Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of teachers employed in state schools in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.

Information on the school workforce, including the number of teachers employed in state-funded schools, is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication. This publication is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

As of November 2023, the latest date for which data are available, there were 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers employed in state-funded schools in England.

Figures for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025 at the link above.

Each year, the department calculates the number of trainees needed via postgraduate initial teacher training to meet future teacher demand. As part of these calculations, the department’s model makes a short-term estimate of future teacher numbers required. The most recently published version, that makes such estimates for 2023/24 and 2024/25 respectively, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets-2024-to-2025.

An updated version, for 2025/26 recruitment targets will be published later this year.