More than 500 Department for Education staff have applied for pay-outs to quit under a “selective voluntary exit scheme” for staff “who don’t have the skills the department needs for the future”.
The aim is to get staffing numbers “closer” to 2020 levels.
According to official figures, the DfE and its agency the Education and Skills Funding Agency employed about 8,200 people when the scheme was launched in the autumn.
In pre-pandemic February 2020, the two organisations had a joint headcount of about 7,400.
If numbers are cut back to this level, this would mean a 10 per cent reduction, although the department insisted it was not a target-driven scheme.
