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Written Question
Pre-school Education: Finance
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the impact of the new Early Years Funding programme on the viability of providers where the Government’s payments do not match the nurseries current fees.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

There were 15,100 childcare places in 2023 than the previous year, with 12,900 paid staff added to the same period according to 2023’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey.

To support providers to expand their provision further, the department is investing over £400 million of additional funding to uplift the hourly rate for the entitlements next year. This investment consists of £67 million new funding to reflect the latest National Living Wage increase, an additional £57 million to support providers in respect of teachers’ pay and pensions, and the £288 million for the existing entitlements in 2024/25 announced in the Spring Budget in March 2023. It also builds on the £204 million of additional investment to increase funding rates this year.

The department will also be providing over £4.1 billion by the 2027/28 financial year to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks per year) for working parents with children aged 9 months and above in England, from the term after they reach the relevant age (£1.7 billion in 2024/25, £3.3 billion in 2025/26, £4.1 billion in 2026/27, and £4.1 billion in 2027/28). Additionally, hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are registered for a 30-hour place, saving eligible working parents up to £6,900 per child per year, helping even more working parents and making a real difference to the lives of those families.

Providers are expanding placements across the country and the department is supporting providers to deliver each stage of the entitlement expansion rollout through increases to the rate of pay, the department’s national recruitment campaign and establishing more qualification routes into the sector.


Written Question
Pre-school Education: Finance
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the steps they are taking to support the new Early Years Funding programme to ensure nurseries are viable.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

There were 15,100 childcare places in 2023 than the previous year, with 12,900 paid staff added to the same period according to 2023’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey.

To support providers to expand their provision further, the department is investing over £400 million of additional funding to uplift the hourly rate for the entitlements next year. This investment consists of £67 million new funding to reflect the latest National Living Wage increase, an additional £57 million to support providers in respect of teachers’ pay and pensions, and the £288 million for the existing entitlements in 2024/25 announced in the Spring Budget in March 2023. It also builds on the £204 million of additional investment to increase funding rates this year.

The department will also be providing over £4.1 billion by the 2027/28 financial year to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks per year) for working parents with children aged 9 months and above in England, from the term after they reach the relevant age (£1.7 billion in 2024/25, £3.3 billion in 2025/26, £4.1 billion in 2026/27, and £4.1 billion in 2027/28). Additionally, hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are registered for a 30-hour place, saving eligible working parents up to £6,900 per child per year, helping even more working parents and making a real difference to the lives of those families.

Providers are expanding placements across the country and the department is supporting providers to deliver each stage of the entitlement expansion rollout through increases to the rate of pay, the department’s national recruitment campaign and establishing more qualification routes into the sector.


Written Question
Teachers: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Wednesday 20th March 2024

Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of school building conditions on trends in the level of teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

There are now record numbers of full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, totalling over 468,000, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010.

The department appreciates that there is more to do, particularly in disadvantaged areas. The department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department will be doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax.

This is on top of the 6.5% pay award that teachers and leaders in maintained schools received for 2023/24, which was the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years, delivered on our manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country. This, combined with the increase in the LUP, means a new maths teacher in Blackpool could be receiving the equivalent of £38,570 starting salary next year, before accounting for the 2024/25 pay award.

To further support recruitment to high-priority subjects, the department also provides financial incentives worth up to £196 million, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

To help retention, 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 has convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how it can further support trust and school leaders to minimise workload for teachers.

Well-maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the department. Responsibility for keeping buildings safe and well-maintained lies with schools and their responsible bodies, such as local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided bodies. The department supports them by providing capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes and offering guidance and support.

The department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 to keep schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion in 2023/24. This is informed by consistent data on the condition of the school estate. The department’s School Rebuilding Programme will transform buildings in poor condition at over 500 schools. New buildings are already being delivered across the country with modern designs that are designed to be net zero carbon in operation.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Friday 15th March 2024

Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2024 to Question 9921 on Teachers: Training, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the cost of living on teachers in training.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises that cost of living pressures impact trainee teachers but has taken steps to increase the financial support available. All trainee teachers on tuition fee-funded initial teacher training (ITT) routes can apply for a tuition fee loan and a partially means-tested loan for living costs. Additional means-tested student finance is also available depending on individual circumstances, such as the Childcare Grant for students with child dependants.

The government has continued to increase maximum loans, grants for living and other costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the current 2023/24 academic year, with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25. The highest levels of support are targeted at students from the lowest-income families.

The department has also frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for 7 years.

The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students.

The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.

The department announced an ITT financial incentives package worth up to £196 million for the 2024/25 ITT recruitment cycle, a £15 million increase on the last cycle. This includes bursaries worth up to £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

Last year, the department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This included an increase to the unqualified teacher pay range for salaried trainee teachers and a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London.


Written Question
Health Professions and Teachers: Training
Wednesday 6th March 2024

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 work with universities to help train (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) teachers.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department is working closely with Higher Education Providers (HEP’s) to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to access a world class education. This remains a top priority and is fundamental to the government’s ambition to level-up skills, growth, and economic opportunity across the country.

Record numbers of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff will be trained in England as part of the first ever NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), which was published in June 2023. By significantly expanding domestic education, training and recruitment, we will have more healthcare professionals working in the NHS. The LTWP will:

  • Double the number of medical school places to 15,000 a year by 2031/32. To support this ambition, the government will increase the number of medical school places by a third, to 10,000 by 2028/29. This will build on the expansion of medical school places in England to 7,500 per year, a 25% increase, which the government completed in 2020 and that delivered five new medical schools. The government has accelerated the LTWP expansion by allocating 205 additional medical school places for 2024/25, a year ahead of target. The process for allocating 350 additional places for the 2025/26 academic year is underway and further details will be confirmed in due course.
  • Record numbers of nurses are now working in the NHS, and the Plan will increase adult nursing training places by 92%, taking the number of total places up to nearly 38,000 by 2031/32. To support this ambition, the government will increase training places to nearly 28,000 in 2028/29. This forms part of the ambition to increase the number of nursing and midwifery training places to around 58,000 by 2031/32. The government will work towards achieving this by increasing places to over 44,000 by 2028/29, with 20% of registered nurses qualifying through apprenticeship routes compared to just 9% now. The number of nursing applicants still continues to outstrip the places on offer. Nursing and midwifery training places are competitive, and lead to an attractive and important career in the NHS.
  • Introduce medical degree apprenticeships, with pilots running from 2024/25 so that by 2031/32, 2,000 medical students will train via this route. The department will work towards this ambition by growing medical degree apprenticeships to more than 850 by 2028/29

The government is backing the LTWP with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years. The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, the Office for Students, as well as the General Medical Council to actualise the delivery of the plan.

The department will continue to work with the sector so everyone who wants to pursue a rewarding healthcare career has the support and opportunities to do so.

There are record numbers of teachers in England’s schools, with more than 468,000 working in state-funded schools across the country, which is 27,000 (6%) more than in 2010. The department works closely with schools and universities to recruit the best teachers, in the subjects and areas they are needed most. The department has already put in place a range of measures for trainees in the 2023/24 academic, including bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000, to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key subjects such as chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics.

The department is also offering a levelling up premium worth up to £3,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is doubling the rates of the levelling up premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

The department is also working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) and an employer-led trailblazer group to develop the Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA). The TDA will be a new route into the teaching profession, for both primary and secondary teachers, through which successful candidates will ‘earn while they learn’ and attain an undergraduate degree and qualified teacher status while working in a school.  Subject to IfATE approvals, the TDA standard will be published in spring 2024, with the candidate recruitment commencing from autumn 2024 and training commencing in autumn 2025.


Written Question
Mathematics and Science: Teachers
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the gender divide amongst science and maths teachers in order to provide more positive role models for girls in the classroom.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 after tax annually 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. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. These payments will incentivise the recruitment and retention of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers within the schools where they are needed most.

The department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainee teachers to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. This is alongside delivering a £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London.

This academic year, physics trainees from overseas are also eligible for bursaries and scholarships, and for a one-off payment of £10,000 as part of the international relocation payment pilot.

To encourage engineering graduates and career changers with an engineering background to consider a career as a physics teacher, the department has also launched the ‘Engineers teach physics’ Initial Teacher Training course. Following a pilot in 2022, the department has now rolled this out nationally.

The department is also taking action to support all teachers to stay in the profession and thrive and has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and to support schools to introduce flexible working practices.

On the subject of diverse teacher role models in science and mathematics, there remains a larger proportion of female teachers than male teachers in state-funded schools overall (76%).

The department aims to support the diversity of the workforce through our communications campaigns, workforce programmes that support all teachers to develop across their careers, and policies to support the workforce, such as flexible working. For example, the Get Into Teaching marketing campaign supports diverse recruitment into the profession through inclusive recruitment campaigns and marketing materials, which strive to reflect the diversity of our target audiences who want reassurance that teaching is for people like them. The campaign regularly showcases STEM teachers from diverse backgrounds.

The department supports a range of work to improve diversity and inclusion in STEM education in schools, including funding a Stimulating Physics Network to improve the quality of physics teaching and improve progression to A level physics, particularly for girls.

More widely, the government supports girls and pupils from other underrepresented groups into STEM education through programmes such as the CyberFirst Girls competition which aims to promote cybersecurity careers to girls aged between 12 and 14.

The government also funds the STEM Ambassadors programme, a nationwide network of over 30,000 registered volunteers representing thousands of employers, who engage with young people to increase their interest in STEM subjects and to raise awareness of the range of careers that STEM qualifications offer. Approximately 48% of Ambassadors are women and 17% are from minority ethnic backgrounds, providing young people with a variety of role models.


Written Question
Mathematics and Science: Teachers
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) recruit, and (2) retain, more science and maths teachers in schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 after tax annually 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. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. These payments will incentivise the recruitment and retention of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers within the schools where they are needed most.

The department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainee teachers to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. This is alongside delivering a £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London.

This academic year, physics trainees from overseas are also eligible for bursaries and scholarships, and for a one-off payment of £10,000 as part of the international relocation payment pilot.

To encourage engineering graduates and career changers with an engineering background to consider a career as a physics teacher, the department has also launched the ‘Engineers teach physics’ Initial Teacher Training course. Following a pilot in 2022, the department has now rolled this out nationally.

The department is also taking action to support all teachers to stay in the profession and thrive and has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and to support schools to introduce flexible working practices.

On the subject of diverse teacher role models in science and mathematics, there remains a larger proportion of female teachers than male teachers in state-funded schools overall (76%).

The department aims to support the diversity of the workforce through our communications campaigns, workforce programmes that support all teachers to develop across their careers, and policies to support the workforce, such as flexible working. For example, the Get Into Teaching marketing campaign supports diverse recruitment into the profession through inclusive recruitment campaigns and marketing materials, which strive to reflect the diversity of our target audiences who want reassurance that teaching is for people like them. The campaign regularly showcases STEM teachers from diverse backgrounds.

The department supports a range of work to improve diversity and inclusion in STEM education in schools, including funding a Stimulating Physics Network to improve the quality of physics teaching and improve progression to A level physics, particularly for girls.

More widely, the government supports girls and pupils from other underrepresented groups into STEM education through programmes such as the CyberFirst Girls competition which aims to promote cybersecurity careers to girls aged between 12 and 14.

The government also funds the STEM Ambassadors programme, a nationwide network of over 30,000 registered volunteers representing thousands of employers, who engage with young people to increase their interest in STEM subjects and to raise awareness of the range of careers that STEM qualifications offer. Approximately 48% of Ambassadors are women and 17% are from minority ethnic backgrounds, providing young people with a variety of role models.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the teacher Supply Model target for the 2024 entry into initial teacher training is, by subject; and whether that number has been recruited in a previous year.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

There are multiple routes into teaching, including those returning to the profession, those that are new to the English state-funded schools sector, assessment only, and initial teacher training. Approximately 50% of teachers entering into the school workforce each year are newly qualified, with the vast majority of them having been trained via postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) in the previous academic year.

Each year the department sets a target for enrolment on postgraduate certificates in education (PGCE) courses, with the majority of those students entering the teaching workforce in the following year. This is the only route for which the department sets a recruitment target, and this is calculated within the Teacher Workforce Model (TWM).

