A Department for Education pilot aimed at encouraging people to return to the teaching profession achieved only 4 per cent of the number of returners it targeted. 

While the ‘return to teaching’ pilot had targeted putting 650 people into permanent English Baccalaureate posts, in practice, it put only 27 teachers into such positions. 

A DfE evaluation of the programme, published today, says that the pilot’s target was that around 3,000 teachers would register an interest in returning to teaching, “650 of whom would receive support and return to teaching an EBacc subject on a permanent contract in a state-funded secondary school by Autumn 2016”. 

The programme exceeded its target for people registering an interest - 5,729 people registered their interest, almost twice the target for registration.

But while a total of 354 returners received support from the programme between January and September 2016, just 27  were identified as teaching EBacc subjects in permanent teaching posts in state-funded secondary schools in November 2016.

A further 35 returned to teaching in a state-funded school, but either not in a permanent position, or not teaching an EBacc subject in a secondary school.

According to the evaluation, the cost per additional returner teaching an EBacc subject in a permanent teaching post in a state-funded secondary school was estimated to be £37,400.

“This is similar to the cost of training a new teacher, but does not take account of other considerations, including the fact that returners are older and therefore likely to have a shorter career than a newly qualified teacher,” the report states.

Last year DfE figures obtained by Tes revealed that the Department had paid out £584,775 in grant funding for the return to teaching scheme.