Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 91
Encourage former teachers to return by introducing specific training and bursary routes.
Recommendation
The Department should encourage the return of former teachers into the profession by introducing and promoting specific training and bursary routes for returners. We also recommend that the Department reviews how returning teachers can be used to address current issues in the teacher workforce such as the shortage of secondary school teachers and teachers for specific subjects.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government recognizes the value of returning teachers and will continue to promote routes back into teaching, work with the sector to develop resources and guidance, and explore opportunities to make it easier for teachers to return.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
91
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
The Department recognises the significant contribution former teachers make to the overall supply of teacher in England: returners have represented between 35% and 40% of entrants to the profession in recent years. In 2023 there were approximately 17,500 full-time equivalent (FTE) qualified returners, which is more than a third (38%) of all qualified entrants. The Department provides one-to-one tailored advice to those who wish to return through the Return to Teaching Advisory service as well as additional content for potential returners on our webpage. We are exploring what further resources we could provide to facilitate more prospective returners to secure a job in teaching. Previous initiatives to provide bespoke training for returners have proved poor value for money so we do not plan to introduce new training programmes at this time. Equally, we do not intend to introduce bursaries due to the large volume of returners each year who return without a bursary. However, early career returners can receive our Targeted Retention Incentive for STEM teachers in their first five years of teaching, if they return within five years of having done ITT. The Government is also committed to introducing a new Teacher Training Entitlement for all teachers, including returners, to ensure they are able to access high-quality professional development to stay up to date on best practice. We have also accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from this September. This award is above economy-wide average earnings growth forecasts for 2024/25 (the Office for Budget Responsibility expect average earnings growth to be 4.5% in FY 2024/25), improving the competitiveness of teacher pay. to make teacher pay more competitive. This award will apply to maintained schools across all pay points and allowances. In practice, this award will also be implemented in many academies, at their discretion. Alongside the pay award announcement, we announced that we are providing schools with almost £1.1 billion in 2024-25 through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG), to support them with overall costs. This matches what we have calculated is needed to fully fund, at a national level, the teacher pay award and the support staff pay offer in financial year 2024-25, after accounting for the available headroom in schools’ existing budgets.
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