One of the government’s lead providers of national professional qualifications (NPQs) will quit the scheme – claiming its ability to support schools “as effectively and impartially as possible” has been “constrained” by relying on taxpayer cash.
Teacher Development Trust (TDT) joint-CEO Gareth Conyard announced the decision, branding the NPQ market “increasingly dysfunctional”, with “unequal relationships” forming between providers and the Department for Education.
Schools Week revealed this year that ministers were scaling back their free NPQ programme. Officials were tight-lipped about how many places they would provide, but it’s understood they were capped at just 10,000, down from 40,000 in 2023-24.
Calls for review of NPQs
TDT has also announced the withdrawal of its bid to deliver the Early Career Framework (ECF), a procurement the government is still considering.
Conyard said: “We have felt, increasingly, that by delivering government contracts we have been constrained in our ability to respond to the latest evidence in a nuanced way, and to be a critical friend to the government and others in the crucial area of CPD.
“It has limited our ability to support schools and teachers as effectively and impartially as possible.”
In April, the Education Development Trust also reached the “regrettable conclusion” to pull out of being an NPQ provider shortly after the DfE announced its offer of free courses for all schools would be scaled back.
The department offered £184 million for schools to enrol staff on the programmes for for free as part of its Covid recovery plan.
But from this Autumn, only teachers and leaders in the top half of schools with the most youngsters on pupil premium are eligible for funded NPQs.
EDT and TDT were two of nine organisations named by the DfE as lead providers of NPQs in 2021.
Government also recently introduced a new NPQ for SENcos, which is mandatory. Demand for the NPQ this autumn left providers overwhelmed as an application deadline for funded training approached last month.
Figures provided by the Association of School and College Leaders show demand for SENco NPQ places in some parts of the country outstripped places by 600 per cent.
Conyard added: “We believe the nature of the market for government-funded professional development needs a significant reassessment and we want to be part of that discussion, bringing the value of our experience and knowledge, whilst being truly independent.
“It has become more difficult to operate in a volatile and increasingly dysfunctional market, with unequal relationships between different providers and the government.”
TDT out of race for ‘limited’ funding
He hopes, by taking TDT out of the running for “limited” cash, “as many other lead providers as possible can continue to operate so that schools still have some” choice over their NPQs and ECF.
Conyard wrote in March that “significant cuts in [NPQs] funding … risks wiping out the progress that has been made” to enhance the “golden thread”.
He added it was “only likely to exacerbate the recruitment and retention crisis, which will continue to worsen unless something radical happens, and soon”.
TDT said today “it will focus on building on its other initiatives”, as it “no longer believes that delivering [NPQs] should be its priority” to promote “the best professional development for those working in education”
But it will “ensure that every participant currently enrolled on one of its NPQs, including those just recruited, would continue to get the best possible support as they complete their courses”. Some of these courses are expected to run until the summer of 2026.
The DfE has been approached for comment.
