PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Teachers: Training (11 January 2023)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of the Initial Teacher Training provider reaccreditation process on the even distribution of teacher training across the regions in England.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

In the 2019 Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, the Department committed to reviewing the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) market, with the aim to make it work more effectively. Reforms to the ITT market will help all trainees across the country receive quality ITT provision and further support at every stage of their teaching career.

179 providers have been accredited to deliver ITT from September 2024, following an accreditation process designed to drive up the quality and consistency of ITT which leads to Qualified Teacher Status. These providers will cover all regions of the country and include new entrants to the market. As the market develops over the next two years, the Department will continue to monitor the availability of provision across England to ensure the ITT market is ready and able to deliver teacher training programmes in every part of the country from September 2024.

Safeguarding teacher supply is a priority. The Department has funded recruitment and retention to attract applications to ITT and continually monitors provision levels to ensure that there are enough ITT places to meet teacher recruitment targets. This involves working with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure there are sufficient ITT places across the country from the 2024/25 academic year.

In addition, the Department is focusing on utilising local knowledge and relationships as well as prioritising a sector led approach to sufficiency. This includes working with a range of sector stakeholders to ensure a wide range of views are represented, including those of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET), the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) and different Higher Education Institutions (HEI) representative groups.

To support these partnership conversations, the Department published guidance on 12 December 2022 and confirmed that funding will be available to support the costs of developing partnerships in key regions. The guidance can be accessed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1123075/Initial_teacher_training__ITT__-_forming_partnerships.pdf.

Answered by:
Nick Gibb (Conservative)
19 January 2023