Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to improve training on LGBT matters for secondary school teachers.

Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rests with schools, headteachers, and teachers. The Department does not decide how much of a school’s budget should be used for teachers’ professional development. They are helped by the Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development, which was developed by an expert group of headteachers, teachers and academics. This supports teachers and headteachers to understand what makes professional development effective and how to make choices to prioritise high quality professional development.

Initial Teacher Training providers should also equip trainee teachers to analyse the strengths and needs of all pupils effectively, ensuring that trainees have an understanding of cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and mental health factors that can inhibit pupils’ education.

The Department has previously announced funding of up to £6 million in this financial year to support schools in delivering high quality teaching of relationships education in all primary schools, relationships and sex education in all secondary schools and health education in all schools. This funding will focus on developing a programme to help all schools improve their teaching practice, such as an implementation guide, easy access to high quality resources, and support for staff training. The Department will ensure that all of the materials supporting implementation of the new subjects are inclusive.