Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the level of teacher vacancies, and what action they are taking
to ensure adequate numbers of teachers in schools in England for
the next academic year.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, there are 468,400 full-time equivalent teachers in
state-funded schools in England, which is an all-time high. The
latest school workforce census showed that in November last year
there were 2,300 teacher vacancies. We have invested £181 million
in recruitment this year, including training bursaries and
scholarships worth up to £29,000 and a premium of up to £3,000
per annum after tax for early-career teachers in levelling-up
areas. We are reforming teacher training and CPD and addressing
workload and well-being.
(Lab)
My Lords, more teachers left our schools last year than started
initial teacher training, and nearly one in five teachers who
qualified in 2020 have since quit. Students in our schools are
simply not getting the quality specialist teaching that they
deserve. Given that one head teacher in Essex has likened
advertising for a maths, science, computer science or DT teacher
to “advertising for a unicorn”, will the Minister adopt Labour’s
policy of giving all teachers in the early stages of their career
an additional payment to help solve this crisis?
(Con)
First, I do not recognise the numbers that the noble Baroness
cites. In 2022-23 there were 47,954 entrants to the profession
and 43,997 left the profession. I am definitely not a maths
teacher, but that does not look to me like more people left than
started. On a payment for every early-career teacher, the
Government believe that it is a much better use of taxpayers’
money to target that funding to teachers in those areas and for
those subjects where it is hardest to recruit. I would be
interested to know how the noble Baroness would feel if she were
a physics teacher being offered up to £3,000 a year for five
years tax-free as opposed to £2,400 for two years, which I think
is the noble Baroness’s commitment.
(LD)
My Lords, 40,000 teachers left the teaching profession last
year—the highest since we started recording the number. There are
2,300 empty posts and 3,300 posts are filled by supply teachers.
We have heard that 23% of specialist maths teachers and 42% of
physics teachers are required. How do parents feel about this
situation when their children are, in some cases, being taught
not by a specialist teacher but by a supply teacher—a person not
qualified in that subject area? Is this not a crisis, and should
we not be doing something about it?
(Con)
I talk to a lot of schools and trusts, and I absolutely accept
that there are particular areas and subjects where recruitment
feels really hard at the moment. But I do not accept that this is
the highest figure of leavers ever—I have the numbers in front of
me. The trend over the past 10 years is pretty stable. It is only
fair to look at the facts and to use the facts. I think that most
parents feel that teachers go above and beyond to give their
children a great education. The work that we have done to improve
the curriculum over the past 10 years is a really important part
of that.
(CB)
My Lords, teacher shortages in specialist subjects and
short-lived responses have been common for decades. Shortages are
also currently chronic in many other countries, notably France,
Switzerland and Australia. Can the Minister inform us whether the
Department for Education is conducting an in-depth review of the
long list of previous short-lived policy responses or examining
how other countries are responding to comparable shortages?
(Con)
I am not aware that we are compiling a list of short-lived
responses. We are committed to introducing improvements to the
system that are based on evidence, such as the payments to
early-career teachers in specialist subjects and the improvements
that we have made to the early-career framework, which we
introduced in 2021, providing mentors for every single
early-career teacher. We are committed to building on those
policies, including in relation to continuing professional
development being a core part of every teacher’s experience in
future.
(Con)
My Lords, given the Government’s ambition that all school pupils
in England study some form of maths until the age of 18, what
plans do they have to recruit more maths teachers to fulfil this
ambitious target?
(Con)
This is an incredibly important target. As the House knows, we
are an outlier in the G7 in not offering maths up to 18 for all
students. In everything we do in this area we work closely with
schools and colleges to make sure that we understand what works
on the ground. The first step will be to launch a new, fully
funded national professional qualification for those leading
maths in primary schools, teaching them how to train teaching
participants and other colleagues how to embed mastery through
their school. We expect that to be available to all primary
schools from February next year and, as I mentioned, we are
offering significant bursaries, scholarships and premiums to
early-career teachers in maths in particular parts of the
country.
The Lord
My Lords, is the Minister willing to undertake to work with
Ofsted to make inspection programmes and grading of schools a
more positive experience for teachers? If teachers themselves are
not flourishing, it is hard to see how they can encourage,
inspire and develop our young people to flourish. The Church of
England has developed its own centre for education development to
help teachers develop their skills and knowledge in a range of
areas—every area in the curriculum—and I commend its work to the
Minister’s department.
(Con)
The department works closely with Ofsted and I think the right
reverend Prelate will be aware of some of the recent changes that
Ofsted made, particularly to the safeguarding grading.
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the measures the Minister has talked about,
but does she agree that one of the issues around teachers’
retention is the stress and pressure they are put under? I refer
her to work for the Times Education Commission on SATs. Is she
prepared to look at the impact of SATs on the well-being of
teachers and students? The evidence from the Times Education
Commission is that most parents wish we did not have SATs and
that they put huge pressure on children, particularly in year 6,
to very little benefit. Is she prepared to at least look at this
again?
(Con)
We work closely with teachers, teaching unions, and schools and
colleges all the time to look at workload pressures and
well-being. There is a lot of work going on in this area,
including looking at more flexible working options and a
well-being charter for schools. On SATs, I do not accept the
noble Lord’s premise. It is essential, now more than ever post
pandemic, that we understand children’s level of attainment as
they leave primary school and go into secondary. I hear too many
stories about children going into secondary without a sufficient
reading age to be able to engage with the curriculum, and
obviously that leads to major attendance problems. I ask the
noble Lord to reflect on the premise of his question.
The (CB)
My Lords, arts subjects are penalised, not just through the
accountability measures, EBacc and Progress 8, but through the
total lack of bursaries for those subjects. Yet art and design,
for example, is predicted to reach less than half the teacher
supply target next year. Will the Government review bursaries for
arts subjects?
(Con)
We keep all these policies under review. The noble Earl will know
that we have changed bursaries in response to changes in the
market in a number of subjects. We will keep that under review,
but we also have to prioritise where we think the gaps are most
severe.
(Lab)
May I make a helpful suggestion to the Minister, who I am sure
would like to see the vacancies in our school system filled? We
could get some extra funding to do that by removing the
charitable status of private schools and spending the money on
teachers in state schools.
(Con)
First, as I hope the noble Lord is aware, next year the level of
per-pupil funding will be the highest in real terms that it has
ever been. Secondly, the Government believe that we should build
on the best that we have in this country in the state sector and
in the private sector. I encourage the noble Lord to look at some
of the partnerships between state and private schools to see that
in action.
