Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of asking teachers to come out of retirement and assist in the recovery phase of the covid-19 outbreak to educate and support children and young people with their learning.

The return of former teachers to the classroom is an important component of the Department’s recruitment strategy, and we continue to prioritise initiatives that capitalise on any potential increased interest in the profession from former teachers. This includes former teachers who wish to support with the recovery phase of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Department is using our Return to Teaching Adviser Service to support these efforts. The service provides one-to-one support to former teachers interested in returning to teach maths, physics and modern foreign languages. The Return to Teaching Adviser Service assists these former teachers with their applications, helps them prepare for interviews, and signposts them to the further support. Through the Return to Teaching Adviser Service, we have also encouraged former teachers to support the Department’s wider pupil catch-up efforts, such as the National Tutoring Programme.