To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 12 November 2007, on Pre-School Education: Teachers, what results emerged from the modelling undertaken by his Department to determine the demand for teachers, including those with experience and knowledge of the early years, in the period 2008 to 2011. (178695)

[holding answer 29 January 2008]: Our Teacher Supply Model takes account of a range of factors that determine how many teacher training places we need to set for future years. One of the most important is the number of pupils needing to be taught and our projections of these use data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This shows an increase in births and a need for more teachers beyond 2009/10, so we have increased the targets given to the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) for teacher training places in the infant/primary phase. We will be revalidating these assumptions in 2009, based on the latest ONS data available, and will make any adjustments necessary. Another modelling exercise to forecast demand from 2011/12 to 2013/14 will begin in 2010.

The TDA has already allocated 1,760 places to training providers offering courses to those wishing to teach foundation stage and key stage 1 in each of the three years; an increase from 1,610 in 2007/08. It will allocate more places later to provide for the growth in 2009/10 and 2010/11 when there is better indication of regional and key stage demand.