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Teachers: Training

Volume 508: debated on Thursday 25 March 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether he plans to allocate funding for the continuous professional development of teachers for the purposes of implementing the proposals in his Department’s White Paper, “Your child, your schools, our future”. (322833)

Schools already receive funding for continuing professional development for the whole school workforce, included within their delegated budgets. However, it is not ring-fenced because we believe school leaders are best placed to determine how funding should be allocated based on the needs of individual teachers, identified and agreed through the performance management process, and in the context of the school’s own development and improvement priorities.

Revenue funding per individual pupil has increased by £2,410 (83 per cent.) in real terms between 1997-98 and 2009-10, and therefore we expect that many schools will have increased their spending on CPD for teachers and other staff to reflect that.

In 2010-11 schools funding will increase by 4.3 per cent. cash per pupil and 2.1 per cent. cash per pupil over 2011-13 at current levels of inflation, after taking account of rising pupil numbers.