Just £17 million of £121 million budgeted for the government’s “world-leading” Institute of Teaching is guaranteed to set up and run the organisation.
The rest is dependent on recruitment and future spending reviews, Schools Week has learned.
It has also emerged that the Department for Education is already considering expanding the institute’s recruitment targets for certain aspects of its work.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new organisation.
What will it do?
Launching next year, the new institute (IoT) will deliver initial teacher training (ITT), the early career framework (ECF) for new teachers and national professional qualifications (NPQs) for more experienced staff, as well as sharing best practice.
The winning bidder or bidders will be expected to register with the Office for Students for degree-awarding powers.
At least four regional campuses will be set up across England to become the country’s “flagship teacher and leader development provider”, led by a “world-leading faculty of expert teacher educators”.
However, no capital funding is guaranteed, so bidders may have to make use of existing buildings.
The institute’s teacher development will also be based on the “best available research evidence about ‘what works’”.
How much cash is on offer?
Earlier this week the DfE launched a tender to find an organisation or consortium to run the Institute over six years.
This is longer than the four-year contract first mooted, and boasts a much larger budget than the £6 million included in the original announcement.
But the DfE confirmed this week that most of the £121 million is for the training, development and support of teachers through the various schemes on offer, which will be funded in the same way as other providers.
In fact, just £5 million is allocated for start-up costs, while about £2 million a year between 2022 and 2028 will pay for research.
How big will it be?
The government said earlier this year the institute would train 500 trainees from September 2023 and 1,000 a year thereafter. From next year it is also expected to cater for an annual 2,000 early career teachers and their mentors, and 1,000 national professional qualification (NPQ) participants.
However, Schools Week understands the DfE could require the Institute to cater annually for a further 1,000 early career teachers and mentors, and another 1,000 NPQ participants, depending on capacity and future budget announcements.
The DfE has also said it will be expected to deliver the national leaders of education development programme for up to 650 NLEs between 2022 and 2025.
Even with these expansions on the cards, the DfE has said it does not expect to spend £121 million and that the Institute’s final funding will depend on take-up and future spending reviews.
Will it always be taxpayer funded?
The Institute is also still expected to be freed from its obligations to government when its initial contract ends, as first revealed by Schools Week in February. The DfE has said it the Institute should become self-sufficient after its six years are up.
Emma Hollis, from the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers, said this sustainability should be possible, providing future governments continued to fund the ECF and NPQs.
She added that the addition of centrally funded research over the first six years could prove “really interesting”, providing it was shared with the wider sector.
However, the announcement of the new IoT has prompted concerns that it will divert resources from other providers.
It could also make the teacher training sector more complicated, providers say, which is something the government has sought to address through its ITT market review.
James Noble-Rogers, the chief executive of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said the DfE must be clearer about how the Institute would interact with the review, and “what net value” it would add to existing structures.
Tender documents state it is “crucial” for the Institute to collaborate with the existing teacher development sector.
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