Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department plans to award teacher training contracts to universities; and what the selection criteria will be for such contracts.

The Department does not award teacher training contracts. In order to deliver Initial Teacher Training (ITT), providers must be accredited by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). The NCTL considers the accreditation of new ITT providers on a case-by-case basis. Applications from potential new providers (PNPs) must follow a specified format, available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/arrangements-for-itt-accreditation-submissions. To be eligible for accreditation, a PNP must have been rated at least “Good” by Ofsted. Further information on the requirements for ITT providers can be found in the statutory ‘ITT criteria’ document, available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-criteria.

The Teacher Supply Model calculates the estimated number of trainees required across England by subject each year and providers are invited to request training places. The NCTL then allocates teacher training places to accredited providers and School Direct lead schools. This year, the number of places requested again significantly exceeded the number of trainees required.

We review the methodology for allocating teacher training places each year. This year, a combination of requests and historic recruitment performance were used to allocate places. Multi-year allocations have been awarded to the top-performing providers on the basis of assessment against key performance indicators. Full details of the 2017/18 allocations methodology can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/556735/The_allocation_of_initial_teacher_training_places_2017-18.pdf.