Member

I will pick up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Addington, about professional development and early career support. Of course, throughout the education sector, one of the most important aspects is leadership, and we have to acknowledge how crucial that is. I reassure the noble Lord that we are committed to creating a coherent evidence-based professional development pathway for FE teachers at all stages of their careers. Effective support is absolutely critical in the early stages, which is why we have placed such an emphasis on recruitment in the first place but also on retention, recognising teacher quality and making sure that all new teachers have access to this. Support for early career teachers is available through the Taking Teaching Further and the teacher mentoring programmes.