Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the uptake of National Professional Qualifications.

National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) provide teachers and head teachers with access to high quality professional development

A total of 63,454 teachers and head teachers have started a fully funded NPQ since the reformed suite of NPQs was introduced in autumn 2021. This equates to around 11% of the school workforce having started an NPQ in two academic years.

NPQ take up increased by 20% from the 2021/22 academic year to the 2022/23 academic year, significantly increasing the number of teachers and head teachers engaging in high quality evidence based continuing professional development. The latest publication on NPQ take up is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/teacher-and-leader-development-ecf-and-npqs-2022.

Emerging findings, reported by current NPQ participants, suggest the courses are having a positive effect on classroom practice and school wide strategies. The emerging findings are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1131108/Emerging_findings_from_the_evaluation_of_National_Professional_Qualifications_Interim_report_1.pdf.