Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the (a) quality and (b) accessibility of courses requiring specialist instruction at further education colleges in London on (i) economic growth and (ii) public services.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Further education (FE) teachers are pivotal to the delivery of great student outcomes and to training the next generation of skilled workers to help boost productivity and drive national economic growth.
The department works closely with the sector to continually review the evidence around the impact of workforce supply and demand. The department knows the FE sector will need to grow the overall size of its teaching workforce due to the roll-out of T Levels which require more teaching hours, delivery of maths to 18, demographic pressures and the delivery of other important skills reforms.
We are making significant investments to support the recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers, including specialist teachers. The Spending Review 2021 made an extra £1.6 billion available for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year compared with 2021/22. We are investing £125 million of available funds in the2023/24 financial year for 16-19 education to increase the national funding rate by 2.2% from £4,542 to £4,642, and boost specific programme cost weightings by 10%, to support the additional costs of recruiting and retaining specialist teachers in construction, manufacturing, engineering, and digital subject areas.
In addition, Institutions in London and the South East get additional funding through an area cost uplift to address the higher costs of delivering education in this part of England. For example, FE colleges in London attract a 20% uplift (inner London) and a 12% uplift (outer London), to their 16-19 funding allocations.
The adult education budget (AEB) is devolved to the Mayor of London, acting where appropriate through the Greater London Authority. The Mayor is now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for London residents and allocation of the AEB to providers.
The department is supporting teacher recruitment in the sector through a national campaign to encourage industry professionals to become FE teachers.
We have supported the creation of new, high-quality routes into FE teaching, including a revised Level 5 Learning and Skills Teacher apprenticeship for those planning to work in the FE sector. The department is also providing bursaries worth up to £29,000 each tax-free to support FE teacher training in priority subject areas for the academic year 2023/24. The Taking Teaching Further (TTF) programme has supported around 1,000 industry professionals to train as FE teachers since 2018. In addition, the department is piloting a new £6,000 financial incentive for TTF recruits teaching in some of the most hard-to-fill subject areas, such as digital, construction and the built environment, engineering and manufacturing and maths. Finally, early career support is being offered for teachers in the form of access to a trained mentor through the Teacher Mentoring Programme which was announced in March 2023.
The department will continue to work with the sector to consider options for providing further support so that all learners are able to benefit from high-quality teaching.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of resource levels for further education colleges in London on the (i) recruitment and (ii) retention of (A) digital lecturers and (B) other specialist teachers.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Further education (FE) teachers are pivotal to the delivery of great student outcomes and to training the next generation of skilled workers to help boost productivity and drive national economic growth.
The department works closely with the sector to continually review the evidence around the impact of workforce supply and demand. The department knows the FE sector will need to grow the overall size of its teaching workforce due to the roll-out of T Levels which require more teaching hours, delivery of maths to 18, demographic pressures and the delivery of other important skills reforms.
We are making significant investments to support the recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers, including specialist teachers. The Spending Review 2021 made an extra £1.6 billion available for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year compared with 2021/22. We are investing £125 million of available funds in the2023/24 financial year for 16-19 education to increase the national funding rate by 2.2% from £4,542 to £4,642, and boost specific programme cost weightings by 10%, to support the additional costs of recruiting and retaining specialist teachers in construction, manufacturing, engineering, and digital subject areas.
In addition, Institutions in London and the South East get additional funding through an area cost uplift to address the higher costs of delivering education in this part of England. For example, FE colleges in London attract a 20% uplift (inner London) and a 12% uplift (outer London), to their 16-19 funding allocations.
The adult education budget (AEB) is devolved to the Mayor of London, acting where appropriate through the Greater London Authority. The Mayor is now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for London residents and allocation of the AEB to providers.
The department is supporting teacher recruitment in the sector through a national campaign to encourage industry professionals to become FE teachers.
We have supported the creation of new, high-quality routes into FE teaching, including a revised Level 5 Learning and Skills Teacher apprenticeship for those planning to work in the FE sector. The department is also providing bursaries worth up to £29,000 each tax-free to support FE teacher training in priority subject areas for the academic year 2023/24. The Taking Teaching Further (TTF) programme has supported around 1,000 industry professionals to train as FE teachers since 2018. In addition, the department is piloting a new £6,000 financial incentive for TTF recruits teaching in some of the most hard-to-fill subject areas, such as digital, construction and the built environment, engineering and manufacturing and maths. Finally, early career support is being offered for teachers in the form of access to a trained mentor through the Teacher Mentoring Programme which was announced in March 2023.
