Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools experiencing staffing challenges in implementing SEND provision in Surrey Heath constituency.

Recruiting and retaining expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child. This is why the government’s Plan for Change is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and colleges over the course of this parliament.

In May 2025, the department announced a 4% pay award to school teachers and leaders, which, combined with the previous year’s 5.5% award, will mean school teachers will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.

The department’s interventions are having impact, with 2,346 more teachers across secondary and special schools in 2024/25. The latest census reported one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector, and more teachers are returning to state schools than at any point in the last ten years. The latest data showed 17,274 teachers returned to the classroom.

There is significant work underway to ensure there is an appropriate training offer in place to support teachers and school leaders to create an inclusive school environment.

Our core teacher training offer includes significantly more content on adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and this is supplemented by further SEND-specific training that is easy to access at any point in a teacher’s career through the Universal SEND Services contract. This programme aims to support the school and further education workforce, particularly in mainstream settings, to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND earlier and more effectively.