Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications - September 2022 Market Engagement

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to notify the market of forthcoming market engagement events relating to the National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) and Early Career Framework (ECF). For the ECF, the Department is looking to appoint an additional lead provider. For the NPQs, the Department will be procuring providers to deliver the reformed suite of six NPQs; three focused on middle leadership for those who want to develop their expertise in specialist areas of teaching practice (Leading Teacher Development, Leading Teaching and Leading Behaviour and Culture) and three for senior leadership, headship and executive leadership. There will also be two new and additional NPQs focused on Early Years and Literacy. The Department will be undertaking two online events on 6 and 7 October 2021 for potential suppliers that are interested in responding to the planned procurement for these programmes. Delivering on the commitments set out in the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, the Department is creating a world-class teacher development system by transforming the training and support teachers and school leaders receive at every stage of their career. The Department is fully funding the national roll-out of the ECF reforms from September 2021, giving all early career teachers access to a two-year package of structured training and support linked to the best available research evidence. Making sure new teachers receive excellent support at the start of their careers and embedding the early career reforms nationwide are vital elements of the Department’s education recovery strategy (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy). Procuring an additional ECF lead provider will expand the choice of high-quality early career teacher training programmes available to schools in their local area and will ensure the market remains sustainable and resilient so future early career teachers will continue to be able to access this high-quality support. Beyond the first few years of teaching, our priority is to help all teachers and school leaders to continuously develop their expertise throughout their careers so every child in every classroom in every school gets the best start in life. We have replaced the existing Middle Leadership National Professional Qualification (NPQ) with three new specialist NPQs to best address the broad range of responsibilities of current and aspiring middle leaders. The new suite of specialist NPQs, which will be available for teachers and leaders from November 2021, consist of NPQs in Leading Teaching, Leading Behaviour and Culture, and Leading Teacher Development. The suite of reformed NPQs also includes refreshed school leadership programmes covering the knowledge and skills that school leaders need for the future. The frameworks for these qualifications can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-professional-qualifications-frameworks-from-september-2021 .