Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools have sufficient funding to retain experienced teachers alongside recruiting new staff.

This government recognises the importance of retaining experienced teachers. We have demonstrated our commitment to supporting schools by increasing school funding by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.

In the 2025 spending review, the department has announced that funding for schools will further increase by £4.2 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase in the core schools budget.

The increase for 2025/26 includes additional funding to support schools with overall costs, including the costs of the 4% schools teacher pay award and the local government services pay award in respect of support staff in 2025/26.

​This follows government agreeing a 5.5% pay award for academic year 2024/25. Taken together, this means teachers and leaders will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.

For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is also offering retention payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.