Will changes to the way overseas teachers become qualified to
work in England lead to risks for the size of the teaching
workforce?
The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has
raised this and other concerns in its 24th Report after
considering the Education (School Teachers’
Qualifications and Induction Arrangements) (Amendment) (England)
Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/1256).
The Regulations revise the way teachers with overseas
qualifications can obtain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in
England by introducing a single set of criteria from February
2023 by which applicants can be assessed. QTS is a legal
requirement to be able to teach in maintained schools and
non-maintained special schools in England and any overseas
teacher who meets the criteria will be able to teach in
maintained schools without further training or assessment. The
Department for Education (DfE) told the Committee that the aim of
the changes is to create a fair and consistent approach to ensure
teachers with equivalent skills and experience can be assessed
for QTS regardless of their country of origin. In addition, the
Regulations make changes to training and induction periods and
accredited teacher training providers.
The report notes that the initial information provided by DfE in
the Explanatory Memorandum (EM) was cursory in nature, provided
insufficient information about key aspects of the policy and
included some wrong information. Although DfE eventually revised
and re-laid the EM with additional information, this did little
to allay the concerns raised by the Committee including:
- Disappointment about the lack of information relied upon to
formulate the policy in the original EM and a reluctance from DfE
to provide it until prompted by the Committee. The
incomplete information initially provided hampered the
Committee’s ability to perform its scrutiny function effectively.
- Little evidence that the policy is part of a clear strategy
to maintain the teaching workforce in England. The report notes
that domestic recruits to teacher training are falling sharply
and DfE’s own projections suggest that, following the changes,
overseas QTS recruits will be well below the levels of recent
years. The data used to support the changes shows that any
“increase” in QTS numbers is only relative to the unusually low
2021-22 figures. Overseas QTS awards are projected to be 40%
lower than those in 2019-20.
- The fact that representatives of parents and school governors
were not part of the consultation process during testing of the
policy.
In conclusion, the report recommends the House may
wish to probe the Minister on whether there is a coherent and
holistic approach to teacher recruitment in England.
, Member of the Secondary
Legislation Scrutiny Committee said;
“While we acknowledge the policy intention behind these changes,
it remains questionable whether the Regulations will deliver any
real term increase in the number of suitably qualified teachers
from abroad, or address shortages in the domestic teacher
workforce. By DfE’s own projections, expected overseas QTS awards
are likely to be below those of 2019–20 and 2020–21 and
additional information provided has done little to allay our
concerns.
“We are also very disappointed to note that, once again, there
was insufficient and partly erroneous information provided in the
version of the explanatory material laid alongside the
instrument. Practices such as this undermine the Committee’s
ability to scrutinise secondary legislation properly and advise
the House accordingly and overall limit Parliament in delivering
its scrutiny function effectively. These are points we have made
previously in our Losing
Impact and Government by
diktat reports.
“We have suggested that the House seek further
information from DfE to address the numerous concerns raised in
our report.”
