Apprenticeship providers graded inadequate by Ofsted will be removed from the approved register until they improve, guidance from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has confirmed.

The paper said providers would be given five working days’ notice of their removal from the register after the publication of an inadequate Ofsted inspection and they will not be allowed to start any new apprentices after that.

However, it stated they could continue to deliver training to existing apprentices, if employers wanted to continue working with them.

Next steps

It said: “After we have contacted the organisation, we will contact each existing apprentice’s employer. Each employer can choose to allow their apprentices to remain with the organisation until their apprenticeship is complete, or they can select a different provider.

“Where the organisation is also the employer of the apprentices, they can choose to continue to deliver training or can transfer them to another provider. We will help employers to transfer their apprentices where they want this to happen. We will look at the planned end date of training for each apprentice that remains with the organisation to determine the final date that the organisation’s apprenticeship funding will end.”

Safeguarding apprentices

If a significant risk is identified through safeguarding checks then Ofsted can remove an organisation from the register and stop all current and future apprenticeship delivery and force an employer to move all apprentices to other providers, according to the document.

Organisations who are not re-inspected by Ofsted must wait at least three years from the date of the original inspection before re-applying to the register.

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