Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to facilitate the entry of new providers into the teacher training market.

The Department is pleased that 179 providers have been successful, following a rigorous accreditation process designed to drive up the quality and consistency of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) leading to Qualified Teacher Status from September 2024. Amongst the successful providers are several new entrants to the market with national reach, including the National Institute of Teaching. The Department is working with them to support and increase overall training capacity.

The Department is actively encouraging all accredited providers to consider partnering with unsuccessful applicants to grow strong partnerships across England. This will strengthen the quality of training and ensure continuity of sufficiency, whilst allowing us to retain the invaluable local connections, experience, and expertise that experienced, but unsuccessful, providers bring to the ITT sector. We will continue to monitor the level of provision in each region and to work with accredited providers to increase capacity where required, by incentivising partnerships and expansions with local providers.

The application process had no direct admin costs. It was designed to be both robust and proportionate, focusing on the vital components of the ITT market review’s Quality Requirements. The Department is clear that now is the right time to implement these changes and give all trainees across the country the highest quality ITT provision. Well-trained teachers will be critical to build on the good progress made with the college collaboration fund, early career framework, and national professional qualifications. To support the costs of making the required changes ahead of 2024/25, providers who have been accredited to deliver ITT provision from September 2024 are eligible for up to £25,000 via the ITT reform set-up grant.

The Department will continue to work with the high-quality providers who have been accredited to increase provision in developing areas of concern. We do not intend to run any further accreditation rounds before first delivery of the reformed ITT in 2024/25. We expect the next round of accreditation to take place during the 2025/26 academic year, after the reforms have embedded into the system.