Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Barran on 5 December (HL Deb cols 6–9), what were the criteria for the selection of those educational institutions that were registered to carry out teacher training; who carried out this process; and what was the rational for those institutions which previously received a good or outstanding Ofsted inspection having their accreditation for teacher training removed.

Teacher training providers who deliver initial teacher training (ITT) leading to qualified teacher status are accredited by the department, and must adhere to the ITT criteria on an ongoing basis as a condition of their accreditation. Following a consultation on the recommendations of the ITT Market Review, the department implemented a rigorous accreditation process in December 2021.

The accreditation process focused on key features of high-quality ITT, as set out in the Review, the trainee curriculum (questions 1a and 1b), mentoring (question 1c) and partnerships (question 2).

Ofsted assessed questions 1a and 1b, and trained officials at the department assessed questions 1c and 2.

The accreditation process tested proposals for delivering ITT against new quality requirements that will come into effect from September 2024, and go beyond the existing ITT criteria used for current Ofsted inspection judgements, such as increased requirements around mentoring. As such, there can be disparities with current Ofsted judgements as they do not necessarily reflect a provider’s ability to deliver against the new requirements. The accreditation process was based solely on the content of the submitted applications.