Written question WQ88309

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in Wales are designed to prepare students to have the skills and knowledge to deliver the Curriculum for Wales. We would encourage anyone who undertakes an ITE programme in Wales to enter the workforce in Wales regardless of their original place of domicile.

We have put in place a range of support to encourage newly qualified teachers to remain in Wales. We have revised our induction arrangements to provide stronger and more consistent support for those who are newly qualified. We have developed an early year support package that is designed to help newly qualified teachers through the challenges of their first few years in the profession.

Professional learning is essential to ensuring our workforce are able to continue to develop regardless of what stage they have reached in their career. We have introduced the National Professional Learning Entitlement to ensure that the workforce have access to quality professional learning at every stage of their careers to enable them to deliver high standards and aspirations for all.

We understand the workload pressures across the education profession in Wales and recognise the inextricable link between workload and wellbeing of the education workforce. We are committed to tackling workload and continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders, including education unions, Estyn, local authorities and education consortia, to find ways to reduce workload and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy. We are also committed to reducing unnecessary bureaucracy for school leaders, recognising the positive impact this will have on wider teaching staff and work is commencing soon to specifically address this.

Workforce wellbeing is a key priority and as part of the Whole School Approach to emotional and mental well-being, specific funding to tackle the mental health and well-being of the education workforce across Wales has been made available since 2020/21. This financial year we have trebled this funding to £1.25million, so significantly increasing the capacity and reach of the well-being support provided by Welsh Government. We are continuing to fund the charity Education Support, with £600k further funding recently announced to support the School Wellbeing Service. Education Support have expertise in specifically supporting teachers and the wider education workforce with their mental health and wellbeing and they have a range of free resources available.