.
High quality continuous professional development is also key to ensuring we have and retain an effective teaching workforce. The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the geographic level at which housing targets are set will change in the event of local government reorganisation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Strategic policy making authorities, which are normally district councils (in two tier areas), metropolitan districts councils and unitary authorities, are responsible for planning for local housing needs.
The government intends to legislate to create a universal system of strategic planning throughout England. Once this system is established, it is anticipated that Spatial Development Strategies (SDS) will distribute housing needs across the strategic planning area in line with existing or planned infrastructure.
In all areas, local plans will need to be in general conformity with the SDS.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the impact of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme on religious minority groups in (a) Hampshire (b) South East England.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Since August 2022, the Listed Places of Grant Scheme has awarded more than £3 million to 416 Non-Christian listed places of worship. This includes Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and other denominations. In the same timeframe the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme has awarded £108,618 to 15 listed places of worship for non-Christian religious minority groups across South East England, and £5,576 to a single listed place of worship for a religious minority group in Hampshire.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the contribution of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme to the heritage crafts sector.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Churches can have an important part to play in heritage skills and crafts. For example, in summer 2024, Historic England's Heritage Building Skills Summer School took place at St John the Evangelist Church, Lancaster, a Churches Conservation Trust site. The Government funds both Historic England and Churches Conservation Trust, and the summer school is part of the Heritage Building Skills Programme, a five-year training and apprenticeships programme running from 2021-2026.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment her Department has made of trends in levels of school absence in (a) schools with 40% or more pupils in bands A-F of the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index and (b) other (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department collects detailed pupil-level data on attendance, which is disaggregated by a number of characteristics, including measures of disadvantage such as the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) and free school meal (FSM) eligibility. This data is regularly analysed.
The overall absence rate for FSM eligible pupils in 2022/23 was 11%, which is higher than the 6% absence rate for non-FSM eligible pupils. Similarly, the persistent absence rate and severe absence rates in 2022/23 were 36.1% and 3.9% respectively for FSM-eligible pupils, compared with 15% and 1% for non-FSM eligible pupils.
When overall absence rates are broken down by decile of the IDACI index, the data shows that the most deprived areas, 0-10% on the IDACI index, have the highest levels of absence at 8.3%, while the least deprived areas, 90-100% on the IDACI index, have the lowest levels of absence at 6.3%. A similar pattern holds true for persistent absence, with 25.9% in the most deprived areas, compared to 16.1% in the least deprived areas.
These patterns differ according to phase of school, with secondary schools in the most disadvantaged areas having significantly higher overall absence (10.2%), than primary schools in the most disadvantaged areas (7.0%).
The underlying drivers of school absence are many and varied. Amongst them are several linked to deprivation, including the increasing cost of living, child poverty, poor access to transport, resources and limited access to wider support services. Research has also shown that parental attitudes, child mental health and school belonging are strongly correlated with attendance.
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence as it is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Central to the department’s approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support-first' approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to identify patterns and target attendance interventions more effectively.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of levels of disadvantaged pupils in schools on rates of absence in schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department collects detailed pupil-level data on attendance, which is disaggregated by a number of characteristics, including measures of disadvantage such as the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) and free school meal (FSM) eligibility. This data is regularly analysed.
The overall absence rate for FSM eligible pupils in 2022/23 was 11%, which is higher than the 6% absence rate for non-FSM eligible pupils. Similarly, the persistent absence rate and severe absence rates in 2022/23 were 36.1% and 3.9% respectively for FSM-eligible pupils, compared with 15% and 1% for non-FSM eligible pupils.
When overall absence rates are broken down by decile of the IDACI index, the data shows that the most deprived areas, 0-10% on the IDACI index, have the highest levels of absence at 8.3%, while the least deprived areas, 90-100% on the IDACI index, have the lowest levels of absence at 6.3%. A similar pattern holds true for persistent absence, with 25.9% in the most deprived areas, compared to 16.1% in the least deprived areas.
These patterns differ according to phase of school, with secondary schools in the most disadvantaged areas having significantly higher overall absence (10.2%), than primary schools in the most disadvantaged areas (7.0%).
The underlying drivers of school absence are many and varied. Amongst them are several linked to deprivation, including the increasing cost of living, child poverty, poor access to transport, resources and limited access to wider support services. Research has also shown that parental attitudes, child mental health and school belonging are strongly correlated with attendance.
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence as it is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Central to the department’s approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support-first' approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to identify patterns and target attendance interventions more effectively.