Bath’s Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse has called for the Government to provide greater funding for schools to help with the ongoing staffing problems affecting the sector.
During Business Questions on 9th November, Ms Hobhouse asked the Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt, to commit to providing more funding.
It comes after the MP met with teachers from Twerton Infant School and Nursery, and Oldfield Park Infant School over the summer.
They discussed their continued struggles with staff shortages and widespread recruitment difficulties.
In her question to the Leader of the House, Ms Hobhouse spoke of the considerable underfunding and increasingly unmanageable workloads that teachers across the country face.
The MP said that teacher vacancies in the South West had rocketed in recent years, rising by 175% since 2017.
She then asked Penny Mordaunt for a debate in government time to address the issues of underfunding.
In response, the Leader of the House acknowledged the difficulties of recruitment and retention in certain areas of the country.
She also praised local authority campaigns that are working to attract teachers into areas of the country where there are issues with recruitment.
Wera Hobhouse commented: “The government have failed to heed the recommendations of their former Education Recovery Commissioner, committing only a fraction of the £15 billion needed for catch-up funding for children following the pandemic.
“The challenges with underfunding and staff shortages are only making the education recovery from the pandemic even harder.
“It is imperative that the government stop sitting on their hands and get pupils the high quality education they deserve.”