Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that specialist citizenship teachers are recruited and retained, and whether they will extend bursaries to that subject in line with other shortage areas.

Recruiting and retaining expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child and delivery is already under way. The government agreed a 5.5% pay award for 2024/25 and a 4% pay award for 2025/26, meaning teachers and leaders will see an increase of almost 10% over two years.

We are already seeing improvement. The workforce has grown by 2,346 full time equivalent between 2023/24 and 2024/25, and this year has one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010.

Recruitment to citizenship initial teacher training (ITT) courses is unrestricted, allowing ITT providers and schools to recruit the specialist citizenship teachers they need. Citizenship trainee teachers are eligible for a tuition fee loan, maintenance loan and additional funding depending on individual circumstances, such as the Childcare Grant.

The department reviews bursaries annually before announcing the offer for those applying for ITT courses to ensure bursaries are focused on subjects experiencing teacher shortages.