Official Statistics

Main findings: Teacher development inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2024

Published 14 November 2024

Applies to England

Ofsted Big Listen consultation

In September 2024, we published our response to the Big Listen, the largest consultation in Ofsted’s history. We sought views right across our work, from schools and children’s social care to teacher training and early years. We made a commitment in our response to reform our inspection frameworks and introduce report cards. These reforms will require changes to our current suite of management information and official statistics publications. 

Once the new frameworks and report cards have been developed, we will consult on changes to our statistical publications, ensuring they continue to present information in the right way to best support our users.

This official statistics release includes inspections that were carried out under the education inspection framework up until 31 August 2024, when the overall effectiveness judgement was still made.

This is the main findings report for the teacher development inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2024 release. The following are also available:

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

Summary

This release contains:

• data for inspections completed between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024
• data for the most recent inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2024

Both datasets include inspection reports published by 30 September 2024.

We inspected 125 initial teacher education (ITE) phases between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024.

We carried out 9 national professional qualification (NPQ) inspections between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024.

On 31 August 2024, 97% of all ITE phases were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection.

ITE providers and inspections

The inspection framework and how Ofsted inspects ITE

Ofsted’s current framework for ITE was introduced in September 2020. The framework has a greater emphasis on the quality of the ITE curriculum than its predecessor and aligns with the education inspection framework, for early years, schools and further education inspections. Due to these framework changes, comparisons over time and across different frameworks should be made with caution.

Provider numbers

On 31 August 2024, there were 220 ITE providers delivering across early years, primary, secondary and further education phases. Table 1 shows the breakdown by year.

Table 1: ITE phases delivered, by year

Phase	31 August 2023	31 August 2024
All phases	353	340
Early years	21	24
Primary	110	101
Secondary	106	102
Primary and secondary	84	82
Further education	32	31

In-year ITE inspection volumes and outcomes

Between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024, 117 of the 125 ITE phases inspected were judged good or outstanding.

We inspected 125 ITE phases in 2023/24. These were made up of 7 early years, 37 primary, 38 secondary, 22 primary/secondary combined and 21 further education inspections. Four of the 21 further education ITE inspections were commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE).

Of the 125 ITE phases inspected, 47% were judged outstanding for overall effectiveness, 46% good, 2% requires improvement and 4% inadequate.

Key judgements aligned very closely with the overall effectiveness judgement. There were only 2 inspections where a key judgement was a different grade to the overall effectiveness judgement. In both cases, leadership and management was 1 grade higher than overall effectiveness.

Similarly to last year, ITE provision for further education trainees was the poorest performing phase, with 76% judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness.

Figure 1: Overall effectiveness of ITE phases inspected in 2023/24

^{Number of inspections in brackets.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
Where number of inspections is small, percentages should be treated with caution.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Most recent ITE inspection outcomes

On 31 August 2024, 97% of ITE phases were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection, an increase of 1 percentage point compared with 31 August 2023.

Figure 2: Most recent overall effectiveness of ITE phases, 31 August 2024

^{Number of inspected phases in brackets.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Early career framework (ECF) and national professional qualification (NPQ) providers and inspections

Ofsted began inspecting ECF and NPQ provision during the 2022/23 academic year. As at 31 August 2024, there were 9 NPQ and/or ECF providers, 2 less than last year. All 9 providers deliver NPQ provision and 6 also deliver ECF.

Between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024, we inspected 9 providers delivering NPQs. For all 9 providers, this was their first full inspection of NPQs. All of them were judged to be good or outstanding for overall effectiveness and in all key judgements.

We also carried out 1 ECF lead provider monitoring visit. At this monitoring visit, it was found that leaders and those responsible for governance were taking effective action to ensure that the ECF training was of a high standard.

All 9 providers have had a full inspection for their NPQ provision and 5 of the 6 that deliver ECF have had a full inspection for their ECF provision. All were judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness and all key judgements at their most recent inspection for both ECF and NPQ.

Further information

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 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 or 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 phase.

Contact for comments or feedback

If you have any comments or feedback on this publication, contact Stuart Lloyd on 03000 131 169 or Stuart.Lloyd@ofsted.gov.uk.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following for their contribution to this statistical release: Emily Green, Joanna Attwell and Ross Stadden.

Annex: Data tables for figures

Data for figure 1: Overall effectiveness of ITE phases inspected in 2023/24

ITE Phase	Number of inspections	% Outstanding	% Good	% Requires improvement	% Inadequate
All phases	125	47	46	2	4
Early years	7	29	71	0	0
Primary	37	54	43	3	0
Secondary	38	58	39	3	0
Primary and secondary	22	36	59	5	0
Further education	21	33	43	0	24

^{See figure 1.}

Data for figure 2: Most recent overall effectiveness of ITE phases, 31 August 2024

ITE Phase	Number of inspected ITE phases	% Outstanding	% Good	% Requires improvement	% Inadequate
All phases	318	35	62	2	1
Early years	17	18	76	6	0
Primary	91	43	55	2	0
Secondary	92	35	63	1	1
Primary and secondary	89	35	63	2	0
Further education	29	24	72	0	3

^{See figure 2.}