Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department’s strategy is on increasing the number of people who seek to become head teachers.

The Department supports a range of programmes designed to bolster the leadership pipeline. Our recently reformed suite of national professional qualifications help better prepare leaders for the range of roles in today’s school system through from middle leadership to headship and beyond.

The Department also funds targeted programmes that aim to boost leadership capacity in challenging schools such as the High Potential Senior Leaders and High Potential Middle Leaders programmes. The second round of the £75 million Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund opened on 31 January 2018 and seeks to build leadership capacity in the schools and areas that need it most.

The Department is also committed to supporting more teachers with protected characteristics into leadership through the Leadership Equality and Diversity Fund and Women Leading in Education networks and coaching pledge.