HC Deb 13 June 2003 vol 406 cc231-4W
Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant teacher posts there were in(a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) all schools, as a percentage of the total number of teachers, in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [110132]

Mr. Miliband

The information requested has been placed in the Library.

The table shows the number of teacher vacancies as a percentage of teachers in service in maintained nursery/ primary, secondary, special schools and all maintained schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997.

The most recent data available at local authority level is for January 2002. Recently published provisional vacancy information at national level shows that vacancies in maintained schools decreased from 4,540 in 2002 to 3,400 in 2003. The vacancy rate reduced from 1.2 per cent. in 2002 to 0.9 per cent. in 2003.

Vacancies are recorded for posts which have been advertised for full-time appointments of at least one terms duration, that exist on the 618G survey date of the third Thursday in January. These are posts, which the local education authority/school intends to fill, including those for which they have unsuccessfully attempted to make an appointment, or for which an appointment has been made, but the appointee has not taken up the post. A post which has been filled by a temporary appointment of less than one term, pending the finding of a more permanent appointee, is regarded as a vacancy. A post would not be recorded as a vacancy if someone appointed to that post on a full-time contract of one term or more has filled the post.

Vacancy rates are the number of vacancies as a percentage of full-time regular teachers (or those on secondment) in service.

Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant(a) head teacher posts, (b) deputy head teacher and (c) teacher posts there were in (i) primary schools, (ii) secondary schools and (iii) special schools in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [110133]

Mr. Miliband

The information requested has been placed in the Library.

The table shows deputy head teacher, head teacher and classroom teacher vacancies in maintained nursery/ primary, secondary and special schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997.

The most recent data available at local authority level are for January 2002. Recently published provisional vacancy information at national level shows that vacancies in maintained schools decreased from 4,540 in 2002 to 3,400 in 2003. The vacancy rate reduced from 1.2 per cent. in 2002 to 0.9 per cent. in 2003.

Vacancies are recorded for posts which have been advertised for full-time appointments of at least one terms duration, that exist on the 618G survey date of the third Thursday in January. These are posts, which the local education authority/school intends to fill, including those for which they have unsuccessfully attempted to make an appointment, or for which an appointment has been made but the appointee has not taken up the post. A post which has been filled by a temporary appointment of less that one term, pending the finding of a more permanent appointee, is regarded as a vacancy. A post would not be recorded as a vacancy if someone appointed to that post on a full-time contract of one term or more has filled the post.

Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant deputy head teacher posts there were in(a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) all schools as a percentage of the total number of deputy head teachers, in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [110147]

Mr. Miliband

The information requested has been placed in the Library.

The table shows the number of deputy head teacher vacancies as a percentage of teachers in service in maintained nursery/primary, secondary and all maintained schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997. Rates have not been provided for special schools because of the very small numbers involved (there were 30 deputy head vacancies in England in 2002).

The most recent data available at local authority level is for January 2002. Recently published provisional vacancy information at national level shows that vacancies in maintained schools decreased from 4,540 in 2002 to 3,400 in 2003. The vacancy rate reduced from 1.2 per cent. in 2002 to 0.9 per cent. in 2003.

Vacancies are recorded for posts which have been advertised for full-time appointments of at least one terms duration, that exist on the 618G survey date of the third Thursday in January. These are posts which the local education authority/school intends to fill, including those for which they have unsuccessfully attempted to make an appointment, or for which an appointment has been made but the appointee has not taken up the post. A post which has been filled by a temporary appointment of less than one term, pending the finding of a more permanent appointee, is regarded as a vacancy. A post would not be recorded as a vacancy if someone appointed to that post on a full-time contract of one term or more has filled the post.

Vacancy rates are the number of vacancies as a percentage of full-time regular teachers (or those on secondment) in service.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacancies there are in secondary schools for(a) physics, (b) chemistry, (c) mathematics and (d) IT teachers at (i) GCSE and (ii) A Level; and what recent steps he has taken to attract people into teaching science and technology-related subjects. [116617]

Mr. Miliband

The information is not available in the form requested.

National statistics published by my Department on 29 April 2003 included provisional numbers of full-time teacher vacancies by secondary subject at January 2003. These showed that there were 40 vacancies for teachers of physics; 40 for teachers of chemistry; 320 for teachers of mathematics; and 110 for teachers of information technology. The total number of vacancies for classroom teachers in maintained secondary schools in England fell by 410 between January 2002 and January 2003.

In September 2000, the Government introduced £6,000 bursaries for postgraduate trainee teachers and £4,000 Golden Hellos for those going on to teach the priority subjects of mathematics, science, modern languages, technology and English. From September 2002, these incentives are being reinforced by a scheme to repay. over time, the student loans of new teachers of the priority subjects. These incentives have helped to ensure that recruitment to initial teacher training is higher than its 1999/2000 level by 29 per cent. in mathematics; 14 per cent. in science; and 41 per cent. in technology. Figures published by the Graduate Teacher Training Registry on 7 May 2003 show that applications for postgraduate teacher training courses for 2003/04 are currently running above last years level by 36 per cent. in mathematics; by 14 per cent. in science; and by 44 per cent. in technology.

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