Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many accredited providers for the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) process received (1) requires improvement, or (2) inadequate, Ofsted ratings in the period since January 2022; and what assessment they have made of the credibility of the ITT accreditation process given those figures.

The current cycle of Ofsted inspections tests the effectiveness of existing Initial Teacher Training (ITT) provision in line with the principles set out in its Initial Teacher Education inspection framework. The accreditation process, undertaken jointly with Ofsted, assessed provider potential to deliver high-quality ITT in line with the new Quality Requirements from the 2024/25 academic year as recommended by the ITT market review, particularly the enhanced requirements around mentoring. These two processes are distinct and, therefore, Ofsted’s current inspection judgements and the accreditation against the new requirements from 2024 do not align in all instances.

In respect of the providers accredited to deliver ITT from September 2024, 69 inspections have been carried out since January 2022. Of these, four received a ‘Requires Improvement’ judgement and one received an ‘Inadequate’ judgement in 2022. These five providers have since been reinspected by Ofsted in 2023 and judged as ‘Good’.

Twelve universities were not successful in gaining accreditation to deliver ITT from September 2024, of which six were judged as ‘Good’, one was judged as ‘Requires Improvement’ and since improved to ‘Good’ on reinspection. Additionally, two were judged ‘Inadequate’, of which one has since improved to ‘Good’ with the other yet to be reinspected.