PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Teacher Recruitment - 21 July 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

With the summer holidays just around the corner, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone working across education for all their hard work this year. Improving the quality of teaching is the best way to drive up school standards, supporting every child to achieve and thrive. Through our plan for change, we will recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers in our schools and colleges. With an almost 10% pay award, we are making good progress, with over 2,000 more teachers in our secondary and special schools.

I congratulate the Secretary of State on the Department for Education being more than a third of the way through recruiting those 6,500 teachers. A recent Public Accounts Committee report showed that schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils experienced the worst teacher shortages. Will the Secretary of State reassure me that extra effort will be put into recruiting and retaining teachers at all those schools?

I give my hon. Friend that assurance and thank him for all the work he does for schools right across his constituency. Recruiting and retaining more teachers—particularly in the most disadvantaged areas—is critical to our opportunity mission, but I am also delighted that initial teacher training acceptances are up 12% in secondary. That is positive progress being made, with a 16% increase in maths and a 46% increase in physics. That is the change that the Labour Government are delivering.

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for all her work to support neurodiverse students in Broxtowe and beyond. From September, thanks to this Labour Government’s reforms, all new teachers will receive three years of evidence-based training, including significantly enhanced content on supporting children with additional needs. We know there is much more we have to do so that all our students, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, are able to achieve and thrive, and I look forward to discussing that further with her very soon.

As a former teacher, I know that new school buildings not only help student progress, but encourage teacher retention. Can the Minister confirm that new school buildings are indeed part of this Government’s programme for change, and will she commit to visiting Bradfields academy in my constituency, a specialist SEND school that is investing millions as part of the schools rebuilding programme?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend; I know he cares deeply about outcomes for children in Chatham and Aylesford, and that he brings real experience to this House. He is right to demonstrate the important role of the specialist sector. He mentions Bradfields academy, which has already secured a place on the schools rebuilding programme; with the approval of the trust, I would be delighted to arrange for me or one of my colleagues to visit and see the brilliant work they are doing.

This Government are hampering schools’ recruitment of new teachers. First they hiked up the cost through the increase in employer national insurance contributions; then the money promised to state schools from charging VAT on private school fees was spent on housing instead. Can the Secretary of State tell the House how much the increase in employer national insurance contributions will cost schools in total over this Parliament?

We are investing record sums in our state schools. The Conservative party, however, wants to take money out of our state schools to give tax breaks back to private schools. That tells us everything we need to know about their priorities.

The headteacher of the Thomas Hardye school in West Dorset previously worked in a London school. He told me that in London he received nearly £10,000 per pupil, but in West Dorset nearly £5,000—yet the challenges of rural education are no less complex, not least in the recruitment of teachers. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to address the funding inequalities facing rural schools, to ensure that all pupils receive the teaching they deserve?

We continue to keep all these areas under review; if the hon. Gentleman would like to write to me with more information, I would be happy to respond with more detail. However, I am clear that this Government are investing more in education. We are turning around the year-on-year declines in teacher numbers with better pay, more support on workload and more money for our schools, including tackling child poverty. That is the difference that a Labour Government are making for our country.

The Government have tried to have it every which way on these elusive 6,500 extra teachers. If the Labour manifesto had meant that only secondary teachers counted, but they could be in any subject, presumably that is what it would have said. What it actually said was 6,500 new specialist teachers in key subjects, so will the Secretary of State enlighten us: what are those subjects?

I would be very happy to do so. As the right hon. Gentleman just heard, we are seeing big increases in initial teacher training acceptances in many of those key subjects such as maths and science. On the commitment we have made, we had 60,000 fewer children in primary over the course of the last year and, as a former holder of this office, he would rightly expect that we target our efforts in areas of greatest need. Sadly, we are seeing a big decline in the number of children in primary, with the numbers forecast to fall by another 165,000 over the next few years, so we are focusing our efforts where they are needed.

I call the shadow Minister.

The Secretary of State just said that the Government were turning around declines in teacher numbers. Under the last Government the number of teachers went up by 27,000; under this Government it is down by 400. That is the opposite of the truth.

One thing that drives people out of teaching is poor discipline, yet the Government have abolished behaviour hubs, despite the evidence that they were working. The Government said they would put in place new behaviour ambassadors, who were supposed to be in place on 4 July, but the contract has now lapsed and the position is vacant. Why the delay on this vital issue?

That was very shouty from the shadow Minister, and as per usual very negative about what we are seeing across education. We are turning around the problems that the Conservatives left behind on teacher recruitment and retention. We are increasing attendance in our schools and improving behaviour—a challenge that I completely agree schools need support to deal with—putting more money back into parents’ pockets and tackling child poverty. The Conservatives have only one policy, and that is to give a tax break to private schools.