Teacher training providers will have to show they are making a “significant strategic contribution” to increasing teacher supply by “maximising” their recruitment in order to get an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted.

The watchdog’s initial teacher education inspection handbook has been amended to encourage providers to boost teacher supply as the government scrambles to deal with the recruitment crisis. 

Ofsted’s inspection handbook for use from April 2018, published this afternoon, includes a new bullet point on the characteristics that a provider should demonstrate in order to be judged “outstanding” for “overall effectiveness”.

Teacher recruitment crisis

To be rated “outstanding”, a provider should now show that it is “making a significant strategic contribution to the quality and supply of teachers by maximising recruitment to allocations (where relevant) and through the retention of new teachers in the workforce”.

Guidance published by Ofsted said that inspectors would begin asking “partnership leaders and managers how they are maximising recruitment and contributing to the supply of new teachers”.

The change was trailed in a letter sent by the school standards minister, Nick Gibb, to training providers last month, in which he warned that the government would start scrutinising providers with “high rejection rates”. 

It comes as the latest Ucas figures show that the number of applicants for teacher training courses is 29 per cent lower than it was at the same time last year.

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