Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what strategy they have in place to increase retention of teachers in the profession.

Teacher retention rates have remained stable for over a decade and the turnover rate in teaching is lower than for the economy as a whole. Approximately 90% of all teachers are still in service in the year after they qualify and 72% of those who qualified in 2009 were still in teaching five years later. Over 60 percent of teachers remain in service 10 years after qualifying.

The Government recognises that it is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers. That is why we have made policy interventions in areas such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload.

The Department has appointed behaviour expert Tom Bennett to lead a review to ensure new teachers are fully trained in managing behaviour in 21st century schools.

Three groups have been established to address the biggest concerns that teachers raised in the workload challenge: marking, planning and data management. All three groups are due to report in Spring 2016 and the Department is commissioning a biennial survey to track teacher workload, starting in Spring 2016.