Ofsted inspections of initial teacher training providers are set to be postponed for this academic year, Schools Week understands.
The ITT inspection cycle is due to start in January, but the inspectorate and the Department for Education are poised to announce this will be pushed back until January 2026.
Earlier this month, this paper revealed that Ofsted was in talks with the government over pushing back the start of the ITT inspection cycle.
Now Ofsted has confirmed that education secretary Bridget Phillipson “has requested the postponement ahead of more substantive changes to the ITE inspection framework, including the introduction of report cards, due in September 2025”.
A consultation on report cards is due to start in January. Ofsted said the postponement “will ensure that all ITE providers in the next cycle are inspected under the same Ofsted framework”.
“Since the majority of ITE inspections take place in the spring and summer terms most inspection activity is expected to restart from January 2026.”
‘Welcome development’
NASBTT and the Universities’ Council for the Education Of Teachers (UCET) have been lobbying for ITT inspections to be delayed until the 2025-26 academic year, amid a slew of incoming Ofsted inspection framework changes following reforms introduced in September.
Providers are still waiting for promised guidance on how inspectors would assess these changes.
And one of those reforms, a requirement that mentors of trainee teachers must complete up to 20 hours of initial training, was also scrapped this month.
UCET chief executive James Noble-Rogers said the postponement was a “very welcome development”.
“The pause will allow new ITE programmes to bed in, and will reduce pressures on ITE providers and schools.”
Emma Hollis, the CEO of NASBTT, said they had advocated for a pause to “allow the new framework to be thoroughly tested within the sector as it develops”.
“For most providers this means there will be no ITE inspections until then and so having shared their, and our, concerns with Ofsted we are delighted this feedback has been listened to and responded to accordingly.”
Re-inspections will continue
Ofsted said it would carry out “other quality-assurance activity, such as thematic monitoring visits, across the full ITE remit, alongside enhanced engagement with the sector during the consultation period”.
But re-inspections of providers with ratings of less than ‘good’ will continue, to “conclude any activity from the previous inspection cycle”.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: “I’m very grateful to everyone working in initial teacher education for their response to our ‘Big Listen’.
“Postponing the inspection cycle means ITE providers will have their next inspection under the new framework.”
Market review changes kicked in this academic year
Several big changes kicked in from September, following the government’s 2021 market review when ITT providers went through a bruising reaccreditation process.
These included an intensive training and practice (ITAP) requirement that undergraduate trainees must set aside at least 20 days for and moving from six-year to a three-year inspection cycle, as part of a new approach to “external quality assurance”.
Ofsted has said it will update its ITT inspection framework and handbook to reflect the changes. In July, it told providers these would be published this autumn.
Providers previously told Schools Week they felt left in the dark about what they would be assessed against if ITT inspections restarted in January.
Further changes on the cards after Ofsted’s Big Listen
In its Big Listen consultation response, Ofsted promised to make a number of changes to the way it inspects teacher training.
It has pledged to axe the overall effectiveness grade for its teacher development inspections and to roll out report cards looking at a “broader range” of criteria.
Ofsted has also committed to introducing “rubrics to highlight the areas that make the most difference to the quality of teacher development”, among other slated changes.
It is due to consult on reforms to its education inspection framework in January.
In light of all this, NASBTT has lobbied for inspections of ITT providers to be paused for this academic year to give Ofsted time to test out new approaches to the framework, carry out focused monitoring visits and develop a “robust approach”.
It comes after Claire Plasser, team leader of teacher training and recruitment at the DfE, today told NASBTT’s annual conference that the department has “heard your concerns about the start of the new inspection cycle”.
She added: “I know you’re waiting to hear when inspections will start and that NASBTT has called for inspections to be paused while the reform to the way ITT providers are inspected is worked through…
“My team has been working very closely with Ofsted on the ways we can make these changes, including when the inspections in the next cycle will begin, and Ofsted will inform providers of their plans as soon as they can.”
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