Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of full-time equivalent teachers were without qualified teacher status in state funded (a) mainstream primary, (b) mainstream secondary, (c) special schools and (d) alternative provision in the (i) earliest and (ii) latest year for which data are available.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. The next publication in this series, regarding the 2024/25 academic year, will be released in June 2025.

Schools where qualified teacher status (QTS) is a legal requirement are referred to as maintained schools. In some schools in England, QTS is not a legal requirement. Within the English state school sector, academy schools and free schools can employ teachers without QTS.

Data showing the full time equivalent (FTE) of teachers with and without QTS, from 2010/11 to 2023/24, which is the earliest and latest year for which data is available, can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b524fbd3-401e-45e4-18af-08dd3ba4043a. Both the FTE of teachers and the proportion of FTE teachers, with and without QTS, is available in the attached table, which shows data from 2010/11 to 2023/24, the earliest and latest year for which data is available.

Data showing the FTE of teachers on a QTS route, and not on a QTS route, from 2010/11 to 2022/23, the earliest and latest year for which data is available, can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9405c2fd-8b88-4150-18c1-08dd3ba4043a. Both the FTE of teachers and the proportion of FTE teachers, on and off a QTS route, is available in the attached table, showing data from 2010/11 to 2022/23, the earliest and latest year for which data is available.

The requested information on how many and what proportion of teachers without QTS were on recruitment programmes supported and procured by the department is not available.

The requested information on which subjects are most taught by teachers without QTS is not available.

In the top 3% of schools employing teachers without QTS, the average proportion of teachers without QTS within their school is 12.5%. The average proportion in the top 10% of schools is 8.5%.

The age group distribution of teachers without QTS can be seen in the attached table. The requested information on distribution by the length of service for teachers without QTS is not available.