Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information she holds on the number and proportion of (a) mainstream and (b) special schools that have reduced teaching hours due to staff shortages in the last 12 months.

Recent data shows there are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest number of FTE teachers on record since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

In November 2022 there were 27,140 FTE teachers and 86,410 FTE total workforce in 1,358 special schools and pupil referral units (PRUs). This is an increase from 20,617 FTE teachers and 64,171 FTE total workforce in 1,336 special schools/PRUs in 2013, the earliest comparable data.

The Department does not hold data on the number and proportion of mainstream or special schools that have reduced teaching hours due to staff shortages in the last 12 months. The Department continues to take action to increase teacher recruitment in all school types and to ensure teachers across England stay and succeed in the profession.

The Department has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and headteachers in full. This means that teachers and headteachers in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%, the highest STRB award in three decades. This award also delivers the 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 school teachers’ pay and conditions document for 2022 sets out that an additional Special Educational Needs (SEN) allowance must be paid to teachers in a SEN post that requires a mandatory SEN qualification and involves teaching pupils with SEN. The document is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1110990/2022_STPCD.pdf. It is for schools to determine the specific amount, but this must be between £2,384 and £4,703 per annum. Following the 2023/24 pay award, this is due to increase by 6.5%, subject to statutory consultation.

The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year.

The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.

The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support and professional development for all new teachers, underpinned by the ITT Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework. Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence based training, across ITT and into their induction.

In May 2023, the Department published guidance for accredited ITT providers and their partners, to support the involvement of special schools and alternative provision in ITT. The guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1157879/ITT_-_special_schools_and_alternative_provision_May_2023.pdf#:~:text=It%20has%20been%20produced%20to%20help%20accredited%20Initial,units%2C%20and%20mainstream%20schools%20with%20SEN%20resource%20units.

Additionally, to support retention in the sector, the Department has worked with the education sector and published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing, and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. This includes the workload reduction toolkit, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit and the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. More than 2,700 schools have signed up to the Charter so far.