We need your input to ensure NPQs provide the skills needed in schools 

National professional qualifications (NPQs) must evolve and the DfE’s review is seeking views on where improvements can be made, says Dr Herminder Channa

In just a few years, NPQs have moved from being a niche offer to a shared language of development for the profession.

Since the 2021 reforms there have been more than 144,000 NPQ starts, and 88 per cent of schools have engaged with them.

This is a sign that teachers and leaders want structured, serious professional learning, even in the most pressured of circumstances. 

That tells us something important. When the offer is coherent, evidence-informed and properly funded, teachers and leaders will show up. They will carve out time they do not have, to do work they know matters.

But professional life in schools is not standing still.

The demands on leaders are shifting, and the frameworks that support them have to move too. Evidence and practice evolve, so must NPQs.

The government’s ongoing review is not about tearing up what works. It’s about making sure our national infrastructure for professional learning is ambitious, practical and future-facing.

‘Closer to the grain of daily leadership’

We know that, overall, delivery is working well.

What we hear just as clearly is a desire for NPQs that get even closer to the grain of daily leadership, helping people translate insight into action, not just pass another assessment.

The review is our opportunity to refine, strengthen and futureproof on the back of real experience.

As a leader, I know the value of strong leadership and the positive impact of good quality CPD.

Since January last year, I have been working closely with the Department for Education on the review of NPQs.

Drawing on insights from the EEF and what we have heard so far from the sector, we are exploring several areas where the frameworks could do more of the work that leaders are asking of them. They are:

• Inclusion running through every framework, not sitting in a single module – from curriculum and culture to behaviour and assessment
• Sharper guidance on key operational responsibilities such as finance, HR, governance and risk, so leaders feel better equipped for the decisions that keep schools safe, solvent and stable
• Stronger focus on culture, staff development and relational trust, reflecting what we know about collective teacher efficacy and the conditions that keep great teachers in the classroom
• A clearer place for parents, carers and communities in leadership practice, recognising that the work of schools never starts and ends at the gate
• A better line of sight from early years foundations – especially communication, language and transitions – into leadership content, so NPQs speak across the system, not only to statutory school phases
• Guidance on digital literacy and the wise, safe use of technology, supporting leaders to navigate both opportunity and risk

‘Not pre-baked decisions’

These are not pre-baked decisions. They are the live questions we want the sector to help us answer.

The next phase of the review depends on the voices of those who are living this work every day. Leaders in early years, schools, special and alternative provision and FE.

The DfE’s call for evidence went live on December 10 and is open until February 20.

One theme that has come through powerfully in early conversations is inclusion.

Leaders are clear inclusion cannot sit in a corner of the framework while other content carries on as usual.

It has to be the spine of leadership – visible in how we think about curriculum, attendance, behaviour, staffing, enrichment, safeguarding and resource decisions. 

That spine will only be strong if it is built from the lived realities of leaders, teachers and families.

We need to hear about the tensions you manage, the trade-offs you make, what has helped you build more inclusive cultures and where the current NPQs fall short.

Leadership is more than managing systems. It is setting a clear direction, creating the conditions for great teaching, and building cultures where every adult and every child can do their best work.

It is where inclusion is non-negotiable and where evidence is used with judgement, not just quoted.

If we get this right, NPQs will remain a shared, evolving entitlement to serious professional growth, owned by the profession as much as it is sponsored by the government.