§ 13. Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to encourage people who have left the profession to return to teaching. [6701]
§ Mr. TimmsWe have recently introduced a series of incentives to encourage qualified teachers to return to the profession. We have introduced a scheme to pay bonuses of up to £4,000 to those returning to teaching in maintained schools and non-maintained special schools between April and December this year. We have increased funding to provide a total of 1,800 places a year on refresher courses for returners to teaching, including £150 a week grants and help towards child care costs. And we have also made changes to the Teachers' Pension324W Scheme to make it easier and more attractive to retired teachers to return to teaching on either a full-time or part-time basis.