The organisation representing the majority of teacher training providers in England has said it will support legal action against the government after it revealed that 20 per cent of its members have failed a Department for Education approval process to continue offering courses.
In a statement issued this morning, James Noble-Rogers, executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET), warned that providers who have failed to pass the process may be forced to leave the market entirely or could consider a judicial review of the “unnecessary and flawed” process.
Yesterday, Tes exclusively revealed that around 25 per cent of teacher training providers could be culled from the market following the completion of the second round of the DfE’s reaccreditation of providers process.
This morning UCET revealed that 80 per cent of its members have been successfully accredited after the conclusion of the second round of the initial teacher training (ITT) market review.
A total of 179 providers are now accredited after all providers were reviewed by the DfE as part of its controversial market review of the sector.
Tes understands that 163 of those are existing providers, meaning that around 15 new providers have gained approval to start offering courses.
Mr Noble-Rogers says this means that there will be “untested” courses that have not been “accurately tested” being offered to students.
The overall success rate is 83 per cent for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), according to UCET.
A total of 32 existing providers, which were all school-centred initial teaching training (SCITTs) providers, did not apply in either round, while all HEIs did apply, Tes understands
Mr Noble-Rogers said UCET was “pleased that more than 80 per cent” of its members had been successfully accredited, but warned the council was “extremely concerned that a number of high quality, long-established and tried and tested ITT providers have not been successful”.
He said this will have “a negative impact on teacher supply” as well as a negative impact on “the life chances of children in the areas concerned”.
“We are disappointed that constructive and pragmatic suggestions from UCET, which would have allowed DfE to meet its stated policy objectives while at the same time securing the teacher supply base, have been ignored. The accreditation process was both unnecessary and flawed.”
He added that the “quality of ITT programmes that do not even exist yet” could not be “accurately assessed through a paper-based exercise involving subjective judgements being made”.
Mr Noble-Rogers said: “The DfE is assuming that any gaps in teacher supply resulting from this exercise will be met through the accreditation of new providers and the expansion of existing suppliers, ignoring the fact that new providers are untested and that significant barriers will prevent others from growing their provision to any meaningful extent.
“Neither is there any guarantee that student teachers who would have gone to providers that have lost their accreditation will be willing to train elsewhere, or that the schools that work with those providers will be willing to join new partnerships.”
The DfE market review of the sector initially proposed that all teacher training providers should have been reaccredited by this September, but the timeline was pushed back after the deadline for the first round of reaccreditation applications was extended.
UCET said it would be holding a series of ongoing workshops for providers to discuss: options for unsuccessful providers; scope to contract QTS provision to minimise future risk; options for expansion; and support for stage two of the accreditation process.
Providers will be notified between 9am and 1pm today of their results.
A Department for Education spokesperson said the number of teachers in the system is ”at a record high as there are now more than 465,000 teachers working in state-funded schools across the country, which is 24,000 more than in 2010”.
“Tax-free bursaries and scholarships worth £24,000 and £26,000 respectively are available to encourage talented trainees to key subjects. Teacher’s starting salaries will significantly increase from September, with pay rising 8.9 per cent to £28,000 outside London, alongside other substantial increases for more experienced teachers.
“We are also putting in place world-class training and development for teachers, with 500,000 training opportunities set to be delivered by 2024, giving all teachers and school leaders access to high-quality development opportunities at every stage of their career.”
