Government-backed teacher education charity lifts lid on its “challenging year” –despite receiving �10 million from the Department for Education

One of the best-connected organisations in education has warned it is having to take action to ensure it has a “sustainable future,” despite receiving �21 million in income from the Department for Education over the past two years.

The Ambition Institute, which was launched at a high-profile event in the spring following a merger between two organisations, published accounts of one of them which highlighted its “challenging year financially, with reductions across all revenue categories”.

Ambition and its predecessor organisations, though all very closely linked to the education charity Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), have been funded largely by the taxpayer in recent years, to run professional development courses for thousands of teachers and school leaders.

Among those involved with the charity, which as of last year had approaching 200 staff, are the Labour peer Baroness (Sally) Morgan, the former National Schools Commissioner, Sir David Carter, and the academy superhead Dame Rachel de Souza.

Its connections and string of lucrative Department for Education contracts in the recent past make Ambition controversial in some quarters, including in the universities sector, traditionally the home of teacher education.