Official Statistics

Main findings: Initial teacher education inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2023

Published 8 November 2023

Applies to England

This is the main findings report for the initial teacher education inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2023. The following are also available:

• underlying data, tables and charts
• methodology
• pre-release access list

This release contains:

• data for inspections completed between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023
• data for the most recent inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2023

Both datasets include inspection reports published by 30 September 2023.

99 of 108 of age-phase partnerships were judged good or outstanding at their inspection this year.

The inspection framework and how Ofsted inspects initial teacher education

Ofsted’s current framework for initial teacher education (ITE) was introduced in September 2020. However, no inspections were carried out under the framework until May 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The framework puts a much greater emphasis on the quality of the ITE curriculum than its predecessor. It is now aligned with the education inspection framework (EIF), which was launched in 2019 for early years, schools and further education inspections. For this reason, caution should be used when comparing inspection outcomes across different years and frameworks.

Inspections between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023

99 of 108 age-phase partnerships were judged good or outstanding at their inspection this year.

We inspected 77 providers covering 108 age phases in 2022/23. Of these 108 age phases, 33 were judged to be outstanding, 66 good, 4 to require improvement and 5 inadequate.

ITE provision for further education trainees remains the poorest performing age-phase. However, 3 providers that were previously less than good improved to good this year.

This year, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned us to inspect 2 previously uninspected further education ITE providers, with high numbers of trainees studying the Diploma in Education and Training (DET). Both were judged inadequate.

Figure 1: Overall effectiveness of ITE age-phase partnerships inspected in 2022/23 (numbers)

^{View the data for figure 1 in an accessible table format.}

Key judgements in ITE inspections align closely with the overall effectiveness judgement. There are slightly more outstanding outcomes for the leadership and management judgement, with slightly fewer good outcomes.

Figure 2: Overall effectiveness and key judgements of ITE age-phase partnerships in 2022/23 (numbers)

^{View the data for figure 2 in an accessible table format.}

Most recent ITE inspection outcomes over time

The proportion of age-phase partnerships judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection has declined by 4 percentage points since the introduction of the new inspection framework.

On 31 August 2023, 96% of age-phase partnerships were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. This proportion has fallen since the introduction of the new framework, from 100% in August 2020. However, the proportion has increased by 2 percentage points since 31 August 2022.

Just over half of the age-phase partnerships inspected, have been inspected under the current framework. The new framework intentionally raised expectations, so the most recent inspection grade of providers last inspected under the previous framework may not reflect the grades they would get when inspected under the new framework.

The current inspection framework was designed to be more rigorous than its predecessor, and this has resulted in more age-phase partnerships being judged requires improvement or inadequate. Figure 3 shows how the proportion of good and outstanding judgements was higher under the previous framework used from 2014 to 2020.

Figure 3: Overall effectiveness of ITE age-phase partnerships inspected, over time (numbers)

^{View the data for figure 3 in an accessible table format.}

Further information

Initial teacher education

Teaching in England requires specific qualifications, as well as subject knowledge, experience or a previous degree. For example, to teach in a local authority maintained primary or secondary school, you must have achieved qualified teacher status. Early years teacher status (EYTS) is available for those wishing to specialise in working with babies and children from birth to 5 years old. Practitioners working in further education and skills can work towards achieving qualified teacher learning and skills status. ITE is the overall term used for the training provided to enable a prospective teacher to gain the required professional status or qualification.

Types of ITE providers

These are the types of ITE providers:

• Higher education institutions (HEIs) – universities or university colleges that provide undergraduate or postgraduate teacher training. An HEI usually offers an academic qualification that includes qualified teacher status

• School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) – a consortium of schools, usually in a local area or region, that provides graduate training for teachers

• Teach First – a charity that recruits graduates and trains them to teach in deprived areas. Teach First’s regional offices were previously inspected and listed separately in this publication. Ofsted has now inspected Teach First as a single national provider so only one line for each age phase of training offered by Teach First is included

• ITE in further education – training for those entering the further education and skills sector

Each type of ITE provider can offer training for up to 4 different age ranges. These are called age phases. They cover:

• early years
• primary
• secondary
• further education

If an age-phase provider has a small number of both primary and secondary trainees they will be inspected at the same time under a combined primary/secondary age phase.

In 2021/22, we began to carry out monitoring visits of early career framework and national professional qualification providers.

Contacts

If you have any comments or feedback on this publication, please contact Louise Butler on 03000 131 457 or [email protected].

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following for their contribution to this statistical release: Oli Bayntun, Ed Giles and Mundeep Gill.

Annex: Data tables for figures

This section contains the underlying data in an accessible table format for all figures.

Data for figure 1: Overall effectiveness of ITE age-phase partnerships inspected in 2022/23 (numbers)

Age phase	Outstanding	Good	Requires improvement	Inadequate	Total
All age phases	33	66	4	5	108
Primary initial teacher education	13	17	0	1	31
Secondary initial teacher education	7	21	0	1	29
Primary/Secondary initial teacher education	11	19	2	0	32
Further education initial teacher education	0	7	2	3	12
Early years initial teacher education	2	2	0	0	4

See Figure 1.

Data for figure 2: Overall effectiveness and key judgements of ITE age-phase partnerships in 2022/23 (numbers)

	Outstanding	Good	Requires improvement	Inadequate	Total
Overall effectiveness	33	66	4	5	108
The quality of education and training	33	66	6	3	108
Leadership and management	37	62	4	5	108

See Figure 2.

Data for figure 3: Overall effectiveness of ITE age-phase partnerships inspected, over time (numbers)

Academic year	Outstanding	Good	Requires improvement	Inadequate	Total
2022/23	33	66	4	5	108
2021/22	6	48	16	6	76
2020/21	1	16	12	7	36
2019/20	5	2	0	0	7
2018/19	29	32	1	0	62
2017/18	26	39	5	0	70
2016/17	12	34	1	1	48
2015/16	33	47	8	0	88
2014/15	1	13	2	1	17
2013/14	16	42	4	0	62

See Figure 3.