Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Education Policy Institute The cost of high-quality professional development for teachers in England, published on 15 July; and what steps are they taking to improve the quality of existing CPD training that teachers participate in.

The department would like to thank the Education Policy Institute for the report ‘The cost of high-quality professional development for teachers in England’. Supporting our teachers with the highest quality training and professional development is the best way in which we can improve pupil outcomes, with evidence showing that expert teaching can have a disproportionately strong impact on those from disadvantaged backgrounds or those who have fallen behind. That is why the government has made the training, support and professional development we provide for our teachers central to our levelling up agenda and a key part of our plan to deal with the disruption that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused to schools.

To this effect, the government is creating a world-class teacher development system, building from initial teacher training (ITT), through to early career support, specialisation and onto school leadership. At each phase, teachers will have access to high-quality training and professional development underpinned by the best available evidence. This will create a golden thread of support that teachers can draw on at every stage of their careers.

As part of the department’s plans to boost education recovery, the package of measures we announced on 2 June included an investment of £253 million to expand our reforms to teacher development to give 500,000 school teachers the opportunity to access world-leading training appropriate for whatever point they are at in their career. This funding includes £184 million for a reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications which will provide training and support for teachers and school leaders at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high quality teaching practice, such as behaviour management, to those leading multiple schools across trusts.

From September 2021, the government is also funding an entitlement for all early career teachers in England to access high quality professional development and support through the Early Career Framework (ECF) reforms. Under the reforms, new teachers will benefit from a longer induction period of two years, replacing the previous one-year induction processes. This means they will have more time to access structured support and to develop their expertise and confidence. The funding available will give every school who wants it access to a Department for Education funded training provider who will design and deliver a comprehensive programme of face-to-face and online training as part of the new statutory induction for early career teachers. The ECF reforms will be backed by over £130 million a year in funding when fully rolled out.

The reforms the department is making to the professional development teachers can access, which also includes the introduction of the ITT Core Content Framework, will root teacher development in the same consistent evidence-based understanding of what works. This will create a thread of high-quality support, training, and development through the entirety of a teacher’s career.