Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in High Peak constituency.

High-quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education. There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, but the department must do more to ensure it has the workforce needed to provide the best possible education for every child. This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers.

The first crucial step towards achieving this is to ensure teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, and teachers receive the pay they deserve. This is why the department has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September.

The department is providing schools with almost £1.1 billion in additional funding in the 2024/25 financial year to support schools with overall costs. This matches what the department has calculated is needed to fully fund, at a national level, the teacher pay award and the support staff pay offer in the 2024/25 financial year, over and above the overall available headroom in schools’ existing budgets.

Alongside teacher pay, financial incentives are one of the most effective ways to increase teacher supply, and the department is continuing to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £28,000 and scholarships of up to £30,000 in shortage subjects. To help with retention, new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing also receive retention payments if working in disadvantaged schools in the first five years of their careers. In the 2023/34 academic year, five schools in the High Peak constituency were eligible for these retention payments.

To further help teachers stay and thrive in the profession, the department is addressing teacher workload and wellbeing, and supporting schools to introduce flexible working practices. The Flexible Working Ambassador Multi-Academy Trusts and Schools Programme offers support to schools across every region in England to help implement flexible working. Schools in High Peak that are interested in receiving tailored peer support can either approach the dedicated Ambassador for the East Midlands region or contact the national delivery provider to be matched with specialist support.

The department has also established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. Potentia Teaching School Hub and Spencer Teaching School Hub are centres of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Amber Valley, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, High Peak, North East Derbyshire, Derby, Erewash and South Derbyshire.