Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of cuts to teacher training bursaries in 26/27 on teacher recruitment in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government committed, in our Plan for Change, to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and in colleges, over the course of this parliament.
We are making progress. The latest workforce data reported over 2,300 more secondary and special school teachers in 2024/25 than in 2023/24, and this year over 32,000 trainees began training, a rise of 11% on the previous year.
Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are offered to incentivise more applications to ITT courses. In reviewing these annually, we take account of historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. We are continuing to offer bursaries worth up to £29,000 tax-free to encourage more talented people to train to teach key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
In addition, we offer a Targeted Retention Incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools. In Lincolnshire, there are 56 schools where teachers are eligible for these payments.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact on supply teacher recruitment and retention of not requiring agencies operating under the Supply Teachers and Temporary Staffing framework to pay in accordance with the national teacher pay scale.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The new iteration of the Supply Teachers and Temporary Staffing framework will remove excessive agency mark-ups through a cap on agency fees.
It will not affect pay for supply teachers employed through agencies. This will continue to be set by agencies in the first 12 weeks of an assignment, and supply teachers are free to register with multiple agencies to find the best pay and conditions to meet their own circumstances. The Agency Worker Regulations provides that all workers on assignments exceeding 12 weeks are paid on equal terms as permanent staff after the 12th week.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is she taking to help improve pay and conditions in the further education sector.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) colleges, rather than the government, are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges.
In May 2025, the department announced a further £190 million investment for colleges and other 16 to 19 providers in addition to the £400 million of extra funding we already planned to spend on 16 to 19 education in financial year 2025/26.
Across the Spending Review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/2029.
This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent
Targeted recruitment incentives of up to £6,000 (after tax) are available for eligible early career FE teachers working in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, in disadvantaged schools and colleges (including in Sixth Form Colleges). This payment is separate to teachers’ usual pay.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release entitled Schools to save millions as Government launches agency profit cap, published on 4 December 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that policy on the availability of agency staff for schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Supply teachers and supply staff perform a valuable role, and the department is grateful for their important contribution to schools across the country.
Schools, academies and local authorities are responsible for the recruitment of their supply staff, which includes deciding whether to use private supply agencies to fill temporary posts or cover teacher absence.
The measure will cap profits of private agencies and does not affect supply teacher pay. Therefore, we should not see any negative impact on the availability and number of supply teachers as a direct result of this policy.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase early years workforce recruitment and retention in Windsor and Maidenhead; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of her proposed funding rate increases on provider ability to offer competitive wages in that area.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is supporting recruitment through our national ‘Do something Big’ marketing campaign and financial incentives to new and returning educators in areas of most need. Our delivery support contractor, Childcare Works, is supporting local authorities and providers with one-to-one targeted support.
We are committed to strengthening career pathways and championing early years teachers as part of our Best Start in Life strategy. To boost retention and attract new talent, we plan to more than double the number of funded training places on early years initial teacher training by 2028, and roll out a new degree apprenticeship route, with financial support for employers to deliver this.
In 2026/27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years entitlements, more than doubling the government’s commitment to funded childcare since 2023/24. This will fund a full year of the expanded entitlements and an above inflation increase to funding rates. These increases also continue to reflect in full forecast cost pressures on the early years sector, including National Living Wage increases announced at the Autumn Budget 2025. Early education is delivered by a mixed market who set their own rates of pay. It is then up to those providers how they choose to spend this funding.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what oversight exists when academy trusts increase executive pay in years where frontline teaching posts are reduced.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s Academy Trust Handbook is clear that executive pay must be justifiable and should reflect individual responsibility alongside local retention and recruitment needs. The Handbook is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to support the 2026 pay award recognises that the department is aware of trends of increasing executive pay and monitors this through an annual engagement exercise. The evidence was published in October 2025 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69034343fabc9f10a832a838/Government_evidence_to_the_STRB_2026.pdf.