The department will continue to work with the sector to consider options for providing further support so that all learners are able to benefit from high-quality teaching.
Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact on teacher retention of reducing teacher timetables in schools serving disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
School and trust leaders decide how best to allocate their teacher timetables.
Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply and quality, and the department is taking action to support teachers to stay in the profession. The department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, and support schools to introduce flexible working practices.
The department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. This will support the retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential impact on student enrolment of workforce recruitment and retention levels in the further education sector.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department estimates enrolment of students in 16-19 education for the purpose of forecasting required funding, but this does not reflect an estimate of teacher supply. However, the department works closely with the sector to continually review the evidence around the impact of workforce supply and demand. We know the further education (FE) sector will need to grow the overall size of its teaching workforce due to the roll-out of T Levels, which require more teaching hours, and due to demographic pressures and the delivery of other important skills reforms.
To support providers to recruit and retain teachers, the department is increasing the level of overall investment in the FE sector. The Spending Review 2021 made an extra £1.6 billion available for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year compared with 2021/22. The department has boosted specific programme cost weightings by 10% in the 2023/24 financial year to support the additional costs of recruiting and retaining staff in construction, manufacturing, engineering, and digital subject areas.
The department is also supporting teacher recruitment in the sector through a national campaign to encourage industry professionals to become FE teachers. Our Taking Teaching Further programme has supported around 1,000 industry professionals to train as FE teachers since 2018. The department is providing bursaries worth up to £29,000 each, tax free, to support FE teacher training in priority subject areas for the 2023/24 academic year.
The department is also offering early career support for teachers in the form of access to a trained mentor through our Teacher Mentoring Programme, which was announced in March 2023. We will continue to work with the sector to consider options for providing further support so that all learners are able to benefit from high-quality teaching.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of specialist physics teachers in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Recent data shows record numbers of teachers in England’s state funded schools with over 468,000 full time equivalent now in our schools. This is an increase of 2,800 since last year, and an increase of 27,000 since 2010.
The Department’s recruitment and retention reforms aim to ensure effective teacher supply across all subjects. The Department recognises that recruitment and retention in some subjects, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects, remains more challenging and the Department has put additional targeted initiatives in place.
The Government remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching. In October 2022, the Department announced an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting ITT in 2023/24, which is a £52 million increase on 2022/23. The package includes bursaries worth £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to teach in key subjects, such as physics, chemistry and computing. More information on the financial incentives package can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2023-to-2024.
For the 2023/24 academic year, the Department has also extended bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK national trainees in physics.
The Department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
In spring 2022, the Department launched ‘Engineers teach physics’, an ITT course which was piloted as a step to encourage engineering graduates and career changers with an engineering background to consider a career as a physics teacher. Following the pilot year, the Department has now rolled ‘Engineers teach physics’ out nationally, with 18 providers currently offering this course.
The Department reviews the existing schemes on offer each year and considers the introduction of specific targeted initiatives where there is evidence that they could contribute to the recruitment and retention of excellent teachers.
To support retention across all subjects, the Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. The Department will be reviewing progress made against the Charter later this year.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to ensure that all children with Multi-Sensory Impairment have access to a Multi-Sensory Impairment teacher.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
It is the responsibility of local authorities, schools, and further education settings to commission appropriately qualified staff to support the education of children and young people in their area. The department is exploring further options to maximise take up of the Mandatory Qualification for Sensory Impairment, with a view to improving the supply of teachers for children with sensory impairments.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is also developing an occupational standard for teachers of Sensory Impairment, which the department expect to be delivered from 2025. This will open a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments.
Our reforms, as set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation strategy, detail our commitments for providing stronger support for disabled children, including:
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support children with (a) deafblindness or (b) other complex disabilities.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
It is the responsibility of local authorities, schools, and further education settings to commission appropriately qualified staff to support the education of children and young people in their area. The department is exploring further options to maximise take up of the Mandatory Qualification for Sensory Impairment, with a view to improving the supply of teachers for children with sensory impairments.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is also developing an occupational standard for teachers of Sensory Impairment, which the department expect to be delivered from 2025. This will open a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments.