The postgraduate ITT recruitment targets for those trainees starting in September of the 2024/25 academic year will be published as official statistics in the coming months. However, it will be 2025/26 before those trainees enter into the workforce as newly qualified entrants. The specific publication date will be announced in due course, with all upcoming official statistics publications being announced via the department’s statistics release calendar, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=department-for-education&order=updated-newest.

Statistics on recruitment against the 2024/25 targets will be published in late 2024 as part of the ITT census official statistics publication. Data on previous recruitment against historical targets may be found within previously published versions of the ITT census. The 2023/24 version of the census is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census/2023-24.

The 2023/24 version of the postgraduate ITT recruitment targets publication, calculated by the department’s TWM, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets-2023-to-2024.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to table 9.1 of her Department's publication entitled Initial teacher training applications for courses starting in the 2024 to 2025 academic year, published on 22 January 2024, how many candidates there were for each secondary subject by (a) region, (b) nation and (c) each other geographical breakdown available.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department is working to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high-status profession, and will recruit and retain the best teachers in the subjects and areas they are needed most.

The department publishes Initial Teacher Training (ITT) recruitment statistics each month, providing insight into ITT candidates applying for courses that start in the 2024/25 academic year. The most recent monthly publication was released on the 22 January 2024 and covers candidates that have applied to ITT courses up to this date. This is available at: https://www.apply-for-teacher-training.service.gov.uk/publications/monthly-statistics.

Table 9.1 of the publication focusses on the number of candidates who have applied to secondary courses by subject. Table 10 of the publication provides further information about candidate applications to training providers, split by region. Additional breakdowns of ITT subject-level data, which splits candidates by the area they have applied from, is available to download in section 11, accessible at: https://www.apply-for-teacher-training.service.gov.uk/publications/monthly-statistics#downloads.


Written Question
Further Education: Finance
Monday 8th January 2024

Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding has been made available to further education colleges since their reclassification as public sector organisations in November 2022.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, particularly tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas that are critical to the economy.

The above investment is in addition to the £125 million of funding made available in the 2023/24 financial year to boost the national 16 to 19 funding rate and subject-specific funding.

In the 2023/24 academic year, the department is applying a 2.2% increase to the final earnings for all adult education budget (AEB) formula-funded provision, excluding associated learner and learning support. In addition, the department is applying a 20% boost on top of earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision in six sector subject areas, including: Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Transport Operations and Maintenance, Building and Construction, ICT for Practitioners, and Mathematics and Statistics.

The department will make an initial downpayment over the next two years ahead of introducing the Advanced British Standard, with funding benefiting further education as follows:

- An additional investment of around £150 million each year to support those who do not pass mathematics and English GCSE at 16 to gain these qualifications. This will particularly benefit further education colleges, who play a vital role in helping close the attainment gap by 19.

- An increase in funding to colleges and schools so they can deliver maths to more students aged over 16, increasing the Core Maths and Advanced Maths Premium and investing in a digital platform for tutoring in Core Maths. In total this is £60 million of additional funding for maths education over the next two years of which further education institutions will potentially be able to benefit from the Core Maths Premium and Advanced Maths Premium.

- To improve the recruitment and retention of teachers of key shortage subjects around £100 million will be invested each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium and expand it to cover all further education colleges. All teachers who are in the first five years of their career, teaching shortage subjects and working in disadvantaged schools and all further education colleges, will be paid up to £6,000 per year tax-free.

Since reclassification, £884 million of capital funding has been confirmed for further education colleges and designated institutions to fund condition improvement, expansion and the provision of specialist equipment and facilities. Some capital programmes have wider eligibility to also include sixth form colleges and other statutory sixth form providers.

  • £286 million further education capital transformation funding (final stage of £1.5 billion programme)
  • £150 million prioritising condition improvement of the college’s estate
  • £140 million Post 16 Capacity Funding (second round)
  • £125 million Local Skills Improvement Fund capital funding
  • £100 million T Level capacity funding (wave 5)
  • £53 million to improve energy efficiency
  • £30 million Higher Technical Education skills injection fund (round 2)

The department has also opened the college capital loans scheme in April to enable capital projects reliant on commercial borrowing to proceed as planned.