The evidence also recognises that there are opportunities to drive value for money in this area. The department has started to make progress in this area with the recent introduction of executive pay into the Financial Benchmarking and Insight tool for trusts to encourage boards to make evidence-based decisions when setting executive pay.
The department engages annually on executive pay, requiring academy trusts to demonstrate value for money. The engagement considers executive responsibilities, taking into account peer benchmarking data on the level of pay, the size of trust, pupil numbers and grant income. The department will also engage on executive pay when intervening in an academy trust that is in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the relationship between academy trust executive pay levels and reductions in curriculum offer or staffing.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s Academy Trust Handbook is clear that executive pay must be justifiable and should reflect individual responsibility alongside local retention and recruitment needs. The Handbook is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to support the 2026 pay award recognises that the department is aware of trends of increasing executive pay and monitors this through an annual engagement exercise. The evidence was published in October 2025 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69034343fabc9f10a832a838/Government_evidence_to_the_STRB_2026.pdf.
The evidence also recognises that there are opportunities to drive value for money in this area. The department has started to make progress in this area with the recent introduction of executive pay into the Financial Benchmarking and Insight tool for trusts to encourage boards to make evidence-based decisions when setting executive pay.
The department engages annually on executive pay, requiring academy trusts to demonstrate value for money. The engagement considers executive responsibilities, taking into account peer benchmarking data on the level of pay, the size of trust, pupil numbers and grant income. The department will also engage on executive pay when intervening in an academy trust that is in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What benchmarks her Department uses to assess whether academy trust executive pay represents value for money when trusts are making redundancies.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s Academy Trust Handbook is clear that executive pay must be justifiable and should reflect individual responsibility alongside local retention and recruitment needs. The Handbook is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to support the 2026 pay award recognises that the department is aware of trends of increasing executive pay and monitors this through an annual engagement exercise. The evidence was published in October 2025 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69034343fabc9f10a832a838/Government_evidence_to_the_STRB_2026.pdf.
The evidence also recognises that there are opportunities to drive value for money in this area. The department has started to make progress in this area with the recent introduction of executive pay into the Financial Benchmarking and Insight tool for trusts to encourage boards to make evidence-based decisions when setting executive pay.
The department engages annually on executive pay, requiring academy trusts to demonstrate value for money. The engagement considers executive responsibilities, taking into account peer benchmarking data on the level of pay, the size of trust, pupil numbers and grant income. The department will also engage on executive pay when intervening in an academy trust that is in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the current timescales for members of the Teachers Pension Scheme, who have submitted their remedial service statement and are awaiting payment of funds owed, to be paid those funds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme administrator, Capita are processing Remediable Service Statement (RSS) choices and aim to complete payments as quickly as possible. The relevant regulations provide for a member’s RSS choice to be put into payment as soon as is reasonably practicable. As part of the implementation arrangements for payments, it was not possible to start payments until June 2025 as time was needed to allow for recruitment, training, development of instructions, and IT enhancements to be made and implemented.
Members’ original pension benefits will continue to be paid until their choice has been implemented, at which point backdated interest will be applied to their payment.
Payment of members’ RSS choices is a high priority, and the department is continually exploring ways to improve payment and processing times with Capita, which includes providing further funding for additional staff and automating payment and processing functions.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to reduce the use of large commercial agencies in the supply teaching sector.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Schools, academies and local authorities are responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers, which includes deciding whether to use private supply agencies to fill temporary posts or cover teacher absence.
The department recognises the role that agencies play in helping to keep schools running when they face teacher shortages and absences. We are committed to helping schools achieve better value for money when using agencies, which is why we have established the agency supply deal in conjunction with the Crown Commercial Service. The deal has established a list of preferred suppliers that schools can access, all of which will be transparent with schools about the rates they charge. Our most recent announcement on maximising value for pupils is available at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maximising-value-for-pupils/maximising-value-for-pupils.
The department has no plans to take steps to introduce a national supply register for teachers.