An entitlement to teacher training must not be “dictated from Whitehall” and instead should be part of the “fabric of teaching”, an expert group is expected to tell Labour policymakers today.
The Opposition party’s proposals are set to be scrutinised and an action plan set out in a report to be published later today by expert group the Teacher Development Trust (TDT), which was convened to examine the plans.
It comes after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer last year announced plans to work with schools to deliver “teacher training entitlement”, including backfilling roles so that teachers at every stage of their career can be released for training.
Overall, the TDT report is expected to conclude that an entitlement “has to be rooted in a strong professional culture to have a full impact”, and that school staff “must be supported in, and take responsibility for, increasing their expectations of their own commitment to continuous professional development (CPD) and that of their peers”.
The report will also claim that an entitlement cannot be “dictated from Whitehall, by the trust CEO or from the head’s office”, and needs to be “part of the fabric of teaching”, moving beyond a “tight control over what constitutes acceptable evidence on what CPD is effective and how that CPD is delivered”.
Here are seven things the TDT report is expected to recommend:
1. The government should continue to fund ECF and NPQs
The report is expected to advise that the government should continue to fund the Early Career Framework (ECF) and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs), to ensure that they are available to all teachers and leaders.
The TDT will say that funding NPQs will ensure that “no teacher is prevented from accessing them due to cost or capacity pressures, if it is the right CPD opportunity for them”.
The ECF, launched in 2021, aims for early career teachers to be mentored on a one-to-one basis in order to “improve support” for ECTs.
Since October 2021, fully funded scholarships have been available to teachers and leaders working in state-funded educational settings to enable them to participate in NPQ courses. However, these scholarships are set to come to an end this year, with funding for future years uncertain.
2. Content of leadership NPQs should be reviewed
Leadership NPQs should be reviewed to ensure that they are “fit for purpose” and provide “sufficient” support for leaders to help them make “effective decisions about CPD”, the report is expected to advise.
The recommendation comes amid what the TDT describes as “increasing calls that the NPQs for leaders are too narrow and fail to provide the full range of knowledge and understanding” needed to help leaders be effective.
3. New Teachers’ Professional Fund
A new Teachers’ Professional Development Fund, with a starting figure of £3 million per year, should be made available, the report will suggest.
The fund would be run either directly by the Department for Education (DfE) or by commissioning an organisation such as the Chartered College of Teaching, and working with other relevant organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation and the National Institute of Teaching, the TDT report will say.
This would provide “seed funding” for “organisations to develop high-quality CPD that will then need to be funded by schools spending their entitlement in the future”.
A recent report found that almost one in every six teachers surveyed said they would prefer to receive £2,500-worth of CPD vouchers over a £1,000 pay rise.
4. Schools should get entitlement cash
The TDT will propose that any leftover money for the teacher training entitlement should be given to schools to spend as they see fit, which could then see them using the cash to pay for courses, cover costs or travel.
It will suggest that this could be distributed in line with the National Funding Formula.
However, the TDT will also recommend that the government “should consider whether that meets the specific needs of special schools, alternative provision (AP) and those with additional needs in mainstream settings”.
And it will suggest that the funding made available to special schools and AP to pay for CPD should be “proportionally greater” than that made available to mainstream schools.
But the report will make clear that the money should not be specifically ringfenced.
5. Review of Teachers’ Standards for Professional Development
The report will also call for the government to commission an “independently led review of the Teachers’ Standards for Professional Development” in order to account for an “increase in our understanding and expectations” since it was first published almost eight years ago.
The standards, produced in 2016, outlined a description of effective practice in professional development for teachers.
6. No specified number of funded hours for CPD
While the idea of a specified number of funded hours for CPD is “tempting”, the TDT will say it does not recommend the approach.
It will claim that this could have a “superficial impact” and would “encourage box-ticking”. The report is also expected to warn that such a move would “fail to acknowledge the significant workload of teachers and school leaders”.
The recommendation comes after a recent study by the TUC found that the teaching profession had the most workers doing unpaid overtime.
However, the expert group report will note that there is no indication in the Labour party proposals that the CPD entitlement “will be a requirement”.
7. CPD portal should be created
The TDT report will also suggest that the Chartered College of Teaching should be commissioned by the DfE to create a professional development portal to “help teachers and school leaders consider what CPD might be most appropriate”.
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