Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their target for the recruitment of trainee secondary school teachers in 2023–24; what assessment they have made of whether there will be a shortfall in the number of those training to become secondary school teachers during that period; and what steps they are taking to ensure that secondary schools in England continue to have enough teachers.

Education is a devolved matter, and this response outlines relevant information for England only.

There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

The Teacher Workforce Model is used by DfE to calculate postgraduate initial teacher training (PGITT) targets for individual subjects. The model considers a broad range of factors including but not limited to projected pupil numbers, all forms of teacher recruitment (not just ITT), and the expected level of teacher retention. The PGITT target for secondary teachers in 2023/24 is 26,360. The targets are published on GOV.UK at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets.

The Department monitors and reviews teacher recruitment through the annual Initial Teacher Training Census (published each December). The latest information on ITT recruitment reported against PGITT targets can be found in the Initial Teacher Training Census statistical publication at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census/2022-23. The performance against targets for the 2023/24 academic year will be published this December.

As expected, the unprecedented increase in new entrants to ITT during 2020/21 because of the COVID-19 pandemic has since declined. The graduate and general labour markets became more competitive and pay has risen in competing sectors.

To boost teacher recruitment and retention, the Department has introduced the biggest teaching reform in a generation, the Early Career Framework (ECF). The ECF provides the solid foundations for a successful career in teaching, backed by over £130 million a year in funding.

The Department has also accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders, resulting in a pay award of 6.5% , the highest for teachers in over thirty years. This comes on top of the record pay rise in 2022/23 of 5.4% on average, meaning that over two years, teacher pay is increasing by more than 12% on average.

There is still further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. To address this a range of measures have been put in place, including bursaries worth up to £27,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up to £29,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

A Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free is also being offered for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first 5 years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.