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This story was updated on 26 June 2026

Teach First is to be awarded the government’s flagship teacher training scheme, ����Vlog can reveal.

The charity has been funded by the government to deliver the High Potential Initial Teacher Training programme (HPITT) since 2003, meaning it will have led the programme for more than two decades.

The decision that it will continue leading the programme comes after the Department for Education made significant changes to the contract, including offering £74 million less than estimated and reducing the recruitment target by 750 trainees a year.

����Vlog has asked the government whether the terms of the procurement remain the same as when initially published, and for a breakdown of Teach First’s score.

����Vlog understands that the National Institute of Teaching was part of Teach First’s bid.

Charity key to fulfilling 6,500 teachers pledge

Teach First’s win followed media speculation that the charity would be banned from using its own name, but in May it emerged in the latest - set at £89 million excluding VAT and published in September 2025 - that the successful supplier would have an option to use its own identity or brand alongside that of the programme.

Teach First has now said that the name of the teacher training programme will be changed to “Teach Lead Change”.

The charity added: “The logo for this new programme will appear alongside the Teach First brand to signal the renewed focus on disadvantage and deliver on the department’s pledge to focus on the communities and schools in areas where the need is greatest.”

The core aim of the programme is to “support schools serving low-income communities with high numbers of disadvantaged and/or low attaining pupils to recruit the teachers they need to help improve outcomes for pupils”.

The charity will also be essential in helping the Department for Education to secure its manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 teachers by the end of this parliamentary term.

Teach First did not hit recruitment targets in both 2023 (a target of 1,335 recruits) and 2024 (1,415), with the charity’s former CEO telling ����Vlog that government targets were “not the important thing” for Teach First.

Contract award delay unexplained

The HPITT contract award was expected to be announced on 14 April. The government has not explained the delay.

The programme was initially grant-funded, but since 2017 it has been competitively tendered and delivered under contract.

Teach First was granted £112 million when it won the HPITT contract in 2021, for four cohorts starting in 2022. This contract was extended, raising the value to £137 million, with the final cohort finishing the two-year programme in 2028.

According to documents for the new contract, three initial cohorts of participants will be recruited and trained for the 2027-28, 2028-29 and 2029-30 academic years. This could potentially be extended to two more cohorts.

In 2024, Teach First launched its new strategy to take it to 2030, including plans to recruit and train 10,000 new teachers, launch and scale school-centred initial teacher training “to create a further 4,000 teachers”, and develop almost 25,000 early-career teachers.

The DfE and Teach First have been asked for comment.

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