Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of workload and workplace wellbeing on teacher retention; and if her Department will publish a dedicated teacher retention strategy that prioritises mental health and wellbeing.

In February, the department published our delivery plan, setting out how we will recruit an additional 6,500 secondary, special school and further education teachers over the course of this Parliament, including retaining more teachers to keep the skills and expertise they have developed in classrooms.

We have now achieved over 70% of our target across schools and colleges. The latest school workforce census also reported the lowest leaver rate (8.5%) in any year outside the pandemic and a record number of teachers returning to the classroom (17,740).

We are increasing access to and awareness of flexible working and promoting best practice in workload and wellbeing management.

Additionally, we are investing in a new staff retention programme from autumn 2026 to help schools to learn from one another in managing workloads, expanding flexible working, fostering an inclusive and diverse culture, and supporting teacher wellbeing, while also protecting teachers’ time so that experienced teachers stay and thrive.