Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the retention of teachers in further education colleges.

The department is committed to supporting further education (FE) providers to recruit, retain and develop the high-quality teachers they need to deliver the best possible outcomes for their learners, including as a key part of our commitment to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers across colleges and schools.

To improve retention, the department is delivering Targeted Retention Incentive payments to eligible new and early career FE teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and priority technical subjects.

The FE Workforce Data Collection, first published in 2023, will provide valuable year-on-year information on the FE Workforce, including demographic and pay data. In the long term, this valuable insight will allow the department to monitor trends in recruitment and retention and ensure that we are providing the best support to FE teachers and providers.