All appeals against unsuccessful accreditation bids by initial teacher training (ITT) providers have been rejected by the Department for Education, a sector body has said today.
Providers are said to have been informed of the outcomes after submitting their appeals two months ago.
Around a third of current providers that were unsuccessful in gaining accreditation for initial teacher training (ITT) courses during the DfE review were expected to appeal the decision.
An official announcement of the appeal outcomes has yet to be made by the DfE.
However, the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) has said today that all appeals have been rejected.
A UCET spokesperson said: ”We are both surprised and disappointed that none of the appeals were successful and that ITT providers of proven quality, who have been supplying schools with excellent teachers for many years, will be forced out of the market.”
They said the appeals process was “seriously flawed” and the 500-word limit “made no allowances for the number of issues that different providers had to address in their appeals, was unduly restrictive and gave no scope for extenuating circumstances to be explained”.
The spokesperson added: “We will continue to support the UCET members affected by this in any way that we can, whether this is by supporting the formation of new partnerships, the diversification of provision or through further challenges.”
Emma Hollis, executive director of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), said she was “extremely disappointed” by today’s news and the “implication is we are losing a significant number of high-quality providers”.
She added that “questions must be asked about the fairness and transparency of the process”.
“We raised concerns around a lack of information and restrictive guidelines on the content of the appeals.”
Ms Hollis said that “Lessons must be learned here”.
“Whilst we anticipate that individual providers may wish to take further action against their outcome, as a sector we must now turn our attention to supporting those ITT providers which have been accredited in meeting the quality requirements from 2024-25.”
This will mean that about a quarter (70) of the current providers have been unsuccessful in their applications to be reaccredited to offer ITT courses, leaving a total of 179 now approved to continue offering courses to trainees from 2024.
In addition, 21 new organisations that applied for accreditation were unsuccessful.
While providers were expecting to receive the results of their appeals at the end of October, the process has been plagued with numerous delays.
The DfE has been approached for a comment.
