Mentoring has always been a vitally important part of training teachers (both those new to the profession and those progressing through their careers) but recent policy changes have brought the centrality of this role into sharper focus.

For example, schools will need to have a highly skilled mentoring team to meet the demands of the initial teacher training (ITT) quality requirements for 2024 and the new combined ITT and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) - and in doing so, develop skilled teachers to boost pupil outcomes.

To help schools do this, a lead mentor role has been introduced, and up to £25 million of funding made available to schools and providers in the 2024-25 academic year so that mentors can go off timetable to access “high quality” training.

Dedicated development focus

This is a welcome move, but we should also start to consider how we can do more to help the ongoing development of teachers whose careers are already underway, by ensuring that there is someone with a similar CPD focus within all schools.

This role could be called a teacher professional development lead (or similar title) and should be a funded role that includes time away from the classroom, as we already see with special educational needs and disabilities coordinators (Sendcos).

These senior leaders could use the time to develop a deep understanding of teacher CPD, mentoring and coaching, and would be responsible for managing the ring-fenced time and funding that every teacher in their school should (under our proposals) be entitled to.

One focus of this role could be mentoring itself, with the teacher professional development lead taking responsibility for upskilling the whole workforce on mentorship - just as, say, a safeguarding lead upskills staff on safeguarding responsibilities and regulations.

This could help to address the capacity issues that have affected individual mentors under the early career framework, who are often shouldering full responsibility for training and delivering high-quality mentoring.

With more training, every member of the team could play an important role in supporting teachers (particularly those new to the profession) to flourish. This would not mean an end to ITTs and early career teachers having one-to-one mentoring relationships but would give them access to other experts in their schools or training providers.

For example, they might shadow a colleague who is particularly skilled at working with pupils with English as an additional language, drawing on additional support from a Sendco or liaising with a teaching assistant/learning support assistant on an issue they are struggling with.

The right course at the right time

Of course, the teacher professional development lead could go a lot further than this. By having a dedicated individual who gets to know their teams well, high-quality CPD programmes can be developed that meet the precise needs of staff at precisely the right time, rather than having a blanket, all-staff approach that may suit some teachers’ requirements but not others.

This might include a range of options, such as signposting to Chartered College of Teaching programmes, local university courses, the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers’ mentor development modules, the local curriculum hub or teaching school hub activities.

Or it could perhaps encompass a National Professional Qualification or CPD programme, run by organisations such as the Teacher Development Trust, or less formal forms of CPD, such as internal Inset sessions, shadowing opportunities, membership of professional organisations or coaching relationships.

A cross-layer role

While we would envision the role being hosted at a school level, it could certainly work across a multi-academy trust (MAT) structure, although it may depend on the size of the trust in question and how many staff the development lead could reasonably be responsible for.

Perhaps there would be a team of teacher professional development leads in larger MATs, who would help those in each school or work across a handful of schools, in a similar vein to how executive heads might work across several schools.

Ultimately, having a dedicated member of staff in every school, whose role is focused on the professional development of all staff, would empower the teaching workforce by providing truly meaningful CPD opportunities.

Emma Hollis is chief executive of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers