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.
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.
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.
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.
The department has also opened the college capital loans scheme in April to enable capital projects reliant on commercial borrowing to proceed as planned.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a funding mechanism for pay in further education that is separate to per-pupil funding.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Colleges and other Further Education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process. Colleges and other providers can make their own decisions about teacher pay in light of their own recruitment and retention needs and local skills priorities.
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 within the sector. This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, including tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas critical to our economy.
For academic year 2023/24 there is an 8.3% increase in the average 16-19 programme funding per student compared to academic year 2022/23. This funding supports colleges and other providers with staffing and other delivery costs.
The 2021 Spending Review set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.
The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign; strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, including through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each (tax free for 2023/24); and Taking Teaching Further, a programme that supports FE providers to recruit and provide early career support to those with relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers.
To boost the recruitment and retention of teachers, we will also give eligible early career teachers in key science, technology, english and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that increases in Further Education funding are used to (a) address recruitment and retention and (b) support colleges’ abilities to deliver on skills policy.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Colleges and other further education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process.
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/2024 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 critical to the economy.
This investment is being delivered via core 16 to 19 funding, including through boosting programme cost weightings for higher-cost subject areas, as well as increasing the per-student funding rate.
This investment is additional to the £125 million of funding the department has made available in the 2023/24 financial year to boost the national 16 to 19 funding rate and subject-specific funding. This means 16 to 19 providers are seeing a larger than expected increase to funding rates.
For the 2023/24 academic year, there is a 8.3% increase in the average 16 to 19 programme funding per student funding compared to the 2022/23 academic year.
The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign. The department is also strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, for example through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each, tax free for 2023/24.
To boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department will give early career teachers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers, and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
The Spending Review 2021 set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.
Each year, the department holds annual strategic conversations (ASCs) with each college in England where we meet the colleges senior leadership team. ASCs build upon the government’s response to the recommendations made in Dame Mary Ney’s Review of Financial Oversight of FE Colleges and the FE White Paper. Through the regular dialogue of ASCs and termly delivery conversations (TDCs), the department has established effective relationships with each of its statutory FE providers. This has enabled the department to develop a holistic view of each institution. With a clear focus on the priorities for development of skills provision, the ASCs and TDCs are informing both the department’s deployment of advice and practical support to colleges, and its wider policy and decision making.
Investment is also continuing in leadership and management development, which supports retention of staff. The Further Education Commissioner and her team are supporting the sharing of effective practice to enable delivery to be as efficient as possible whilst remaining high quality.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that additional funding for pay rises for support staff in further education colleges will be used for that purpose.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Colleges and other further education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process.
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/2024 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 critical to the economy.
This investment is being delivered via core 16 to 19 funding, including through boosting programme cost weightings for higher-cost subject areas, as well as increasing the per-student funding rate.
This investment is additional to the £125 million of funding the department has made available in the 2023/24 financial year to boost the national 16 to 19 funding rate and subject-specific funding. This means 16 to 19 providers are seeing a larger than expected increase to funding rates.
For the 2023/24 academic year, there is a 8.3% increase in the average 16 to 19 programme funding per student funding compared to the 2022/23 academic year.
The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign. The department is also strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, for example through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each, tax free for 2023/24.
To boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department will give early career teachers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers, and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
The Spending Review 2021 set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.
Each year, the department holds annual strategic conversations (ASCs) with each college in England where we meet the colleges senior leadership team. ASCs build upon the government’s response to the recommendations made in Dame Mary Ney’s Review of Financial Oversight of FE Colleges and the FE White Paper. Through the regular dialogue of ASCs and termly delivery conversations (TDCs), the department has established effective relationships with each of its statutory FE providers. This has enabled the department to develop a holistic view of each institution. With a clear focus on the priorities for development of skills provision, the ASCs and TDCs are informing both the department’s deployment of advice and practical support to colleges, and its wider policy and decision making.
