Teach First loses £2m bonuses after 'inadequate' recruitment

Teach First’s flagging recruitment last year has been branded “inadequate” by the Department for Education.

The teacher training provider has also missed out on bonuses of up to £2 million after signing up its smallest cohort in four years.

Schools Week revealed in November that the government’s flagship provider for attracting high-flying graduates missed its target for 2022-23 by a fifth.

Newly published data on key performance indicators for government contracts shows this led to an ‘inadequate’ rating, a downgrade from 2021 when the government rated recruitment as ‘requires improvement’ – although it said performance had been impacted by Covid.