Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that specialist Citizenship teachers are recruited and retained; and what steps she is taking to extend bursaries to this subject.

The department is working with the sector to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession across all subjects, including citizenship. As a first step, this government has increased teacher pay by almost 10% over two years.

Our Plan for Change is committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament to ensure sufficient teachers across all subjects. We are making good progress with the workforce has grown by 2,346 on a full-time equivalent basis between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, where it is needed most.

Trainee bursaries are reviewed annually to ensure we are focusing on the subjects most in need. Our commitment of over £200 million for bursaries in 2026/27 follows improved recruitment, with 10% more acceptances to start initial teacher training courses this year compared to last year and the teacher leaver rate falling to 9%, one of the lowest on record. In 2024/25 3,685 teachers taught citizenship.