Teachers: Greater London

(asked on 1st March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the housing market on teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention rates in (i) Tottenham constituency, (ii) the Borough of Haringey and (iii) Greater London.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 6th March 2017

The Government does not publish analysis on the effect of the housing market on recruitment and retention in particular professions. However, we recognise that the housing shortage can pose significant challenges for people who want to move closer to their places of work. The Government’s Housing White Paper sets out a comprehensive package of reforms to help build the homes we need as a country.

At a national level we are retaining and recruiting the teachers we need. We recognise however, that the strengthening economy and growth in pupil numbers have made the situation more challenging and that this is more acute in certain subjects and particular schools or areas of the country.

Many schools are now participating in programmes that allow them to train their own teachers, including School Direct programmes, which are training over 10,600 postgraduates this year – including over 1,900 through teacher training providers in London.

In September we published the Schools workforce in England 2010 to 2015: trends and geographical comparisons report which can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/550970/SFR44_2016_text.pdf

This is an analysis of the annual School Workforce Census Statistical First release data at regional level. We are exploring data at a sub-regional level and investigating the factors which influence schools’ recruitment and retention of staff including the effect of the housing market.

The Greater London Authority is undertaking work to understand recruitment and retention issues for teachers in London and we will continue to work with them, sharing our knowledge and findings.

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