Investment is also continuing in leadership and management development, which supports retention of staff. The Further Education Commissioner and her team are supporting the sharing of effective practice to enable delivery to be as efficient as possible whilst remaining high quality.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of difficulties in the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in Birmingham, Hall Green constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The most recent School workforce census shows that, as at November 2022, there are over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
Teacher numbers at a school level are published in the additional supporting files. This can be found in the School workforce census 2022 publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england#dataBlock-d32da738-358d-4c1f-955b-6c6f83552d65-tables. The department also produces national targets for postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) for each subject based on estimates from the Teacher Workforce Model to ensure focus on the right subjects each year. These are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets.
The department knows that some schools face challenges with recruitment and retention, particularly in some secondary subjects, and action is being taken to increase teacher recruitment and retention.
The department is offering a financial incentives package worth up to £196 million for those starting ITT in the 2024/25 academic year, including bursaries worth up to £28,000 and scholarships worth up to £30,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing. The department is also offering a £25,000 tax-free bursary for biology, design and technology, geography and languages (including ancient languages), and a £10,000 tax-free bursary for English, art and design, music and RE.
The department is providing 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 (EIAs). For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be investing approximately £100 million each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This builds on knowledge gained from similar pilots and will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
There are 97 schools in the Birmingham local authority area eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, including nine schools in the Birmingham, Hall Green constituency. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
Earlier this year the department accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years and delivers the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers across England.
To support teacher retention across all school phases, the department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the workload reduction toolkit and the education staff wellbeing charter. More than 3,000 schools have signed up to the wellbeing charter so far. The wellbeing charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. The workload reduction toolkit is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. As part of the pay announcement for 2023/24, the department also convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how to further support trusts and school leaders to minimise workload.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of regional variations in levels of supply and demand for religious education teachers in secondary schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
One of our top priorities is to ensure that the department continues to attract, retain and develop the highly skilled teachers we need to inspire the next generation. There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The department understands there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place bursaries worth £10,000 tax-free to encourage talented trainee teachers to teach Religious Education (RE).
The 2023/24 pay award means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools received the highest pay award in over thirty years and it delivers our manifesto commitment of at least a £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country in all subjects, including RE.
RE is an essential part of a school’s curriculum and remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools, including academies, to all pupils up to the age of 18.
Whilst no detailed assessment of primary teacher’s confidence in teaching RE has taken place, it is right that teachers feel confident in delivering the content for this subject. To ensure high standards and confidence in RE teaching, RE resources are being procured by Oak National Academy as part of the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils. These resources will begin to be available from Autumn 2024 and be fully available by September 2025
Data on numbers of qualified RE teachers are available on a national scale only. Using the Teacher Workforce Census there were 15,721 RE teachers in state-funded secondary schools nationally in 2022/23, which represents an increase from 15,529 in 2021/22 (up 192 teachers or 1.2%).
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to increase the number and proportion of teachers trained in religious education teaching.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
One of our top priorities is to ensure that the department continues to attract, retain and develop the highly skilled teachers we need to inspire the next generation. There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The department understands there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place bursaries worth £10,000 tax-free to encourage talented trainee teachers to teach Religious Education (RE).
The 2023/24 pay award means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools received the highest pay award in over thirty years and it delivers our manifesto commitment of at least a £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country in all subjects, including RE.
RE is an essential part of a school’s curriculum and remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools, including academies, to all pupils up to the age of 18.
Whilst no detailed assessment of primary teacher’s confidence in teaching RE has taken place, it is right that teachers feel confident in delivering the content for this subject. To ensure high standards and confidence in RE teaching, RE resources are being procured by Oak National Academy as part of the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils. These resources will begin to be available from Autumn 2024 and be fully available by September 2025
Data on numbers of qualified RE teachers are available on a national scale only. Using the Teacher Workforce Census there were 15,721 RE teachers in state-funded secondary schools nationally in 2022/23, which represents an increase from 15,529 in 2021/22 (up 192 teachers or 1.2%).