Our reforms, as set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation strategy, detail our commitments for providing stronger support for disabled children, including:
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps the Government has taken to (a) reduce class sizes in state funded secondary schools (b), ensure that teachers in state funded secondary schools have manageable workloads and (c) increase the level of teacher recruitment.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is up to schools to decide on class sizes that are consistent with raising attainment and helping pupils to achieve their potential. The exception to this is in infant classrooms, where there is a statutory limit of 30 pupils in each class, with some legal exemptions.
The Education Endowment Foundation found that the effect of reducing class sizes on educational attainment is low, compared to the high cost of doing so. Internationally, John Hattie’s work ranks reducing class sizes at 186 out of 250 influences on pupil achievement.
Despite an increase of nearly 850,000 pupils in state funded primary and secondary schools since 2010, average class sizes remain low. In secondary schools, the average is 22.3 pupils. Further information regarding average class sizes is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 (full time equivalent) working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 24,000 more than in 2010. The Department wants to continue to attract, retain and develop highly skilled teachers to inspire the next generation.
The Department has set out a range of measures to make teaching an increasingly attractive profession, including bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing for those starting teacher training in the 2023/24 academic year.
In addition, through the Levelling Up Premium, specialist teachers in the first 5 years of their career will be able to receive up to £3,000 tax free each year from 2022/23 to 2024/25, if they work in a disadvantaged school.
The Department has made good progress towards raising starting salaries to £30,000, with all new teachers to earn at least £28,000 from September 2023, which is an uplift of 8.9%, alongside a 5% pay award for more experienced teachers and leaders.
Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply and quality, and the Department is taking action to support teachers to stay in the profession. The Department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, working with the profession to understand and address longstanding issues around marking, planning and data management.
The Department’s School workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside head teachers, is a helpful resource for schools to review and reduce workload. Working closely with schools and Trusts, the Department has added new resources to the toolkit to ensure it remains relevant. Further details are available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.
The Department encourages schools to sign up to the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter to build a shared commitment to promoting staff wellbeing. The charter sets out commitments from the Government, Ofsted, and schools and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff, including an explicit commitment to continue to support schools to drive down unnecessary workload.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2022 to Question 86460 on Teachers, how many and what proportion of teachers who qualified in each year between 2010 and 2020 were still in service in the state school sector (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five, (f) six, (g) seven, (h) eight, (i) nine, (j) 10 and (k) 11 years after qualifying in each English Parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the number of newly qualified entrants to state funded schools in England and the retention rates of qualified teachers is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistics release. The information can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
In the year to November 2021, the full time equivalent of 43,981 teachers joined the state funded sector in England, including 3,850 deferred newly qualified teachers and 22,059 newly qualified teachers. 87.5% of teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification.
The requested figures by parliamentary constituency are not available.
The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country, over 24,000 more than in 2010. The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession.
The Department announced a financial incentives package of up to £181 million for those starting Initial Teacher Training in the 2023/24 academic year, a £52 million increase on the last cycle. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.
The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
Almost 9 in 10 (87.5%) teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification, and just over two thirds (68.8%) of teachers who started teaching five years ago are still teaching.
Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply, and the Department is taking action to support teachers. The Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The Department has also published the workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside school leadership staff to help reduce workload, and resources to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2022 to Question 86460 on Teachers, how many full time equivalent (a) deferred newly qualified and (b) newly qualified entrants there were in the state school sector by Parliamentary constituency in England in the period between the 2011-12 and 2021-22 academic years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the number of newly qualified entrants to state funded schools in England and the retention rates of qualified teachers is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistics release. The information can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
In the year to November 2021, the full time equivalent of 43,981 teachers joined the state funded sector in England, including 3,850 deferred newly qualified teachers and 22,059 newly qualified teachers. 87.5% of teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification.
The requested figures by parliamentary constituency are not available.
The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country, over 24,000 more than in 2010. The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession.
The Department announced a financial incentives package of up to £181 million for those starting Initial Teacher Training in the 2023/24 academic year, a £52 million increase on the last cycle. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.
The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
Almost 9 in 10 (87.5%) teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification, and just over two thirds (68.8%) of teachers who started teaching five years ago are still teaching.
Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply, and the Department is taking action to support teachers. The Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The Department has also published the workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside school leadership staff to help reduce workload, and resources to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices.